Need Help Designing Grow Closet

Ok, here is the deal, my budget is in the 2000 dollar range, give or take about 500. My grow space is a washer/dryer closet(aprox: W:60", D:30" H:8'). this means that industrial power/water/air are already taken care of. its just a matter of hooking up the ducting, plumbing, and getting a converter for one of those big ass 3 prong plugs.

The Grow room needs to be Light and Smell proofed, so I am thinking of installing something like a HydroHut Deluxe, because the doors are french shutter style.

My strain is perfect for flowering around 2' so If I can find/build a very compact hydro/lighting setup I would like to have 2, or possibly even 3 tiers of SOG.

I am somewhat new to growing but I have a very sharp learning curve and the resources to invest, so any help connecting the dots would be much appreciated.

forget about the hydrohut, frame it out with 2x4/2x2s, get you some panda plastic, and go to town.

What do you mean by "getting a converter for one of those big ass 3 prong plugs"?

mogie said:

What do you mean by "getting a converter for one of those big ass 3 prong plugs"?

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In countries outside the usa safety standards demand you need to have 3 prongs on a plug, 1 for + 1 for - and 1 to earth the current should it need to happen. Our plugs also carry a fuse in them too.

I haven't bothered to look at one of these things in a while, it's 4 pronged, it's for plugging your dryer into. Here is a picture.

That my friend is a 220 line. black and red are hot white is return and green is to ground the dryer. It use a two pull breaker probably 30 amps so its easy to identify in your breaker box. Are you planing on running your lights on 220? VV

I was thinking if I could find some kind of adaptor/splitter that would allow me to run all of my equipment without fear of overloading my breaker box that would be ideal. unless there are some logistical problems that I am not thinking of.

akchris said:

I was thinking if I could find some kind of adaptor/splitter that would allow me to run all of my equipment without fear of overloading my breaker box that would be ideal. unless there are some logistical problems that I am not thinking of.

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Al.b.fuct is your man for that q

your gonna have to switch breakers and run 120V outlets unless there is another outlet in there and or everything u buy is commercial and runs on 220

your prolly want that 30amp draw even if you are going to use only 14amps max. its just safer then 14amps through a 15amp breaker. yes al b fuct will answer that question the best imo, im sure he will pop in here soon

There is a normal outlet in the closet, I just thought the 220 line would be the best to use.

use the 220 for ur light if ur gonna go hid, im no expert but i think it uses less amps than a 110 so u will actually be saving money should u go this route. well i know its cheaper i just dont know all the terms and math to prove it... then run the rest of ur crap off the 110 u said is in the room too

You can get the adapter to turn that 220 big plug into several 110 style plugs, just go to a camping supply or mhttp://www.dyersonline.com/c-96-electrical-adapters.aspxarine supply store check this out.

Geist said:

use the 220 for ur light if ur gonna go hid, im no expert but i think it uses less amps than a 110 so u will actually be saving money should u go this route. well i know its cheaper i just dont know all the terms and math to prove it... then run the rest of ur crap off the 110 u said is in the room too

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no it's not cheaper, this is a myth...you will be using half the amps, but that doesn't give any discount because you are using twice the voltage, power is measured in watts and watts is volts x amps, so if you half the amps and double the voltage you end up with the same power being drawn in the end, power is measured in watts...look on your bill you get charged by kilowatt hours not amps...the power company is not so stupid as to charge you by amps, if that was the case I would wire everything in my house 240 and convert everything to 240 and save 50% on my electric bill...LOL...LOL..LOL...to bad it's not that easy...if you want to save money make sure the equipment you buy uses electricity efficiently , just because you have a 400 watt hps doesn't mean it draws only 400 watts especially if the ballast is inefficient , and if you wire it for 240 instead of 120 it will still be just as inefficient and draw exactly the same power....

Check my grow out here... https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/14103-opening-pandoras-box.html

It might answer some qusetions you haven't asked yet.

thank you for the heads up jazer.

I am still unsure what to do about the lighting, I tried to PM Al B. Fuct, but he has turned off that feature. probably too many noobies asking him stupid questions about lighting. I'm moving into a smallish one bedroom apartment, so I want to do everything I can to keep my power bill within reason for the size of my living space, while at the same time maximizing yields. any recomendations for efficient lighting for a grow space of my size would be much appreciated. I have considered building an LED setup with a pair of boards cut to my closets dimensions or maybe ordering this 8 panel setup.
I am not so concerned with the actual cost as I am drawing attention to myself in an area that is regularly flown over with IR and audited for high power bills. I am interested to hear everyones input.

Time to get going.

First off I doubt you'll be pulling more power for a grow than you would be for a well used washer and dryer combo so don't worry about power. As for fly overs with IR there isn't much you can do about the light but the room's only going to be 23degC anyway.. a dryer gets hotter than that.

Attach some hardboard to the rear of the louvre doors to light proof them. Get some no-more-gaps and run it around all the corners to airproof the room. Install an interior wall that divides the room vertically, from floor to ceiling. Ensure that light from one side does not affect the other.

One side is for 'vegatitive' growth - should be big enough for a mother and 6-10 clones (15"x30"?). Get yourself a couple of flouro bulbs that's all you'll need in there for light. (the little energy saver ones) Try to set it up so you can get into this room without disturbing any plants in the flower room that may be sleeping. Cover the whole room with white mylar (panda film) it reflects the light, it is easily cleaned and (renting?) will keep mould off the landlords cheap MDF cabinetry. You want to ensure the floor is protected from water damage so you get your bond back.

The other side is for 'flowering' you want it bigger - that's the fun side. That's where the big light goes, with HPS lighting you want roughly 50w
per square foot of grow space so 450w - 600w HPS should be sweet. Keep the ballast away from the plants.

Both sides need ventilation. You need the hot air coming off the light to be sucked out of the room quick - your exhaust is placed up high. You want clean air coming into the room and blowing on the stalks of your plants to toughen em up a bit, place the intake fans low.

Ducting.. not enough details provided to help you out there - where do you want the stinky air to blow? Out a very high window means it will dissapate before reaching nose level. Just be subtle. Carbon filters kick ass.. maybe save your dough for one of those. Get some sealing tape, the fat spongy stuff you use to block draughts around doors and windows, and run it around the doors to help smell proof the unit.

Where is the power? If it's inside the unit you've got a lot of electrics running beside water, if it's outside you have a lot of plugs and timers to explain.. work it out.

Lights and filter aside you could probably set up everything I've mentioned for 2-300 dollars. Draw up some plans before you start with tools. Then erase them and draw better ones... figure out whether you wanna do a SOG or a SCROG and what media you wanna use.

You'll be fine, just take your time and keep it simple bro.

Watch this movie too..

Grow DVD - Top Quality Marijuana Growing.

Oh... My... God...

I just watched that video, and my entire vision just changed.

I have selected a new space. it is 6' by 8'. no windows. but i can make some minor structural changes to the space to allow for air flow. I am thinking of cutting a hole in the ceiling and running some 6" ducting through the ceiling of the appt into the side of the bathroom fan ducting. Active, filtered out take, passive intake through the gap under the door for the air. because the room will be bigger, (bigger hot spot) stealth is a BIG issue. I will have to look around and find a suitable lining for blocking IR. In any case I am going to design a room very similar to the one in the video. IR is a big worry around here though. there are vans that drive though and look at homes from the side, so lining just the top with mylar won't do.

I think I want to use SOG or SCROG, in a hydro setup, as opposed to the soil setup in the video. I will be building two boxes out of panda film to go inside of this grow room. one of them will be for mother plants (I want to have different strains of mothers) the other box will be my clone box. the rest of the room will be shelved so that I can grow on three tiers around most of the perimeter of the room.

If anyone can recommend the best products for stealthing a 6x8 room, that would be much appreciated.

For lighting I am thinking some sort of florescent because it will allow me to keep the lights fairly close to the plants, allowing for more stacking. I am still not sure which kind to get, as some of them are quite expensive, but I imagine you get what you pay for. Again, recomendations with links to sites with decent pricing are much appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and a big thanks to everyone who has contributed, especially the link to the video, like I said, that totally changed my vision.

ive never used it so i dont know how well it works but look into IR proof mylar.
http://www.greenfinger-hydroponics.co.uk/articles.php?ArticleGroupID=25#C3 anti-detection film is 1 name for it. you can pick it just about anywhere that sales hydro gear.

ok one response for your light question. if you buy your lights from a company like lithonia, then when you get your lights sent to your the ballast's should include all the wiring hook ups for every voltage. i.e. 120v, 200 v, 220 v, 245 v, etc. ( there will be many numerous wires going unused). there very simple too wire up and all the wiring schematics can be found online at there website for free. that way you dont have to get some sort of converter or anything.