A design for winter focusing on and temperature control using hid for the winter cold temps and reducing heating bill by using a lung room.

Hey tis is my first post i would appreciate any improvements of my idea or any commentary.
Anyway.
I've been thinking about a set up like this ;
a 2x3x6 cupboard lined up with reflective material will do the role of a grow room because need of stealth and because why not, i think its a perfect space otherwise unused.
I'm thinking I'm going to put a 250w mh for veg,
in the flowering stage i would go to 400 hid that would make sense in such a small space because outside temps will be lowering
all this powered by a gavita 600w dimmable digital ballast
the reflector will be a simple stucco the cheapest bc i don't need too much light spread 2x3 as i said.
there will be a extractor fan in the cup board exchanging the air to the lung room
intake will be passive from the lung room
in the lung room i will have the following;
A intake fan that blows fresh air directly from the outside conveniently placed on a window but is controlled by a thermostat plug that is adjusted to jump
(or enter cooling mode) at a set temperature which will keep my grow cupboard bellow 27 Celsius
A furnace that will keep the lung room (and consequently the cupboard) above the 19celsius
And lastly a intake fan that kicks in 15 min every hour in the dark period and stays off during the light on cycle

I've thought this for pretty long and i think its the most energy efficient system that i can come up to get some dank buds out of the space that i have
i think that the furnace wont be needing to turn on during light on cycles because lung room is 8x8x8 and the constant heat produced by the lamp will warm it up nicely, i also think that when plants are sleeping there is almost no need to renew co2 but when the lights kick there will be a constant intake of co2 controlled by the thermostat trying to keep temps down lets say a healthy 25 centigrade so in the actual grow room the temps will rise to 27 28 if my calculations are correct, by that time temps in lung room should rise above 25 and kick in fresh cold air intake that will be a type of breathing if you will

pd/ i know there is better ways to controll climate but im going on the cheap and i alredy have 2 timer plugs i will only need a termostat plug for the intake that costs 35bucks vs more expensive options but im open to ideas

here is a illustration ( in paint ) of my idea;

You forgot a temp/rh controller for your exhaust fan which is better than a timer running it. A speed control is nice too as they don't need to run full blast for a small space like that.

A source of CO2 for times when neither the temp or RH gets high enough to trigger the exhaust fan and the plants use up all the available CO2 and just stop growing. I use a DIY alcohol lamp that burns around 100ml of methyl hydrate every 12 hours and keeps the CO2 over 1000ppm easily in 3X the cubic feet you are going to have. 7x9x6.5'h. My room is in a corner of a tall crawl space underground and the air is drawn in from the greater area of the basement so I don't have -35C air coming in from outside. It can get close to freezing and the temp slowly goes up and down with the seasons but is steady day to day. Got up to 64F down there this summer but still plenty cool enough that I've never needed A/C even with 1200W of HID going in there. Very low RH 9 months of the year too.

I've been growing down there for 20 years this Halloween day when I moved in with plants from the place in town. Actually signed the papers Halloween day and moved plants in Nov. 1, 2003.

Thanks for answering, ive rethinked all of the above and now im more convinced that a actual minimum speed fan controller + a powerful exaust fan + dehumidifier or humidifier in the lung room + rh controlled intake in the lung room + heater directly in the grow space would make more sense

something like this:

yes its a lot more initial investment but i think the control of temps and rh will be far superior in this version
sure its 3 controllers 60 bucks for the min speed fan controller and 30 for each rh and temp switches + 15 bucks each fan and a 30 to 40 more powerfull one for the cvt

but all in all its not that expensive and it assures you year round controlled climate

im i missing something?

now that i think about all of it it would be better if i buy a dedicated tent 1.2x1.2x1.8 and run everything off 1 controller : minimum speed variable controller with temperature and rh
so the controller itself is a 100 bucks but you get to run your system off 1 controller and no lung room... only a cracked window and a chill growroom lets say 20 c i think the co2 in the room with a cracked window will sufice the needs of 9 little to medium plants..

total investment on the ventilation /temp/rh controll 250 bucks

versus the before version that runs hundreds

plus i would opt for a ac in the grow room keeping everything cool even in cold months with the window cracked
and when it gets too cold the heat from the indoor plus the heat pump of the ac get to work

i think THIS is the way to go
may need to throw a dehumidifier in the room in flower

now if we are getting fancy i would elaborate a arduino system with temp and rh sensors that crack the window automaticly with a cheap 9g servo and give so much free humidity co2 and cold air almost for free.. but that would be another 150 bucks xd

m1100 said:

im i missing something?

Click to expand...

Looks more like you have too much stuff. If you're drawing in outside air then you're basically doing what I've been doing but wasting a lot of space for the 'lung room' which is only needed when running a sealed room with no outside air coming in at all. The air just circulates from the grow space thru the lung room and back. Dehuey, A/C, CO2 etc are all in the lung part and just a light and circulation fan in the grow space. A carbon filter if needed can be in the lung room too.

I just use an old analog temp/RH controller and a speed control wired up using a ceiling fan controller. Same kind of wiring job on a heat/cool thermostat from Canadian Tire to switch on an electric heater mostly when the lights are out. 70F in the dark and 80 when the lights are on unless running CO2 then I set the exhaust for 90 but in winter it won't go over 85 even with a 1000W HID for light. I really only use CO2 during the stretch when they can really use it.

My little alcohol lamp early model. 3/8" copper tube and a tiki torch wick.



Same thing but ver. 2.0 with a smaller 3/16" copper tube and a cotton shoelace for a wick. Same size lid but a quart/litre sized jar for longer times between fills. Look close as it's burning.



The speed controller is the wired little box off to the left. The 6" inline fan plugs into it. I used a watt meter to find the half mark and run it at that. Still moves more than enough air and a lot quieter tho that's not really an issue nor is odour as I'm in the boonies. Now that growing is legal even less to worry about. Same kind of wired control for the heater but a longer cord so the thermostat is not close to the heat source.

man thank you ive learned more in 2 replys than in years reading inconect stuff

i dont think many growers understand vpd and its importance
also they dont think in leaf temps with leds
thank you again
bless

I use a lung room in the cold weather to feed 2 flower rooms, always have one on so it heats each other

hey man you say you will use a "250w mh and a 400w hid all powered by a 600w gavita digital dimmable ballast?"
will you dim a 600w bulb? or will you actually use a 250w bulb in a 600w ballast? sorry for dumb question im qurious lol also if i was you instead of a 400w i would add a 315w CMH <3 :3

i will use the 250W in the 250W position of the dimmer to run it full blast its not good diming hid it looses lot of efficiency and par spectrum

I use the correctly powered ballast with the light it is designed to power rather than dim a ballast. I have 400, 600, and 1000W in MH and HPS. I'll start plants under fluoros or a 200W COB light before graduating them to the 400 and go up as needed to cover the plants as they get bigger.

In 22 years my selection has grown. I got a 600W 10,000K finishing bulb since this pic was taken as well. Hortilux for the win!