I'm spending a fortune trying to save money growing weed

Shape Shifter said:

Not bad for me. My grow room is in the basement. It's connected to the main furnace / AC. The hottest my tent gets is 78F in the summer. The humidity is perfect at 50-60% in the summer. It gets drier and colder in the winter.

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Same but because the ac is for the whole house its inefficient for me, Im looking at possibly a portable for summer.

With 1000w of LED in a 250cft room, it gets hot with the power supplies in there in summer. Ive got a lot of ventilation but need more ac at odd times...i.e. morning when its still cool but the ac hasnt come on yet...early evening when sun goes down.

Power supplies become very hot when run above 75%..I may just run less lighting in Summer too as a possibility. Ive got enough spread to run lower and effeciently and still get 60 to 75k lux. Im still learning.

I do have 3 plants outdoors, in soil in 20-gal pots... BUT... this last hurricane Isaias destroyed two of them... I duct taped 'em up and added some support, hope those two girls survive... one had the main stem split right down the middle!

Too many of these stories I cant imagine doing a good job and Mother Nature just saying yeah but Im the boss sorry....thats rough brother I feel for you.

ComfortCreator said:

Same but because the ac is for the whole house its inefficient for me, Im looking at possibly a portable for summer.

With 1000w of LED in a 250cft room, it gets hot with the power supplies in there in summer. Ive got a lot of ventilation but need more ac at odd times...i.e. morning when its still cool but the ac hasnt come on yet...early evening when sun goes down.

Power supplies become very hot when run above 75%..I may just run less lighting in Summer too as a possibility. Ive got enough spread to run lower and effeciently and still get 60 to 75k lux. Im still learning.

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I've noticed if you mount all your drivers in one spot and blast them with a decent fan, the whole room stays much cooler. Same with the boards. Never let them get hot, and you dont have to deal with heat. That being said, I no longer do this because I actually needed to get my temps up. Now I just run a hot room

IrkinBollikans said:

I've noticed if you mount all your drivers in one spot and blast them with a decent fan, the whole room stays much cooler. Same with the boards. Never let them get hot, and you dont have to deal with heat. That being said, I no longer do this because I actually needed to get my temps up. Now I just run a hot room

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I have a fan above each heatsink and power supply pushing the warm air right into the exhausts...and I agree with your point, Ive done kinda the best I can.

I agree too, i actually reverse the fans and blow the heat back into the room in Fall and Winter to keep it warm. Its fun but daunting seeing how much fiddling they require in Summer.

ComfortCreator said:

I think one saving grace is Summer is a bitch for indoor growers. It seems anytime but summer is pretty easy to control the environment...but hot wet summer is a bitch. You will love growing a Fall batch.

It would seem ideally in most climates an indoor grows Fall Winter and Spring and an outdoor grow that runs through Summer would be an ideal setup but a lot of work.

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i live in the high desert where humidity runs around 10% in the summer so I can cool my tent and raise the humidity with this https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Conditioner-Tornado-Conditioning-Operated/dp/B08F9C37ZN/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1KAJ74XMDEWA6&dchild=1&keywords=personal+evaporative+cooler&qid=1596724027&sprefix=personal+evaporative+coo,aps,372&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzMFZIMkhOT05PSDlSJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTI2NjAyM0RSRk1IRVI2NlZLOSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMTQzMDM5VlQzWEo5STNYU0cwJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ very little power used. my 2ft by 4 ft grow tent adds $14/month to my electric bill. runnig an 8 plant sog I get 7-8 ounces every 16 weeks

IrkinBollikans said:

Turn your AC off during lights out. Energy savings

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I've heard on this forum that some people believe it's good to allow temps to drop when lights are off... a "nighttime" cool... but if that's not needed, I would def. turn off the AC when lights are off... what do you think?

Summer growing, don't stuff a heater in a small box.

Your cooling your house anyway

Small heater in big room not so mush a problems

I don't know what cellar-dweller living in Mama's basement invented the tent. Real grow lights don't need no tent, heck you lose 5% of the energy everytime light reflects

bigunyun said:

I've heard on this forum that some people believe it's good to allow temps to drop when lights are off... a "nighttime" cool... but if that's not needed, I would def. turn off the AC when lights are off... what do you think?

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Not only do you want to keep temps fairly similar between light cycles, but that cold air is aggravating your humidity issue. Cold air holds more moisture than warm air

Oakiey said:

Summer growing, don't stuff a heater in a small box.

Your cooling your house anyway

Small heater in big room not so mush a problems

I don't know what cellar-dweller living in Mama's basement invented the tent. Real grow lights don't need no tent, heck you lose 5% of the energy everytime light reflects

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Wow you mean lose the tent? I could do that! Just worried about light leak from windows, etc...

IrkinBollikans said:

Not only do you want to keep temps fairly similar between light cycles, but that cold air is aggravating your humidity issue. Cold air holds more moisture than warm air

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ok that's good to know; I'll put the AC on a timer with the lights... thanks!

bigunyun said:

Wow you mean lose the tent? I could do that! Just worried about light leak from windows, etc...

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Windows are easily covered

Oakiey said:

Summer growing, don't stuff a heater in a small box.

Your cooling your house anyway

Small heater in big room not so mush a problems

I don't know what cellar-dweller living in Mama's basement invented the tent. Real grow lights don't need no tent, heck you lose 5% of the energy everytime light reflects

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If you can't/don't need to outfit a whole room for growing, then a tent makes perfect sense. Keeps pests out, contains smell, easier to control a smaller environment, reflects up to 95% of light according to you, which is actually probably more like 80%. What is a real grow light btw?

bigunyun said:

Damn if anyone tells you growing weed is easy, bullshit! But man, between the time it takes and the money it's almost worth buying a goddam $18 joint at the dispensary.... (*almost*)... but yeah, two 800W lights running 12 hours, inline fans, oscillating fan, 50p dehumidifier, a 14k BTU air conditioner running 24/7, and then there's the drying room with fans and dehumidifier... I'm gonna go broke! Jeesh maybe i should just give up weed lol

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Everything on timers, Automated watering. The more you learn the easier and more cost effective it becomes. Ive been growing for a decade outdoors. I've been in about 20 indoor grow rooms. My indoor room is costing me $360 a month. Thats with 4 lights. I should pull down 4 lbs every 60 days with maybe 5 hours of work a week.

IrkinBollikans said:

If you can't/don't need to outfit a whole room for growing, then a tent makes perfect sense. Keeps pests out, contains smell, easier to control a smaller environment, reflects up to 95% of light according to you, which is actually probably more like 80%. What is a real grow light btw?

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Tents are a pain in the ass, my 8 inch filter does fine keeping the smell down in my 10-10 room with a 10-5 footprint.
My two 1000w hid light the ares up just fine.

I think it's just a joke to stuff a hundred watt LED in a foil box, I'm not saying LEDs won't grow pot it's just stupid to give $800 for one that'll do what a 100 dollar hid light will do, and it won't be obsolete next year

bigunyun said:

My lights might be overpowered... I'm using a California Lightworks Solar Extreme 1000 LED in each tent... they draw 800W each... but gawd I'd hate to downgrade after spending all that scratch... gotta make these work!

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ComfortCreator said:

Same but because the ac is for the whole house its inefficient for me, Im looking at possibly a portable for summer.

With 1000w of LED in a 250cft room, it gets hot with the power supplies in there in summer. Ive got a lot of ventilation but need more ac at odd times...i.e. morning when its still cool but the ac hasnt come on yet...early evening when sun goes down.

Power supplies become very hot when run above 75%..I may just run less lighting in Summer too as a possibility. Ive got enough spread to run lower and effeciently and still get 60 to 75k lux. Im still learning.

Click to expand...

Portable air conditioners work great. I live in Michigan and the weather is pretty mild in the summer, but from May through early August I have to run the portable AC in my flower room with the exhaust vented outside through a 6" louver. I want to seal my room after my next harvest so I can install a natural gas fed co2 burner, so I have to upgrade to a mini split air conditioner before next summer or I won't be able to run co2. Mini split's cool the air in the room and produce no exhaust, so your co2 stays inside the room where you want it while cooling is provided.

Oakiey said:

Tents are a pain in the ass, my 8 inch filter does fine keeping the smell down in my 10-10 room with a 10-5 footprint.
My two 1000w hid light the ares up just fine.

I think it's just a joke to stuff a hundred watt LED in a foil box, I'm not saying LEDs won't grow pot it's just stupid to give $800 for one that'll do what a 100 dollar hid light will do, and it won't be obsolete next year

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I can understand and appreciate the cost difference between light sources. But I feel hps will soon be near obsolete. A lot of us on here are hobby growers, and as such are perfectly fine with dumping money into the newer technology while turning out frostier more complex tasting buds. I'm not knocking hps at all because that's where I started, but it's old tech. It works, but not as good as led imo

Shape Shifter said:

Not bad for me. My grow room is in the basement. It's connected to the main furnace / AC. The hottest my tent gets is 78F in the summer. The humidity is perfect at 50-60% in the summer. It gets drier and colder in the winter.

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Same here my 600w HPS makes my tent 77-78. Ive spent less than $1000 on everything and have went over a year on it.

IrkinBollikans said:

I can understand and appreciate the cost difference between light sources. But I feel hps will soon be near obsolete. A lot of us on here are hobby growers, and as such are perfectly fine with dumping money into the newer technology while turning out frostier more complex tasting buds. I'm not knocking hps at all because that's where I started, but it's old tech. It works, but not as good as led imo

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You guys got to like those LEDs to justify the purchase I think you guys are a litte bias or maybe you got splinters in the brain hugging trees

Good LEDs are priced way too high would just be stupid to burn a cheap LED that's not as efficient as hid.

I'm waiting

Good organic amended soil, water soluble organic fert, Luminous xb3950 knock offs ($120 for 800W), second hand exhaust fan, and a couple chear clip on fans. Cheap. Easy. Water and feed pretty much. Easy as it gets. K.I.S.S..