I have been working on my home garden.
A quality built structure or room allows a farmer to play god effectively and easily. Good infrastructure for a garden leads to more consistency, which leads to improvement and increased harvest.
My focus has been on quality and craftsmanship. I am very lucky to have a father who has been a Carpenter, custom home builder, woodworker and furniture maker for more then forty years. The old fella and I have been remodeling my home and creating a garden space that is 10x11x8 with a flower and vegetation area.
Previously it was a bedroom, everything was demolished from top to bottom. EVERYTHING except the subfloor and the sheathing on the exterior wall. All electrics were removed, the interior wall studs were also demolished to make the room larger and allow a remodel and expansion of a bathroom it shares a wall with.
5/8" OSB was dropped over the subfloor, I felt I deserved a new subfloor.
The interior walls were framed out and 3" foil faced rigid foam was installed for insulation on ALL WALLS, the exterior and interior. After the rigid foam was placed it was secured by running a bead of expanding foam along all edges of rigid/wood seams.
The room previously had a window, a piece of thick curtain material was fixed permanently to the window frame and appears as a typical window curtain from outside the home. Rigid foam was installed in the window frame and sealed. It was drywalled over and cannot be seen from inside the garden.
Two cables were run In the ceiling to supply green coloured overhead LEDs for 'night time' plant tending.
The ceiling was also given a layer of 3/4" foil faced rigid foam.
Tyvek was installed on the walls and ceiling. The Tyvek was sealed along all seams and breaks, all holes patched. The room is very well sealed.
Then came 5/8" drywall on all surfaces, along with a level 4 finish all around.
The drywall was given three coats of PVA primer, all seams were caulked. The drywall was painted with the highest quality satin latex exterior paint. Exterior paint lasts longer then interior and is much more rugged. My choice paint also included a fungicide, a wonderful thing for indoor horticulture. Exterior paint is easy to wipe down and clean, also waterproof. I clean the walls by spraying a diluted bleach solution with soap then actually SCRUBBING, this paint is TOUGH stuff.
The floor was then covered with inexpensive cheapo sheet vinyl, as it will be covered with horse stall mats in the near future. Cove base was installed all around, allowing the room to be mopped freely without any worry about damage from moisture seeping anywhere.
The center wall was framed, I have decided to use panda film for wall material because I do not want to mud anymore joints, and it will also improve airflow between the partition. Mostly because I hate mud work.
#6 wire was run to the garden for the panel located inside. An electrical subpanel was installed, one 20/240v, one 15/120v, three20/120v breakers are within. The subpanel is independent from the house, but fed from the same meter. Electrical outlets were installed at 66" allowing outlets to always be within reach and well out of the way of plant life.
3,000 watts of lighting total was planned for, 2 lamps in flower and one for vegetation. Currently only one lamp is in each room as I have yet to dial things in yet. Lights are on the 240v line. Ballasts are hung as high as possible on their own shelf, secured down.
I decided to go with a cloth door/curtain to separate light cycles, I selected the same thick blackout curtain material I made the window curtain with. A quality rail system with ball bearings holds the curtain, edges of the curtain have industrial velcro, no light leaks here.
Fresh air is brought in passively through a crafted air filter box. The box is made of melamine and is installed into/on the floor of the garden, it houses three levels of filters inside reducing dust and spores and reducing insect infestation. The box was engineered with common filter sizes in mind so filters are readily available and cheap, changing them is easy as I just remove two screws and swap it out. The box has a backdraft damper preventing smells from getting out when the exhaust fan is not running.
Lamp hood intake is also filtered in the same manner, it has it's own box and filters. Rigid 8" duct work runs up the wall and over four feet towards the operating flowering hood. Traditional flex>hood>flex>wall flange>flex>hood>flex>fan. The fan cooling the hoods is an 8" 710 CFM hyper fan, I usually run it at about 50%. The fan exhausts under the house or into my half bathroom, I will experiment this winter to see if using my lamp exhaust will be a viable method of heating my home. Maybe.
Room air is exchanged using an 8" 400 CFM inline fan through a can 66 Can Filter, exhaust is ducted under the home.
An oscillating fan is present in both rooms. A light trap on the dividing wall allows air to move between the two sections.
If I decide to begin growing in a 'sealed room' with supplemental co2 I can easily install a mini split and burner, I even have a shelf installed for a dehumidifier already.
A solid wood 20 minute rated fire door with a deadbolt and lock secures the garden.
A 1x2' cabinet mounted on the wall at nipple height houses a single CFL bulb along with any seedlings and clones waiting to root.
You cannot hear my garden, see it, or smell it until you open that door.
I am lucky enough to have built my dream garden.
TLDR:
Custom built room 11x10x8 with flower and vegetation sections
1,000 eye hortilux HPS powered by galaxy digital logic ballast
1,000 digilux MH powered by lumatek select-a-watt ballast
2x 8" blockbuster hoods
8" 710 hyper fan cooling hoods
8" 400 CFM inline for room ventilation
Twice HEPA filtered room and hood intake air
26" can filter 66
Seed
Rapid rooters
Party cups
5 gallon pots
Supersoil
Water
Perpetual harvest
You think 2 x 600w are ok for that.. Im thinking 2 x 1000w would be perfct for that size room, if your doing SOG setup.. Making sure those babies get all the light they need.
