AirCooled shades + duct work condensation

Hi,
With six 1000watts in a row and two 8inch vortec fans; one fan pulling and other pushing, does the condensation going into the shade cause any risks? My ducting is pulling from the outside and has a few feet slack to allow the shade to move up and down. With bellow zero temps and high temps in the shades condensation occurs. What can someone do and does it effect the system for safety? Also does anyone run 7-8 1000watts in a row? and how about 600HPS in aircoold shades? I have 10 lights. 6 1000hps and 4 600hps. I would consider putting a few 600HPS in aircooled...
Thanks for the info

i dont have answer to your specific question, but i got couple of ideas i could share. 1st and most importantly, you said you got one 8" exhaust and one 8" fan as intake. actually placing both fans as exhaust and making holes fr passive intake that are like 2x the sized of fans, you will be almost doubling your air exchange in room.. otherwise, it's your call on what lights you need to add. it all depends on room size and plant size

Hi,
Thank for the reply.
Sorry for the miss understanding as I mean to say ' i have one 8inch at the beginning for the aircooled shades and one 8inch at the end of the air cooled shades. I also have an 8inch with a large can100 filter that moves air out of the grow room. The air that enters the shades pulls from outside and travels through the shades and into the other 8inch fan that is pulling air, which directs the air into the roof. The one flower room is 24x11. This is were the air cooled shades are plus 4 600HPS.
Now,
I THINK, I will cut a hole into the back of the shop near the floor and pull air from their so the ducting has to run upwards towards the lights. I think this will help deter the condensation into the shades. What do you think? What do you think about shade spacing? How far apart would you argue? Myself, my shades are 1 foot apart.

I dont know if I would go that route.

Water around electricity is never a good idea.

Since you seem to be able to control your temperatures by intake, why dont you just skip the aircooled ductwork and simply bring cold air into the room with the 8" fan and exhaust through the filter/fan on the other side. You could eliminate 2 fans and all that ductwork.

Hi,
The idea would help the spring, summer and fall times. I have two intakes- two 6 inch vortecs that pull air from the floor. Thanks for the input from you both.

I have pretty much the same setup as you but one 10" pushing instead of 8"/8" pushing and pulling. I have a fan motor speed controller hooked up to the 10" so when condensation starts to appear I turn down the fan. Basically it's on full blast spring/summer/fall and turned down for winter. The real problem is not having a sufficiently powerful dehumidifier.

Yea! I hear yea.. So you obv. used a a reducer such as a 10 to an eight inch so you can attach to the shades. I am using the eight inch because I have a few to use lol. Instead of having three rooms like I had 2 600HPS and 2 1000HPS For room A and room B, and room C had two 1000HPS. Now Its much better to control one enviroment rather than three during summer and winter lol.. What size of dehumidifier do you run?

Hi again,
How does the air cooled shades hold up in the summer months? And how many in a row do you have?

JLStiffy said:

Hi again,
How does the air cooled shades hold up in the summer months? And how many in a row do you have?

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25 pint dehuey (3.5A?). I got six in a row, three 8" followed by 3 cooltubes. And I lied - I shut down for the summer because my area gets to like 30°C every day and I go do other things. But yeah, in the spring/fall the aircooling is the only thing that keeps my plants alive.

Just a suggestion: if the layout of your room permits it, both fans pushing 3 hoods would be better than all 6 in a row with a fan on each end. They're more efficient at pushing than pulling and hopefully you'll have fewer bends in the duct.

HI,
So air cooled shades are not very efficient in the summer when temps run up to 25+? I can run an AC unit and run the lights at night during the summer months. Do you agree that will work?
My problem with going two shades in width is that one part of the shop is 24x11 wide. that would leave me with little room for width. Thanks for the info

JLStiffy said:

HI,
So air cooled shades are not very efficient in the summer when temps run up to 25+? I can run an AC unit and run the lights at night during the summer months. Do you agree that will work?
My problem with going two shades in width is that one part of the shop is 24x11 wide. that would leave me with little room for width. Thanks for the info

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AC at night? Sounds like yer golden. Caveat: I've never used AC but it seems like a pretty sound approach.

Given the shape of your room maybe it wouldn't work running 2 airlines in parallel if it only leaves you with 1.5' on each side. If you feel you can work in that space (just enough to shimmy down the aisle and turn around really) do it but if there's any chance of that being an inefficient area to work in don't bother. My feeling is that the better the room is to work in the more works gonna get done, so even if it's not theoretically optimal, it'll still be a productive garden.

Well.
I think you called it. Little room to work, little work will get done.. Yea the 1.5feet between tables is rough! I meet and see alot of things from different people. Even worse, I hear alot of shit out of people's mouths. Everyone has something to say. But got to give it to yea, you seem to have a good amount of common sense.
That being, mind answering a few questions about your grow and tech, average yeild and things you do religiously in your grow room? I am interested in compairing grow tech etc to further better my yields.
I usually go in two gallon pots. I use general 3 part feed program with the 3 2 1 and 1 2 3 approach but modified a little. I keep pH at 6.4 from beginning to end. Medium is soilles #4 50/50 peat moss and perlite. Average yield light is around 1 1/2 per bulb. I am very happy with that since I know alot of commercial grows that average at 1lb per bulb. I guess it depends were you live in this world but some may look at it grams per watt or grams per square yard. I am 1 1/2 for yard and around .6 or .7g per watt around this. there much more detail but curious about your general rules for your stuff? Thanks

I just do a basic SOG in hydroton with cheapo flower/veg 2-part nutrients and h202 and ph down and I don't worry about it. We're totally on the same page growing-wise, same yield for sure. Maybe I could get two pounds on a light but I've never tried. Work in equals reward out and I've found my perfect balance. Nowadays I don't even go into my room unless I'm going to spend an hour in there (except to dose the rez or whatever) because I'd consider my time more valuable than an extra pound or whatever to get rid of... depending on the situation more is less sometimes right?

Not really much more I can say... I should be asking you for advice, and if you don't wanna give it up you can just tell me the lore of those BC growers. Was out there a couple years ago around the Kootenays and every second person I ran into was telling me all kinds of stuff about their show. It's a phenomenon.

oh yes, I understand the basic idea off the set up! Seems to me you do pretty good for the amount of time during veg/flower. But thats not to say transitions between your crop is not a lot of work; further more, clone prep or any transition in that matter. On the other hand, I agree sometimes less is better but in a also a different context; I see people get way toooo technical! You flooding your tables and clay pebbles can be a sound approch. I know a someone who has 100+ moms just in flood tables and can make 5000 clones a month with that system. Not bad when you sell 6bucks to a new guy, 5bucks for the average and 4bucks for the big time buyer!
What do you want to know about the lore of BC growers? I can tell you a few concrete things such as, MOST lower mainland grows have moved north! That being said they are the large scale growers of 50 lights plus and usually are Chinese, Vietnamese and or a odd french man from out East, coming west- and he is usually H.A.
What advice you want to know? Know to say I have much to offer, and I am sure you got it covered. Although, maybe lets talk about strains. What strain do you normally work with? I kinda like production but again very concerned about quality. A very good strain is Chronic by Serious Seeds xxx. I just got the strain back after ordering, although I got to many males out of the seeds I germinated, I feel it had to alot to do with the abuse I gave them and the two cats. (cats on fridge and found the seeds on ground with paper towel chewed)
Kootenays is a nice area.. I bought a doberman down their but that was a mistake! Very expensive place for land and water can go on regulations. Kootenays, I think, is MUCh better than the Vancouver and lower mainland area!

Fuck me I wish I knew someone around selling clones. That's a fuckin' steal even at six bucks. What do you do, just go and say I need 400 clones in three weeks and every two months after that? I'd do it in a heartbeat - even if you start with fem seeds you'd get an extra crop a year that way plus an additional light or two from yer former veg room. I should really ask around.

I grow indica dominant, right now some stuff called Endless Sky and a sour.dxg13 cross from Dr. Greenthumb. Endless sky working out well so far, just cropped the first. Sad to hear about your cat-induced males This was my first time using fem seeds and I doubt I'll just order a regular pack of seeds ever again unless I've got a real good reason. Save two or three weeks, eliminate a step, and if there's a difference between fem/regular I'm not good enough of a grower to tell between that and all the other fuckups.

I'm not surprised to hear most of the larger growers all left the lower mainland. I lived out there seven or eight years ago at the tail end of a huge real estate boom... seems pretty hard to fill a house when the crop is worth less than doing nothing and selling it in a year. Still there must be a million mom-and-pop type shows - when I was out there you could walk around Surrey and smell them sometimes. Everywhere. That's just how it is... maybe it's like that here too (eastern canada) but there's not really the same history or American connection, plus the climate legally speaking is less permissive. BC growers have been shipping down south forever and a day. I bet they thought their world was going to end when prop 19 was up, huh?

I knew a few different people in Van that would never ever do anything sketchy in their apartments/houses because they were former grows. They were convinced that the cops would be checking up on them and they always told me "the cops came in, they smashed the place up, and then they cut the mains and I had to pay tons of money to get it back on." Is that true? Cops will cut the fuckin' main power line? Because it seems over the top, but I asked other people and they all said, "that's what they do." Like a calling card and a final fuck you from the Van PD.

Well,
I have an immediate comment to make about the cops cutting the main. Here is the problem with that and here are a few quick stories that I know are true that test what the cops do. If the cops were to cut the main, they would be dead. Now, older houses you can make a hydro disconnect right off the side of the house. Today that's not possible and the disconnect happens up at the transformer. So, when cops come to bust a grow, they usually come with just cops, than they have a electrician to come in a make the disconnect. But, honestly in most cases, they never cut or make a disconnection (that's a lot of money to fix). What they do is just take the plants, leave the pots, the root wads, they cut all the electrical cords at the shades and here is the WORST, they cut all the wires around the ballast. This means they cut very close to the coils. Now the only way you can fix the ballast, is if you can recoil the fucker so you can rewire. They will always, is most cases, take the gear but leave the ducting. They also love to leave a mess! A very big mess.
Now, in B.C they will most likely give you a promise to appear if you have no priors. This holds true because the onus is not on you but the courts to prove 'why you should be held of this right'. Actually in section 8 of the charter (legal rights') you are guaranteed the right! Now if you have a prior, the onus is on you to prove why you should be released after 24 hours and granted a promise to appear.
Ironically, I have two people that live by me that grow in large shops. And another that was busted about 5 months ago from a gen fire. That was a good one! Obv. Organized that one!! Were I live, they just organized a new green team targeting just grow ops, but they only want the big ones and those organized groups who moved into our town. Simon Fraser University STF, made the statement along with stats Canada that our town is a central zone for transition, most dangerous town in Canada for population density and had has the most production of marijuana in all of Canada. SFU compared this with north cali and Oregon. More production of marijuana than per population density than both those states. Now that being said. Hows the market price? It's ok. We hit a bad low of around 1800, but its back around 20, 21.
The outdoor market was really rough this year. Last year you could move outdoor for 1400 to someone who marked it up ( god knows how much), this year you get 800-1000 an lb. Crazyy. I have seen some go for 500LB; on the other hand, i have seen some go for 1800. Guess it's all who you know. And how soon you get your stuff off. For example, If your stuff ready by September 15, your almost golden, You have a good chance of selling all your stuff and you kinda set the market. but if you wait till October. fuck, your going to be still sitting on your stuff. Like someone

I hate dealing with seeds! I like cuttings. I usually just make my own, but sometimes temp swing etc can cause an issue, so that being said I just buy them sometimes. BUT i am very picky and I like my strain. Its a very special strain. Its crossed with Grape God and Coco Bongga. The Coco Bongga came from Portland Oregon. That strain is very evil! It has extremely strong oder. Extremely strong budding zones, the lower laterals just build collas because the budding zones are close together. The plant hates mold and bugs. It has to be the best strain that I have ever delt with! The Grape God. Its ok, when it was crossed there were four main geno types saved. Now i have it ironed out to just one geno type. This one gives it a very strong grape, citrus smell when ripening. But everything else is coco bongga. I mean, their is a little bit of grape god in it's coloring and the cross has displayed some of the pheno types of the grape god colla structure.

Clones are not much of a problem to get for me. I am kinda a middle guy for alot of people and i am pretty sick of it lol. I do it because I remember when I started, I spent five grand on my grow room and had no fucking plants to put in. But luckly, i found a local strain and from their the adventure started. Around here, I help some people out and everyone thinks they can make clones and sell. Unfortunate they relay on me to sell them. So what,? I am going to sell them to their roommate? I mean, it takes alot of buyers to make some money. They kinda think ' wow 30 cuttings, 150 bucks! It was easy to make their 30 cuttings lol.
Honestly. I have made 1200 in one day. And I did that for about two weeks. Averaging between 200 a day to 1200 a day! (because of outdoor time)

Gotta jet, bud is over in five. U live in eastern side? Maybe you can order from MSB?

Hey, good post, BC is a unique little world when it comes to this stuff. Question: what is MSB?

Sorry it took me so long to respond but I always forget to check back in good threads.

Hi
No problem, I do the same thing alot too!
Montreal Seed Bank, MSB. I have ordered from them once. They did mess up on my order. I called them, they said they will look into it. I called them again the next day. They had an answer on where my order went. They said it went to the USA and than shipped back to Canada. They said if its not their by the following Monday they will ship another order out. Well it was not here by Monday but when I seeds came in, they shipped another pack and I got two orders for price of one and they arrived the same day. Because they arrived the same day it does say to me that they really did send them in the first place and somethng fucked hapend to my order.
The seeds were good quality. Some were a little tiny. But they all had good vigor and strong tap root development! I also like their selection! I dont know if they are the real deal in seeds for the actual breeders. They claim they are but most seed company's lie for money. Example, Marc emmerys Vancouver seed bank never re-order few seeds for several years but sold his seeds as fresh stock and from original breeders. This information came out when the RCMP tried to confiscate his seed collection.
It might be worth looking into the MSB.

I learnt some hard lessons about condensation (and mold growth)---insulation and a big dehu helped me, by big I mean the biggest wal-mart had which was a 60 pint/day, and making the gap between cold and warm surfaces bigger ie.: even that R4 foil-backed bubble wrap insulation will make a big difference. I envy you fellas out in BC, for the leniency on small grows, and the scenery for that matter, and do the air cooled lights really make enough of a difference to be worth all the extra work and equipment involved???--I was just overpowering with AC (cge room)