First time grow room, looking for some help

zen0n

Member
Hey guys, been kicking the tires at getting a grow up and running and have decided to take the plunge.

My buddy has a nice quality unused 8x8 grow tent he's willing to donate, which is larger then what I will need for what I'm planning, but does fit in the grow area.

My plan is to grow 20-24 plants in the tent, partitioning off the grow area in the tent with a drop sheet. The grow room is right next to my laundry room, which has water and power already run. We only use the clothes dryer once a week so I'm kicking around the idea of just using the 240v dryer outlet for the lights and just planning laundry around the lighting cycle (pending approval from the superviser of course :P ), or just run a couple of new circuits as the panel is about 10' away from the laundry room.

As for lights, planning on running a couple DIY cob LED lights, of which i'm going to start a more appropriate thread in the LED forum. But I'm thinking about mounting the drivers externally on the wall of the laundry room, then feed the power wires thru the wall into the tent right next to the wall (see pic for layout).

Ambient temp in the basement is around 15c (60f) so hoping to be able to keep the temps in the tent a managable level with relocating the drivers, not sure about the humidity levels there, but have a decent dehumidifier on hand and will purchase a humidifier. Will be feeding the room with air from inside, exhausting to outside. Winters here are quite harsh, but will probably add an intake from the side window that I can keep closed to feed from inside, but in spring switch to outside air, just setup a couple of blast gates on either intake to control source.

As for exhaust, I'll likely output to the backyard rather then out the side towards the neighbors. Punching a hole in the drywall is no sweat to feed the exhaust ducting back into the laundry room and either tie into the laundry output vent or just jury rig something out the egress window. Will likely run a 6" AC infinity fan on the exhaust with filter.

i've got one buddy saying go hydro right away and one saying go dirt. So planning on likely doing one or two dirt crops to get my feet wet and then switch to a hydro.

Anyhow, after all that, here are some specific questions and if you have any ideas with the above please let me know!

1. my house is older, dust and my lab sheds hair like it's a competition. So I would think I would need some kind of light intake filter of some sort? Just for dust/bugs/dog hair etc.
2. Any reason outside of lack of convience to the wife to repurpose the dryer 240 circuit for light power? Safety wise it would be right up there I would think.
3. Will I have air recirc issues with the 6"? Assuming I can manage temps/humidity without cycling air.
4. Grow area inside the 8x8 would probably be in the area or 5x8, shouldnt be a problem using the remaining space for keeping water and tools and such I would guess?

Thanks all!

Z
 

Attachments

StankOfMyDank

New Member
I've done quite a bit of research for my first grow, and I gotta say I admire your courage. I am starting off with 2 to 3 plants, personally. I just think you're gonna find that 20-24 plants is a lot of fucking work. That's a lot of monitoring and watering for a first time. Here are some other things I would consider:

  • You are going to want to patrol the grow area pretty well for dust and hair. Intake filter seems appropriate. I've seen a lot of people who have made them using cardboard with duct tape and filter media. Personally I have a dog too and I plan to vacuum like a mf. Just make sure to size the inlet so that it matched the diameter of the exhaust. I gotta think you'll be pulling a negative pressure pretty easily with that 6" fan which will cause the tent to suck in.
  • You should probably dedicate a circuit to lighting when it comes to an 8x8 tent. That's a lot of space. You're gonna need several large lights to get the right coverage. Consider 50-60W/sq ft as a baseline, so realistically 50*64= 3200W to 60*64=3840W. At 240V thats 16A draw. Assuming 100% efficiency... which will never occur, probably closer to 4000W-4200W. Also to side with your wife - she's right. Having to wait to do laundry due to a light cycle sounds frustrating.
  • You can calc how large a fan you need based on the tent size. 8ft*8ft*(Assuming)6ft = 384 cubic feet. So you'll need a fan that pulls at least 384 cfm. Consider ducting and a filter as well. Filter adds 60% decrease in efficiency and ducting about 20%. So take your base number and multiply by 1.8 (1 = base, +.6 for filter, +.2 for ducting) ~ 691 cfm needed. If your fan meets that you should be ok. Also consider that you will be bottle necked by the dryer vent diameter size if you choose to route there.
  • As the other poster pointed out, are you going to do veg/flower across the entire tent?
Happy growing dude! Personally - I'd suggest scaling down the operation a bit lol
 
Last edited:

Bookush34

Well-Known Member
Depending on how many watts of led you plan on running you might want to leave the drivers in the tent.

60f is pretty cool. May need a little heat to get up to 80-82f
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Just make sure you are able to match your lights to your ambition. Lighting up a tent of that size, or even half that size with enough watts of LED will be expensive. You could always get a couple of 600 watt hps for $129 each and light half that tent with them. Not sure where you came up with the 20-24 plant number but that's way more than you need to fill the entire 8x8.
 

Kervork

Well-Known Member
So yer going veg thru flower in the one tent? But not split into a veg and flower area?

Have u grown before? Or yer friends going you? 24 is an ambitious start

Separate Veg and Flower give much better results. Plus there is the added benefit of constant little trimming as opposed to trimming for two weeks straight until your fingers bleed.
 
Top