Starting from Scratch: Design My Grow Room

Ok, so as i have read many many posts on here about different ways to design a grow room, i want to see what the experts say about possibilities for my situation.

My grow room is a blank canvas at this point. I have bought zero equipment thus far and i have done no modifications to the grow space. I have a big shed (280 sqft) that i'm dedicating as my grow space. It's built to the same standards of a house, so it has a concrete slab, 2x4 construction, insulation, drywall, and a 65 amp dedicated panel. I plan to run at least 2 circuits. One circuit for 240v and one circuit for 120v.

As for what i was considering starting with, but NOT set on doing: I was thinking of starting with 4x1000w lights. One section with 2x1000 MH for veg, One section for 2x1000 HPS for flower, and then a separate section to run some CFL's for starts and the mother plants. As for the medium, i am really leaning towards Under Current DWC.

I'm completely open for suggestions as to what lights i should use, what grow method, etc. Help me design this baby!

It's also worth noting that i have completely sealed the shed at this point, other than roof vents. I have a nice thick door, no windows, and no skylights.

Your not going to need 2000w for veg if your going to flower under 2000w. You should look at 2 400 or 1 600. In veg you can have the plants real close. And they block much light as they do in flower. Just a idea to kick around. So your veg room can be half the size of your flower.

Ok, since no one wants to kick this off, i'll just list the design i was considering running and you guys pick it apart for its flaws or add improvements as you might see fit.

3 Tents:
- 1 small tent for mothers and clones with T5 CFL's
- 1 large tent for Under Current DWC veg with 2x1000w electronic ballast MH, hood ducted lights for air venting(8 plants max)
- 1 large tent for Under Current DWC flowering 2x1000w electronic ballast HPS, hood ducted lights for air venting(8 plants max)

- In line chiller for each DWC tent to keep water temps at 69 deg.
- Not sure which controller i'll end up using for temp control or light control.
- Not sure how many in-line fans i'll need, but guessing 2.
- Will be pulling new air in from outside, through the hooded lights, and venting it into the room to maintain heat (stays 40-45 here most of the winter). Then a separate fan for exhaust with a charcoal filter for odor control.

That's about all i've brainstormed so far. Thoughts?

Warlock1369 said:

Your not going to need 2000w for veg if your going to flower under 2000w. You should look at 2 400 or 1 600. In veg you can have the plants real close. And they block much light as they do in flower. Just a idea to kick around. So your veg room can be half the size of your flower.

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So, you're saying 1x600w MH would work to veg 8 plants? I would assume that'd have to be on a light track or something, right?

It's also worth noting that i have never actually grown indoor before, so i'm relatively unsure as to what i should expect as far as plant size during each stage...How big would you let the plants get before moving them into the flowering tent? I'm only looking to yield roughly 5-6oz per plant.

When I flower I blast the crap out of them mostly with HPS from digital ballasts. There are some very nice digital ballasts on the marget today. Go with a company that has some history in digital. I have three that the company no longer exists - They redesigned with bigger internal fans. The ones I got that were replaced by waranty - they were a year old and I got all new ones no problem. The tech told me the fans don't even have to work - that makes sense to me because they run so cool with the two little fans on you can put your face on it. If the fans did go out, the digital unit runs so much quieter and cooler, they probably don't need the fans. They have been on a total of 6 months and are working great. Some of the digital companies claim in writing their ballasts create 30% brighter iight. Also, the digital ballast don't degrade and put out less light - Some claim they run 12,000 hours without degrading. I know you never get anything like that with the older hot ballasts.

I use CFL's for vegging - I just went to flowering, but was using 45 23W CFL's in a 8X24 foot veg space.
For flowering I'm running 3 digital 1K watt HPS, 1 older 1K watt HPS, and 2 400 watt HPS with the older ballast.

I save so much during vegging using CFL's I can afford to blast the heck out of them each floweriing.
Also, I got two cases of 23W - CFL's at a 99 cent store. The cost for each bulb was 25 cents!

If you get them an inch away from your plants, they grow real well.

If possible link your flower room to your vegging/cloning room so you can open up a plastic seperator and 2 zipper strips to make a big flap to open up and give them 12 hours of free indirect light from the flowering room...

This take more time than you have to screw around with this setup - I'm retired so it helps keep my busy.

PumpedUpKicks said:

So, you're saying 1x600w MH would work to veg 8 plants? I would assume that'd have to be on a light track or something, right?

It's also worth noting that i have never actually grown indoor before, so i'm relatively unsure as to what i should expect as far as plant size during each stage...How big would you let the plants get before moving them into the flowering tent? I'm only looking to yield roughly 5-6oz per plant.

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No light track needed. I veg 15 under a 2x4 T5. You realy don't want to veg monsters indoors. I've done it. Makes for a pain in the ass and alot of popcorn buds. Stay around 4 feet at finish. So that's 24-30 inches to start flowering.

Warlock1369 said:

No light track needed. I veg 15 under a 2x4 T5. You realy don't want to veg monsters indoors. I've done it. Makes for a pain in the ass and alot of popcorn buds. Stay around 4 feet at finish. So that's 24-30 inches to start flowering.

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Do you use DWC? Also, with those size plants, what's your typical yield? (i know there are a lot of other factors that come into play)

I don't use dwc. But plants loved it when I did. I'm not home all week so it wasnt the way for me to grow. But I'm getting .4-.8 gpw. I know it's not the best but I still have a few things to work out. Just ran out of cash.

how about some dimesnions for the shed? why grow in tents if you have a sealed shed? just frame up some partitions. warlock is 100% correct. if you are going to have 2000w of flower light they you won't need more than 600-1000w of veg light.

ScoobyDoobyDoo said:

how about some dimesnions for the shed? why grow in tents if you have a sealed shed? just frame up some partitions. warlock is 100% correct. if you are going to have 2000w of flower light they you won't need more than 600-1000w of veg light.

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The shed is 20'x14', but i'm not going to use the entire thing for my grow. I was considering framing up a partition directly in the middle and using half as my shop and the other half as my grow room, but that would only leave me roughly 9'x14' (126sqft). Would that be enough room to have the setup i'm talking about? (8 plants flowering, 8 plants veg'ing, and a few mothers/clones)

here's how i'd set it up. have no idea where the windows and doors are but you get the idea. top room is 2 moms under T5's, 8 vegging plants under a 600w MH and some clones under another smaller T5. the bottom room is your 8 flowering plants.

If that is the case I'd only use 2 600 in flower. And drop to a 600 veg and T5 for the rest. Don't see a need for 1000w for 4 plants. And in that space you would still be pushing it. My 2600w flower room is 14x7.

i do 4 plants under a 1000w all the time. just get them nice and bushy. you have plenty of ceiling space to grow nice sized plants. i've run 3000w in an 8x8 tent. all about the setup. 1000's will be better than 600's. you will be able to grow bigger plants. if it's an efficiency issue or financial one then go with 600's. if it's not, then do the 1000's.

I read it as 9x14 total space for veg and flower rooms. I might of read it wrong.

Warlock1369 said:

I read it as 9x14 total space for veg and flower rooms. I might of read it wrong.

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that's what's on the floorplan

I see that but alot of things look good on paper. For what he wants IMO there isn't room in veg or flower. Well atleast to run that much power. Not reasonably for a noob anyways.

Warlock1369 said:

I see that but alot of things look good on paper. For what he wants IMO there isn't room in veg or flower. Well atleast to run that much power. Not reasonably for a noob anyways.

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he said he had a 65amp dedicated panel. i'm assuming that's 240v. even if not it's still plenty.

4 plants across in the flower room which is 9'? that gives him 2.25' per plant. plus another 4' of open space across from the plants. in veg he has more open space than used space.

30amps in lighting. leaves 20 amps for a/c, dehu, fans, etc... and that's if the panel is 120v which i doubt since he said "dedicated panel"

ScoobyDoobyDoo said:

here's how i'd set it up. have no idea where the windows and doors are but you get the idea. top room is 2 moms under T5's, 8 vegging plants under a 600w MH and some clones under another smaller T5. the bottom room is your 8 flowering plants.

View attachment 2311637

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Spot-onnn! Wow Scooby! Dude you just got the masterxpolder "of info..." Electrical, and HVAC are whats left. Winter soon, great advantage for a new grow setup. Cooling should be a breeeeeez! no joke!! O, bottom floor construction only "heat rises". You'll thank myself and you for this in the summer LMFAO!


Peace, keep us posted.

ScoobyDoobyDoo said:

here's how i'd set it up. have no idea where the windows and doors are but you get the idea. top room is 2 moms under T5's, 8 vegging plants under a 600w MH and some clones under another smaller T5. the bottom room is your 8 flowering plants.

View attachment 2311637

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Damn Scoob, thanks for the effort to help me visualize the layout. Much appreciated. My question tho, is how big of difference will it make if i don't want to wall off the area between the two rooms? I'm thinking i really only want to create 1 wall in the shed. Would using a wall-to-wall tent for the flowering plants be that big of a difference?

Also, you assume correctly, i have planned the electrical around running grow lights on a 240v circuit. I'm planning for a 4 wire, 6 gauge (65amps max) feeder cable from the main panel in my house, to the sub panel in the shed. Should i bump it up to 4 gauge wire to get 80 amps instead? I added up all of the amperage i would draw using the equipment i have planned and it didn't even come close to maxing out the 65amps.

1000w x 2 = 8.32 amps
600w = 2.5 amps

that's only using 10 amps of the 40 amps i have set aside for the 240v breaker.

Side question...is there a way for me to run ALL of my lights from 240? I didn't think about this until now, but is there a way to run my T-5's from the 240v circuit?