Environment control

Hello everyone I’m new to the forums and new to growing I have been doing some research for almost 2 years now But hard to find good info so here I am ...My question is what types of equipment will I need to control my grow environment as best I can in a 3’x3’ gorilla grow tent being kept in my room ! I know humidifier and or dehu, A/C , Exhasut Fans , Temp controllers but maybe we can make this post about the newest best quality environment control products or something any advice is greatly appreciated thank you

My apologies as the way everything is written it's a bit difficult for me to fully understand. If I'm understanding properly, you're talking about an all in one controller that will control every single facet of your grow right?

They exist, but you'll be spending a pretty penny on them. And realistically, this kind of thing isn't really worth the investment until you've got a multiple light set up going on. Your average tent grow is pretty much going to have an air conditioner, humidifier, dehumidifier, lights, and maybe inline fans. A good humidifier/dehumidifier will have a humidistat that controls the humidity for you, same with your AC. Your inline fans can be plugged in to the same analog timer that you are likely using for your lights. In fact, if your analog timer has a double outlet on it then you can plug in both your light and inline fan so that your light's exhaust fan shuts off when it does. An inline fan can also be hooked up to the same timer to be shut on/off in 30 minute intervals, or whatever intervals you'd like.

For a small tent grow, it just isn't financially practical in most cases because these products literally cost as much (if not more) as it does to set up an entire tent.

@Seamuis has already pointed out the Raspberry Pi options and if you have the know how to make one of these work then suddenly it becomes incredibly practical. I've seen some people building room controllers with Raspberry Pi and it cost them around $100. Some of them even make these things connect to their routers, so they can monitor and even control things from their cell phones.

Google "Smart Bee Controller" and you'll see that they offer devices for monitoring and controlling things from a cell phone, but you'll be paying $2,000+ for it. Pretty damn nifty though to say the least.

@kratos015 Thanks a lot! I'm in the Northeast and it will be an LED basement grow for me, so I am concerned I'll need a space heater to maintain temperature. I do plan on balancing intake and exhaust fans, I may also buy a mothering tent. 4'x4' primary with a big ass LED and a mothering tent perhaps with CFLs? I may tie the tents together for ventilation only with filtered intake air coming into the mother tent first, then piping over to the veg/flower main tent. I may fail at this a few times, but going in guns blazing with a pretty good capital investment up front to control lighting, air circulation, temperature and ideally to monitor humidity. I have a crazy big dehumidifier for the basement and am hoping that will maintain relative humidity, but have a smaller unit if needed for the veg/flower tent. If you see holes in these ideas, fire away! -Seamuis

OP, I would get the major components set up and running, so that you know what kind of environment you will be dealing with on average. So Tent + Lights + Ventilation and run it for a few days to get a good idea of your temperature.
....Then purchase a humidifier if your humidity is really low, or a heater if your room is very cold. A dehumidifier is always a good idea, humidity can be killer!

OP, do you meant environmental control in general i.e. what fans, filters, lights to get? Or do you mean a literal, Environmental-Controller .... like the device which controls your ventilation etc? (Those can run high 3-figures and up!)

@Seamuis I'd suggest starting your own thread. It sounds like you are excited! I would highly suggest picking quality components for your main parts, spend your money where it counts! Don't buy cheap lights, don't buy cheap filters. Keep things simple - will make life much easier.

@Joint Monster imagine how I'd be if I were not on a t-break. Apologies to the OP. -Seamuis

Seamuis said:

@kratos015 Thanks a lot! I'm in the Northeast and it will be an LED basement grow for me, so I am concerned I'll need a space heater to maintain temperature. I do plan on balancing intake and exhaust fans, I may also buy a mothering tent. 4'x4' primary with a big ass LED and a mothering tent perhaps with CFLs? I may tie the tents together for ventilation only with filtered intake air coming into the mother tent first, then piping over to the veg/flower main tent. I may fail at this a few times, but going in guns blazing with a pretty good capital investment up front to control lighting, air circulation, temperature and ideally to monitor humidity. I have a crazy big dehumidifier for the basement and am hoping that will maintain relative humidity, but have a smaller unit if needed for the veg/flower tent. If you see holes in these ideas, fire away! -Seamuis

Click to expand...

What's your experience with growing if you don't mind my asking? Don't fall into the trap that so many people do with this and think that spending money will solve certain issues. Some things you just can't plan for. I like to compare growing to cooking a lot, possibly because both are hobbies. But spending $1000 on kitchen equipment will not turn you into Emeril, it's not the equipment but how you use it.

I'm not at all trying to be rude, but when I read things like "capital investment" and "guns ablazing" it makes me a bit leery because I've seen this situation go south so many times. My best advice would be to figure out what you want to do, and see how little money you can spend on it. This way, if and when something goes wrong you have a surplus of capital to fall back on. Take the LED for instance. If you're concerned with heat, then you could just grab a HID light instead. LED and a space heater will cost $1000+, but the HID+inline fan+fan controler can be had for $200. Space heaters use a ton of electricity, and if you find yourself having to use it a lot then your LED savings will be going to paying to run the space heater. Now you've got $750 saved up for a rainy day, and believe me, sometimes getting your electric bill is a very rainy day. I've had electric bills cost more than that. Or say your light takes a dump on you? Doing this as a hobby is fine, but there's a lower risk of someone going broke for a hobby. Spending too much money doing this commercially though? Complete disaster.

It sounds like you've done some due diligence, however I really wouldn't recommend you spend $800+ on a controller. All of those devices can be regulated just fine by themselves up until you start getting into mid-large scale commercial operations.

Your idea seems good to me so far, and please don't take any of what I've said the wrong way as I certainly mean nothing like that. Just seems to me you're a bit too eager to spend money is all. As Joint Monster recommended, keep things simple.

Post yourself a journal/thread as Cookie also recommended. Trying to be helpful, but also don't want to hijack the thread. Cheers.

kratos015 said:

Don't fall into the trap that so many people do with this and think that spending money will solve certain issues. Some things you just can't plan for. I like to compare growing to cooking a lot, possibly because both are hobbies. But spending $1000 on kitchen equipment will not turn you into Emeril, it's not the equipment but how you use it.

Click to expand...

Man, so much appreciated, not taken as rude at all. I'm old enough to know wisdom when I hear it and hear some of my own advise in your words, but with regard to other things in life.

I will most definitely weigh your suggestions as they make a lot of sense. I've started a journal and grow room equipment thread. The grow room thread is here.