Theres Purple Smoke Above! - Attic Build

Buy one, mate.



...Yeah, I have no idea where to buy them, but there HAS to be somewhere.

 

Rope ladders are pretty easy. I'd buy one pre-made, but 2 good length of rope and a few sturdy short planks would do it. Drill holes in the planks, tie a knot in the ends of the ropes ropes and fit the planks on there. Repeat with even spacing.

Again, man, like I said for the bunker, if you plan on any serious lights, nothing short of an electrical box with a dedicated circuit will do. The outlets in your house just won't handle multiple 1000w's.

Now, 400s, and even 600s are another story.

 

I d say you have enough room to do HID, and since you are depending on the lights for heat, you need them. I would do a 600 or at the least a 400. I bet if you look around you could find a light from someone where you are from (I always know someone selling one), but if you absolutely cannot, try ebay as a last resort. I bought a 400 MH with a 360 HPS conversion light bulb a few years ago, just because it was cheap. (I can never turn down a good price on a decent light). I never even used it, but my friend needed it, so we put it in his attic. With only the 360 in a 3 by 4 area, he yielded some awesome nugs. You may be able to use the way we grew that one. The attic had lower ceilings, so we made an enclosed room, and hung the light in the middle (we hung the bulb vertical/no reflector). The plant hung just at the tops, but in the middle of all of the plants. With good ventilation and lots of air moving in the space, the light was about equal to the tops, and only about a foot away from the plants. The light hit them from the sides more than the top, which helped them to stay short and stocky. It was almost like one of those vertical hydro growths that I see. It looked like this:
PPPP
P L P
PPPP
P= plants of course, and L was the light. The light hung only about 2 feet off the ground, and was only a foot from the plants.
I wish I had a picture of it. Anyways that is an option. He actually had the same problem with no heat, so he kept the light close to the plants, and used a propane heater (one of the ones that can be propane or kerosene).

 

The vertical light set up works way better with a reflector, and the ones made for that are really cheap. There are also really cheap sources of HIDs out there, you just gotta look. Security lights from de-construction sights are good. If they're demolishing a building, they'll have some around. Or sometimes an "open box sale" at Home Depot. Get creative. Or just get a few CFLs to veg and save cash for a big light.

As for cold, run your lights at night, that helps. But you still might need a little heater. Although they don't mind the cold that much...well, depends how much cold.

 

A single 400W with a decent reflector should be plenty for four plants, unless they are massive Sativa things. Unlike the bunker, you don't have a lot of height to play with, so now you can mess around with LST and ScroG. Cool.

A tip for the electrics. When I wired up my board for the grow room (I have loads of spare breakers in my main box, thankfully) I wired the whole lot through one main ON/OFF switch, a big red thing. The idea is, in an "emergency", I can hit that one switch and everything is switched off simultaneously; lights, sockets, ventialtion, the works, without having to fish about in the distribution box. Hopefully I'll never need it.

You can put that switch in your living area somewhere, perhaps close to the front door.

Anyways, have fun!
And I'm still looking forward to your bunker grow when it happens.

-mu

 

This really all depends on the size of light you use. a 400w or less is safe to use just like any other lamp....but hotter. Anything over 400 I'd say a dedicated circuit is a must for safety's sake.

A good idea if money is tight is to get one ballast and igniter with a switcher and 2 bulbs. Split your room in 2, run each light for 12 hours with the ballast always on. Voila! 2 rooms, one ballast, twice the yield.

 

Nah, the lighting ring isn't fat enough (only 5 AMPS, or thereabouts), your 400W could pull that by itself at switch-on (well, almost, add a fan or something on top of that, and BOOM!).

If you are only running a 400W ballast and a couple of fans, you could get by with a regular wall socket, but even then, you'd need to ensure you were plugging into either an existing socket/15A cable, or else using good thick extension cabling.

A dedicated circuit is definitely easier, and safer in the long run. (pun unintended)

Air: even if the loft is large, the CO2 could still get quite depleted between door openings. You might want to consider venting air in from your living space below. A simple exhaust fan to outside would pull that CO2-laden air up into your grow.

-mu

ps.. those are UK figures, but most countries have fairly similar ratings.

 

Yeah, a normal power outlet would run 250 watts no worries at all, if your just using a 400 watt light you should be able to run your grow from one power point with no trouble at all.

I wouldn't run it off a Lighting circuit though, they have smaller fuses and its more than likely that more than just one light is connected to it. And yes, if you were to draw several hundred watts it would affect the light, if you turned too many lights on that were connected to that circuit, your fuses would blow, or your switches would trip.


Also, by the sounds of it your roof will be covered with snow for the winter??
Ive heard of people being busted in snowy places because when their hot grow is in the roof, the snow melts, and wont settle on the roof. Take that with a grain or 5 of salt tho

Anyway, good luck, I look forward to seeing that attic packed wall to wall with massive hairy buds

 

Yeah that will be sweet. If you don't know your wiring and electrical stuff wiring up the power point in the attic could be a challenge. Im sure you'll work around that tho..

Have fun growing, sound like you might need a thermostat controlled fan too, one thing I found out only recently was just how fricken hot those HPS bulbs are (im growing in cupboard tho)