Grow Room Floorplans. Here to help.

phillipchristian

New Member
Hi Phillip any luck with the design yet. From reading your comments to another forum user who has insufficient power to run his rooms i am going to opt for another subpanel upstairs, i am going to have a word with my electrician and hopefully the subpanel will be in place soon . I know you havent come up with a design for the rooms yet but wondering if you can give me a low down on what electrical equipment will be needed from lights to pumps/fans etc so i can start making a shopping list and pricing things up. If its easier to have my design up first and then go through the equipment then i will wait.

Thanks V
Hey Vertigo. I was waiting on you to get some answers from your electrician buddy. You currently have a 100 amp panel providing electricity to your entire house. You may not have room on that panel for the amount of electronics you want to put on it. And it's not as easy as just getting another panel. Plus you have a major issue with all of your outlets being on 1 breaker. I don't see how you will have the power to do what you want to do. I can design you a fantastic room but what's the point if you don't have the power to actually run it. You need to have your electrician friend come over and let you know exactly how many dedicated amps he can give you to that room. Once I know how much power you have available then I can design a room for you.
 
Spoke to the electrician briefly and he says that i shouldnt have a problem as the ring circuit for the sockets are 32 Amp and aslong as i dont exceed 13amps per socket then i will be ok.
He did say that you possibly thought it wouldnt be possible as you are not converting it 240 volts. I did some calculations from what i believe and that is :
13 Amp = 3120 watts OR 2,220 watts safely (75% of full power)
SO
32 Amps = 7680 watts OR 5,769 watts safely (75% of full power)

So aslong as the total equipment dont exceed 5-6k watts i should be fine?
 

redcaes

Member
hi guys

still kind of new at this and thought i was on my way until I hit a brick wall and had to rethink some things...maybe someone can help. i Have roughly 800 cubic feet in a room that is 12X8x15 minus 2 angled ceilings. I just finished a table and felt the buds we're a little too fluffy for my liking and was told co2 would firm things up a bit. looked into the cost of regulators tanks and supply and decided to go for it. I have a small 3x6 flood table with 1 1000 watt hps, 2 oscillating fans and managed to control ambient temp at a steady 25c and 45 humidity in the open room.

now co2 needs to be in a sealed environment for effectiveness, right?
so I sealed up a 10X8X4 area and put mylar all around and prepared to test this out as the parts are already on the way and need to get this done first. turned on the lights and 2 and half hours later realized forgot the fan went in there and it looked like London fog or something it was a fricking sauna! lol rookie mistake I guess but I was reminded of the movie the Mist by stephen king, just hoping my ladies didn't die.
so now I'm wondering if maybe I need a portable a/c in there to help out or will removing the reservoirs from the tents and putting the fans in do the job?
the temp still read 25??? but humidity was at 75%!!!! i'm pretty sure that would be ok with co2 added but the mylar is so steamed I must be losing light efficiency. I've already paid for a sniffer and a regulator just picking up the tank this week so I'm pretty much all in at this point on the co2! lol

any help would be appreciated.
 

redcaes

Member
sorry, 10' long 4' wide 8' high this is just for my flowering though, using aprrox' the same size for veg with 1000 watt mh in the open area and small cloning 3x3x3 area
 

phillipchristian

New Member
Spoke to the electrician briefly and he says that i shouldnt have a problem as the ring circuit for the sockets are 32 Amp and aslong as i dont exceed 13amps per socket then i will be ok.
He did say that you possibly thought it wouldnt be possible as you are not converting it 240 volts. I did some calculations from what i believe and that is :
13 Amp = 3120 watts OR 2,220 watts safely (75% of full power)
SO
32 Amps = 7680 watts OR 5,769 watts safely (75% of full power)

So aslong as the total equipment dont exceed 5-6k watts i should be fine?
Hey Vertigo. This is what I have so far. If you are only going to be growing plants to 3' tall then you won't need 3 lights. In this setup I have 18 plants under 2 lights. Based on your size plants you could easily fit 16 plants per 600w light in this room. 2 lights makes it easier to manage and less heat and power consumption. I have both lights being exhausted to the attic. I have your carbon filter being exhausted back into the room. You can try and do some kind of active or passive intake through the window first and see if that can maintain the temps. If not, then you will need to put in an a/c unit. Also, I wasn't sure if you were growing soil or hydro and if you were going to need a dehumidifier or humidifier. In this setup you have plenty of room for those things and more. With your ceiling height you can actually go up to 5' plants if you choose. You would have to change the layout slightly though. 4' plants would be just fine in the current layout. Let me know what you think and we'll get started on a list of equipment.


Capture3.jpg
 

phillipchristian

New Member
hi guys

still kind of new at this and thought i was on my way until I hit a brick wall and had to rethink some things...maybe someone can help. i Have roughly 800 cubic feet in a room that is 12X8x15 minus 2 angled ceilings. I just finished a table and felt the buds we're a little too fluffy for my liking and was told co2 would firm things up a bit. looked into the cost of regulators tanks and supply and decided to go for it. I have a small 3x6 flood table with 1 1000 watt hps, 2 oscillating fans and managed to control ambient temp at a steady 25c and 45 humidity in the open room.

now co2 needs to be in a sealed environment for effectiveness, right?
so I sealed up a 10X8X4 area and put mylar all around and prepared to test this out as the parts are already on the way and need to get this done first. turned on the lights and 2 and half hours later realized forgot the fan went in there and it looked like London fog or something it was a fricking sauna! lol rookie mistake I guess but I was reminded of the movie the Mist by stephen king, just hoping my ladies didn't die.
so now I'm wondering if maybe I need a portable a/c in there to help out or will removing the reservoirs from the tents and putting the fans in do the job?
the temp still read 25??? but humidity was at 75%!!!! i'm pretty sure that would be ok with co2 added but the mylar is so steamed I must be losing light efficiency. I've already paid for a sniffer and a regulator just picking up the tank this week so I'm pretty much all in at this point on the co2! lol

any help would be appreciated.
Hey bud, I'm a little confused but I'll try my best to help. Hellraizer should probably chime in too.

If you have no issue controlling the temps then why not just get a portable dehumidifier. Seems like all you need to do is bring the humidity down. You could even put your dehumidifier on a stand and drain it to a reservoir. Dehumidifier runoff usuall has a ppm of around 25-40 and is very clean water. You would be able to use this water to feed your plants.

I'm not sure if your buds being airy is from Co2. They way I was taught is that you add Co2 after everything else is dialed in and you can go 1-2 harvest without any major problems. For your plants to take afvantage of the Co2 made available by these systems they already need to be in PEAK condition. Adding Co2 will not help with humidity issues. Some growers incorrectly add Co2 to deal with high temperatures but I think this is a mistake. Plants are able to handle higher temps and actually process Co2 at higher temps then without it. This doesn't mean you should add the Co2 because you can't control the temperatures in your room. Just my opinion.

I hope that helped. If you have any other specific questions let me know.

Anyone else have any suggestions?
 

thousanaire

Active Member
You said you wanted room in your tents for stuff that you may need to put in there like a/c, dehumidifier, etc... You go with an 8x8 or 4x8 with 4 or 2 trays in there and you have NO room to put anything else. You kinda gotta figure out which way you want to go from the beginning or it will cost you more in the end. You have a 4x8 tent packed with 2 4x4 trays and it's gonna be a butch getting to some of the plants in the back. You can run your a/c and dehumidifier in the bedroom and control the environment in the tents with active intakes. Maybe run 4x8 tents with 3x3 tables and 400w lights. If you are doing a SOG then you won't need anything more than 400w and it has a footprint of 3x3. Gives you a little room to play with in the tent and also allows you to reach the back corners. Plus it's less electricity and cooling to worry about.

Doing a flip doesn't lower your electricity bill. It just splits the load you are running in half. Instead of running 4 lights for 12 hours a day you are running 2 lights for 24 hours a day basically. 12 hours in the first tent then 12 hours in the second tent. The reason for doing this is that sometimes you can't put all of that electrical load on your breaker panel cause you don't have enough free amperage. Therefore you split it in two and run them on different cycles. You could also get 240v ballasts which would help reduce the load on your panel if you wanted to run them all at the same time. It's hard to say when I don't know your exact electrical situation.

I'd set itup like this. Not all right away but 1 tent then another in the future. 9 plants per tray. 9 plants in veg. 400w lights. All the lights and a/c on a 240v subpanel. I would need more info to figure out the ducting, etc...If you have a breaker panel in the apartment or somewhere that only you have access to then running this setup would not be hard to wire up at all and really wouldn't use that much power. 400w lights use 3.6amps max. That would be 7amps at one time in lighting. That's 30% less than running a single 1000w light for 12 hours. You could easily get away with that. Then just run one of those Clone Lab 2x4 tents in your room that has the shelves in it. 3 moms on the bottom under a T5 and clones on the top shelf with some CFL's.





View attachment 2112190

Dude that shit is bad ass i jus downloaded smart pro and made one too but yours is way nicer. what i was saying about the having extra space i meant in the actual room not in the tent i have a 3x3 tent with a 3x3 tray and still have room to hang fans n stuff. so i would probally wanna go with 4x4 trays and 600 watters. How much electrical work would it take to plug in 4 600s and what do u think wud be the cost of electricity per month my pg&e costs .12c a kw but when i go over the 100% usage median it goes up to .22 and .32 so i kno i wud be paying a lot in electricty. But i also have the 30% care discount. Ok also do u guys think the apartment can kick me out for growing even tho its all medical??
 

thousanaire

Active Member
my attempt doesnt look as good as the professinals tho.


grow room.jpg

This would be if i stuffed a 8x8 tent in the room and with 4 4x4 trays under 4 600 watts althought i kinda do like the two separate tents idea. It seems like it would be easier for me to actually get to the plants.

So if i did two 4x4s in each 4x8 tent would i be able to fit 32 plants in each.
 

phillipchristian

New Member
Dude that shit is bad ass i jus downloaded smart pro and made one too but yours is way nicer. what i was saying about the having extra space i meant in the actual room not in the tent i have a 3x3 tent with a 3x3 tray and still have room to hang fans n stuff. so i would probally wanna go with 4x4 trays and 600 watters. How much electrical work would it take to plug in 4 600s and what do u think wud be the cost of electricity per month my pg&e costs .12c a kw but when i go over the 100% usage median it goes up to .22 and .32 so i kno i wud be paying a lot in electricty. But i also have the 30% care discount. Ok also do u guys think the apartment can kick me out for growing even tho its all medical??
Hey bud, couple things.

A 600w light running 12/12 would cost you about $50 a month if you were paying the $0.22 rate. So figure 4 of them would be around $200 a month plus add another 60% to that for other equipment and you are at $320 a month in extra electricity. Maybe closer to $400 if you are kicked into the $0.32 tier.

A 3x3 tent with one light is easy to cool. An 8x8 tent with 4 lights is going to require a dedicated a/c and probably a dehumidifier. The electrical probably wouldn't be an issue. You could run all 4 lights off 1 light controller that you wired 240v. Then just get 240v ballasts and you'll only be drawing 11 amps with all that light. Your electricity bill would be the same but you would be reducing the draw on your power board so that you would be able to fit all that equipment on there and not overload it. You could probably get a portable a/c that is wired 240v as well. Not sure though.

I really can't comment on the whole apartment situation. I mean, since you are legal then I would immagine that they can't really say anything. But I am also pretty sure that they have rules to prevent fire hazards and such. Get a copy of your lease and look it over to see what it says regarding fire hazards, electrical work, etc...


my attempt doesnt look as good as the professinals tho.


View attachment 2113036

This would be if i stuffed a 8x8 tent in the room and with 4 4x4 trays under 4 600 watts althought i kinda do like the two separate tents idea. It seems like it would be easier for me to actually get to the plants.

So if i did two 4x4s in each 4x8 tent would i be able to fit 32 plants in each.
I think you are forgetting a couple things here. First off, even with a tent that is 9x9 you won't be able to fit 4 4x4 table in there. Those tables have 2-4" lips on them so they are really more like 4'6". At that size you wouldn't be able to walk in the tent at all. You would have to go around back to get to the other tables and reservoirs. You also woudn't be able to reach the plants in the middle. The other issue I see is that you would have no room for a dehumidifier or anything else you would need in there. Doing a 3x3 tent is easy but a tent that big is going to require that you be able to get inside of it and have some room to put other equipment or even lower the lights if need be. Even if you got a portable a/c and ducted it somehow into the tent that really wouldn't be all that efficient. I can tell you that you aren't going to be able to control temps with passive and active ports. You are going to need spot a/c units. That's why I suggested the 2 tents. Less amperage on your board at 1 time. Only have to buy half the ballasts. If you bought those Lumatek Dual Ballasts you would only need 1 and a FLIP box. It would also be a lot easier to cool 2 lights in a tent instead of 4. You might be able to do it with a portable a/c in the room and active inline fan intakes hooked up to thermostat controllers.

If you did a SOG then I think you'd have no problem fitting 16 on each tray. That's basically 1sq.ft. per plant. which seems like plenty to me. You could grow 2-3' plants in 3 gallon mesh pots with hydroton in the pots and the tray and you would have room to work with.
 
Hey Phillip thanks for that mate. So looking at the plan and from what your saying i could fit 16 plants in 11 litre pots under one 600w light? I see from the design you have got them 9 under each if i had 100% germ success then i could easily fit them under also? I am going to look at a few grow diaries and see what they got from veggin them longer, because as you say i have room for 5'. If i did go that route which would produce a larger yield could you be so kind as to show me the layout i would need. Also to add if i did grow 5' im guessing i would have to veg them untill approx 2' so how many T5's would i be looking at taking into consideration i am looking at doing a perpetual cycle.

As for the 'air intake' i was possibly thinking do a few holes or vents in the ply board over the window to allow air in OR have a fan and draw air in. If i used the fan and then hooked both the extractor fan and intake fan to a temperature controller unit so it will control the fans and keep a constant temp. Will this work in my situation?

Many Thanks and rep +
V
 

thousanaire

Active Member
Hey bud, couple things.

A 600w light running 12/12 would cost you about $50 a month if you were paying the $0.22 rate. So figure 4 of them would be around $200 a month plus add another 60% to that for other equipment and you are at $320 a month in extra electricity. Maybe closer to $400 if you are kicked into the $0.32 tier.

A 3x3 tent with one light is easy to cool. An 8x8 tent with 4 lights is going to require a dedicated a/c and probably a dehumidifier. The electrical probably wouldn't be an issue. You could run all 4 lights off 1 light controller that you wired 240v. Then just get 240v ballasts and you'll only be drawing 11 amps with all that light. Your electricity bill would be the same but you would be reducing the draw on your power board so that you would be able to fit all that equipment on there and not overload it. You could probably get a portable a/c that is wired 240v as well. Not sure though.

I really can't comment on the whole apartment situation. I mean, since you are legal then I would immagine that they can't really say anything. But I am also pretty sure that they have rules to prevent fire hazards and such. Get a copy of your lease and look it over to see what it says regarding fire hazards, electrical work, etc...




I think you are forgetting a couple things here. First off, even with a tent that is 9x9 you won't be able to fit 4 4x4 table in there. Those tables have 2-4" lips on them so they are really more like 4'6". At that size you wouldn't be able to walk in the tent at all. You would have to go around back to get to the other tables and reservoirs. You also woudn't be able to reach the plants in the middle. The other issue I see is that you would have no room for a dehumidifier or anything else you would need in there. Doing a 3x3 tent is easy but a tent that big is going to require that you be able to get inside of it and have some room to put other equipment or even lower the lights if need be. Even if you got a portable a/c and ducted it somehow into the tent that really wouldn't be all that efficient. I can tell you that you aren't going to be able to control temps with passive and active ports. You are going to need spot a/c units. That's why I suggested the 2 tents. Less amperage on your board at 1 time. Only have to buy half the ballasts. If you bought those Lumatek Dual Ballasts you would only need 1 and a FLIP box. It would also be a lot easier to cool 2 lights in a tent instead of 4. You might be able to do it with a portable a/c in the room and active inline fan intakes hooked up to thermostat controllers.

If you did a SOG then I think you'd have no problem fitting 16 on each tray. That's basically 1sq.ft. per plant. which seems like plenty to me. You could grow 2-3' plants in 3 gallon mesh pots with hydroton in the pots and the tray and you would have room to work with.
Ok well i guess its a good thing i didnt give u rep yet cuz that answer definatly deserves it bro. Ur the man bro. yea i was thinking that two i think the idea with two tents would be better but i went in today and measured it out while she was gone :) haha and unfourtunalty the door is like right at 8 feet so two 4x8s wouldnt work so i get all sad but then i get the great idea i cud jus do a 3x6 and a 4x8. ok so im trying to be as cool as you how do u like this layout..
 

phillipchristian

New Member
Hey Phillip thanks for that mate. So looking at the plan and from what your saying i could fit 16 plants in 11 litre pots under one 600w light? I see from the design you have got them 9 under each if i had 100% germ success then i could easily fit them under also? I am going to look at a few grow diaries and see what they got from veggin them longer, because as you say i have room for 5'. If i did go that route which would produce a larger yield could you be so kind as to show me the layout i would need. Also to add if i did grow 5' im guessing i would have to veg them untill approx 2' so how many T5's would i be looking at taking into consideration i am looking at doing a perpetual cycle.

As for the 'air intake' i was possibly thinking do a few holes or vents in the ply board over the window to allow air in OR have a fan and draw air in. If i used the fan and then hooked both the extractor fan and intake fan to a temperature controller unit so it will control the fans and keep a constant temp. Will this work in my situation?

Many Thanks and rep +
V
Hey Vertigo, thanks for the rep.

A 600w light has a optimal footprint of 4x4. If you are going to squeeze these limits then I just siggest you rotate smaller plants to the middle and keep taller ones on the outside. It also helps to rotate your plants 90 degrees every few days. A 3 gallon pot is like 8" wide I think so you should have no problem fitting 16 in that space. Just really depends on your growing style. If you are doing single cola SOG then no problem at all. If you train your plants (LST, Supercropping, etc..) then 9 would be a safer bet. The reason I put 9 in your design was because you said you wanted to stay under 20 plants. If you squeezed 16 under each light and added another 600w in the middle you could do 50-60 plants easy.

If you go with 5' plants figure on 2sq.ft. per plant. That means you would only be able to fit MAYBE 4 plants under each light. The bigger your plants the less plants you can fit under a light. I suggested going with bigger plants cause sometimes they are easier to managae then a bunch of smaller ones. If you go bigger you are going to need a lot more light or a lot less plants. Either way; if you are a good grower then SOG is probably the most efficient horizontal method for high yields. I'd stick with SOG if I were you. If not, you are looking at a lot fewer plants or a lot more money and electricity in lights, fans, a/c, etc...

If you were to place plywood over the window then I would pull air from outside through your lights and vent it into the attic. This will actually cool your lights more and give you a closed system so you wouldn't have to worry about smell being in your attic. Then I would put an inline fan hooked up to a thermostat controller on the window as well. Have that bringing fresh air into the room based on demand. Use the filter to just scrub the air in the room. You will need the intake to be active because with that much heat passive intakes won't do the job.

Lastly, I am assuming you are running your lights at night. If you are running them during the day you will 100% need an a/c. You may still need an a/c if it is warm during the day because even if your lights aren't on you will eed to bring cool air into the room and bringing in 85 degree air from outside is not gonna help. Even if you are running them at night; depending on your outside temps at night; you still might need an a/c.
 

phillipchristian

New Member
ok here goes im gettin alil better with each one. haha i better pratice quick i only have 7 days on my free trial
Think you've got bro. Looks great to me. That is exactly how I would lay it out. Only problem I see is that if you use 400w lights in the smaller tent then you won't be able to use a FLIP box. You'd have to get another 2 ballasts. Also, before you buy any tents or trays, double check all the measurements. A lot of those tenst say 4x8 but are actually up to a foot biiger or smaller than that. Had a buddy get a 4x8 tent that couldn't even fit a 3x6 tray because the tent was really like 3'8" wide on the exterior and 3'5" on the interior. The tray he got has 3" lips on all sides so it wouldn't fit. He had to shave the lips off the tray.

Now you just need to figure out hoy you're going to cool that room and those tents. You're gonna need a portable a/c or 2 and access to a window or attic to vent them and the lights.
 

kamie

Active Member
hey phillip for veg do u use 1k's or 600's? i have 2 1k's atm but i wanna add another. not sure if i should do 2 1k's and 1 600 in between or do all 600's instead
 

thousanaire

Active Member
Think you've got bro. Looks great to me. That is exactly how I would lay it out. Only problem I see is that if you use 400w lights in the smaller tent then you won't be able to use a FLIP box. You'd have to get another 2 ballasts. Also, before you buy any tents or trays, double check all the measurements. A lot of those tenst say 4x8 but are actually up to a foot biiger or smaller than that. Had a buddy get a 4x8 tent that couldn't even fit a 3x6 tray because the tent was really like 3'8" wide on the exterior and 3'5" on the interior. The tray he got has 3" lips on all sides so it wouldn't fit. He had to shave the lips off the tray.

Now you just need to figure out hoy you're going to cool that room and those tents. You're gonna need a portable a/c or 2 and access to a window or attic to vent them and the lights.

yea i have a big long window that was the thing was at the end. So ok im drawing stuff up and i was wondering what do u think about doing a rotating set up where i start off with 35 clones i would have 32 plants in 1g smartpots in the veg tent for 4 weeks under T5s or a 400w MH then move them to 32 3g smartpots in the 3x6 for 4 weeks then drop them in 32 5g smart pots for the last 4 weeks in the 4x8 tent under the 600w Hps. Do you think that many pots would fit in the 3x3 tent and the 3x6. And would that be doing way too much transplanting 3 times or would that be cool cuz i cud add some vegg addmenments to first pots(1g) and then put flowering ammendmants to the 2nd(3g) and 3rd pots(5g)
 

phillipchristian

New Member
hey phillip for veg do u use 1k's or 600's? i have 2 1k's atm but i wanna add another. not sure if i should do 2 1k's and 1 600 in between or do all 600's instead
I use 1000w lights for vegging and my moms. I clone and root them under T5's until that are rooted in 1.5" rockwool cubes. Then I transfer them to 4" blocks and move them to MH light.

For you it just depends how much more light you need. If you have 1000w lights in there already then just add another 1000w so that you have even footprints side by side. Light intensity has nothing to do with quality of plant in veg to a certain point. I mean you can't veg 50 plants under 2 fluoro tubes but if you stay within the footprints of your light then a 1000w, 600w, and 400w light all do the same thing. Your plants don't need that much light during veg. This is why they invented light movers. They are for vegging plants; not for flowering them.
 

phillipchristian

New Member
yea i have a big long window that was the thing was at the end. So ok im drawing stuff up and i was wondering what do u think about doing a rotating set up where i start off with 35 clones i would have 32 plants in 1g smartpots in the veg tent for 4 weeks under T5s or a 400w MH then move them to 32 3g smartpots in the 3x6 for 4 weeks then drop them in 32 5g smart pots for the last 4 weeks in the 4x8 tent under the 600w Hps. Do you think that many pots would fit in the 3x3 tent and the 3x6. And would that be doing way too much transplanting 3 times or would that be cool cuz i cud add some vegg addmenments to first pots(1g) and then put flowering ammendmants to the 2nd(3g) and 3rd pots(5g)
Couple issue I see. You aren't fitting 32 one gallon pots in a 3x3 tent. Maybe 16-20 but not 32. Second, if you veg plants for 4 weeks then you aren't fitting 32 in 5 gallon pots in a 4x8 tent. Those plants will be 4-6' tall and need 2sq.ft. per plant. I wouldn't want to deal with constantly having to move those pots around. The whole point of a perpetual is to not have to do that. Just harvest 1 tray every 2 weeks. A simple solution to your problem is to turn the door to the room around. Have it open outward and you'll have no problem fitting 2 4x8 tents in there.
 

kamie

Active Member
hey phillip how far do you keep each hood apart? in my flower room i have 4 magnum xxxl's i keep them about 3 ft apart. is that too little? should i keep them further apart?
 
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