Hello all! I am building my first grow room today. Located in a basement so temp should be solid. Here is what the plan is so far. 2 adjacent rooms 4'x4' 2x4 construction with r-13 and 1/2" drywall fully lined with reflective mylar walls and ceiling lumatek 1000watt dimmable ballast hortilux 1000 watt bulbs MH and HPS Magnum 6" xxxl reflector Botanicare turbo aeroponics rig X 2 small 120 volt electric space heater with 120 volt thermostat small round circulating fan Now the tricky part... I am cutting a hole between the two rooms it is about 18" tall and a little wider than the light at the bottom, tapering to about 2" at the top. I have attached 6" hard pipe to each side of the magnum at a length of 6" then flex from there to the outsides of the room. At each end of the hard pipe is an "end seal". It is a piece of plywood in the same shape as but 2" larger than the hole between the two rooms, I am using a soft foam gasket around the edges to help seal one room from the other. attached to the light rig is a small circulating fan on 1 side and on the other side is the electric heater. I have a 12 volt linear actuator that I am setting up on a timer it will raise and lower a 3/4" conduit that the light rig is attached to. It is fitted with linear bearings attached to the "end seals" I spoke of. The light rig will slide from one room to the other every 12 hours providing 12/12 lighting for 32 square feet of grow rooms with 1 heater, fan, bulb, ballast, and fixture. Thoughts? Feedback? Suggestions? I will be implementing a CO2 system as well, and will be attaching it to the light rig. However I need to get the little darlings sprouting and growing so I am building the rooms today and tomorrow (and I have to wait for the $$ from next check 3/25 to fund the CO2 set up) I will also be needing a dehumidifier before long. Cant really figure out how to make that work for two rooms so I will probably be forced into getting two of those I will be building one of the DIY scrubbers from this forum and probably using the DIY blower to power it. Havent figured out exactly how to use only one of these for two rooms but I am leaning towards motorized dampers. I will of course be taking many pictures and I will post them to this thread for all to see. This is SO MUCH FUN!!
Why do you want to "slide" the light between rooms? Two flower rooms? You need a veg room for your mother, clones, seedlings. You wont need mylar on the ceiling if you use good reflectors. Remember that Mylar is conductive so don't have any electronics touching it. Keep an area clear for your ballast if you are mounting to wall. I have a two room setup as well - one room for mother, clones, seedlings with 48" fluorescents and the other as a flower room with 600w HPS. I have the exhaust fan with carbon filter in the flower room and the intake in the veg room. There is a light-tight vent between the two grow rooms. I have a dehumidifier in the flower room and the veg room stays perfect as is. Unless you are able to automate this 12 hour sliding light setup you are asking for disaster as you will inevitably be unable to be there every cycle for 60+ days to move it manually. Unless you intend to grow a shit load of cannabis for sale then one 4x4 flower room will yield plenty for personal use.
I have a small room for that. And the 12v linear actuator that raises an lowers the rid that the light rig is on is the automated setup that slides the light rig.
Not just two hps setups... Heater, thermostat, circulating fan. And it cost me about $80 to automate it. So that's less than my bulb alone, much less ballast, and fixture. When I put in the CO2 system it will release in the daylight room only too, because the nozzle will be on the sliding rig.
Sounds like you have a nifty setup. I built mine in the basement from the ground up myself. I spent a good month or so in preplanning including all the wiring I was adding. Since I was building a dedicated grow room I bought timers that are the switch itself so that certain outlets are connected to dedicated timers. I have one ready for a CO2 tank with solenoid regulator but that is one item I have not yet added. I got decent growth out of bagseed on my first grow. My second round with the same bagseed is in the flower room now, and I have some Skunk #1 seedlings getting ready for round #3. I might add the CO2 this summer after my first grow of Skunk #1 and compare the results with and without. I have some Mylar but have been too lazy to put it up. I am just using my flat white walls until then. I sectioned off a corner of my basement and built a main room with a secondary (flower) room inside it. I insulated the ceiling and walls with R13 and 1/2" drywall separating the garden from the rest of the basement for heat and sound insulation. I was going to add insulation to the exterior basement walls, but the only part of the wall that gets extremely cold is the top 18" or so that is above ground so I left them bare. Lightproofing was probably one of the most tedious parts for me because I used cheap interior doors I found on sale for $34 each; needless to say they had a few gaps that has to be filled with felt weatherstripping. Well, your plan is definitely more ambitious than mine, but I always believe in building the biggest, strongest, and most versatile project your space, time, and budget will allow. Sounds like you have it under control, but if you need some advice about anything construction or design related just ask. Good luck.
Thanks man. Took me a couple months to plan too. Build got interrupted by family crap. And I really only have Monday and tuesday to build. Next week is booked so it's gonna be two more weeks before my walls and Mylar are done. I bought really nice prehung doors but without frames damaged stock for $10 each but I am a decent carpenter so I am hoping to get a pretty good fit and I was going to add strips to seal the room anyway for the CO2. I am not running any timers other than the one that runs the linear actuator, since everything is going to be on the light rig except the dehumidifiers that will need to run whenever they need to to keep consistent humidity. I have a "little giant" to get rid of the condensation. The reservoir for the Aeroponics rig sits straight on the concrete floor which is usually about 60 degrees 365 a year. Not sure if I am going to need to cool the water or not yet... Keep in mind that you are going to have a huge growth increase with the co2 could be as much as 50% with a good balance.
I think you should use panda film especially if u plan to use co2. U can make it more controlled so no leaks or smell get out.
my personal opinion... ditch that entire plan right now... your over doing unimportant things and not focusing on the important things. your asking for heat problems and an unefficient set up in general. If you would like some help designing a entire set up i can help but you dont want to spend a ton of money and only get a lb a 1000watter.