Truth's Off of the Sidelines and Into the Limelight

What's up folks? Been around these parts about 8 years, and 3 - 4 at OG before that. been through the same amount of apartments too. . And if you've seen my last thread, no, I still havent hit 1 gpw, haha, but I DO have a house now, so I guess I'm not doing everything wrong But there sure is a hell of a lot of room for improvement.

It is that improvement, to which this here very thread is dedicated. I've been at this grow thing for a hot one, but only a couple years with HIDs in tents. Before that it was all tiny fluoro tube and CFL cabs.

Now Im in a big ass house, with big ass BILLS to pay , and I feel like Im starting all over. I held my own through the winter since moving up here slightly ahead of schedule, but I cant keep going on half assed like this. Not at this level. Time to tighten up the ship, indeed.

Let us start with a super shitty, not to scale drawing of the allotted target space. (If anyone thinks I should post this in Growroom designs instead, please clue me in. I def need as much help as I can get, haha. ) I say target, cuz right now Im using space upstairs too. Lemme tell ya, the GF just LOOOOOOVES that



In that space, Im hoping to run 8 - 10k (preferably on a flip, more on that in a moment). I have 200amp service to the house with a 100amp subpanel for the basement. 50amp stove plug in teh basement wired up in the main kitchen area (finished basement) and 30amp dryer plug in the utility room/laundry area.

I have considered putting holes in the wall between the main flower and the hallway to air cool the lights on a loop and to install a 25k btu window banger. Then put a carbon filter and 6in fan on the dryer vent to exhaust the heat. However, there is a hitch.

My whole house, which is not well insulated and rather large (for my broke ass) at almost 3000sq/ft, is heated with electric baseboards. In other words, id be running like 10-20k watts to stay warm in winter even if i didnt have a grow! Might as well put those watts on double duty.

For that reason, up until now, I have set up 4 tents in the main flower room, 3 4x8 and 1 4.5x6. 2 tents have 2k and 2 have 2 600s. A flip box runs the tents off 3200w, 2 during the day and 2 at night. a 2k and a 1200 tent during each shift. Each tent is air cooled and exhausted by one fan, leaving one side of one reflector open to pull hot air out of the tent. The exhaust goes right back into the main room and the two doors to the room are left open all the time. The back door has a box fan pushing cool air from the hallway/garage into the room over the ballasts (pics in the next post, damn 5 img/smilie limit)

Running the tents has allowed me to get up and running under duress/with a hectic schedule as soon as I got here. They allowed me to simply leave the doors open, set them up on a flip, and dump the exhaust right into the ambient space of the room itself. Easy peezy. But its also cut a foot or two of height off, and is costing me a decent amount of square footage in the room as well.


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InjectTruth said:

For that reason, up until now, I have set up 4 tents in the main flower room, 3 4x8 and 1 4.5x6. 2 tents have 2k and 2 have 2 600s. A flip box runs the tents off 3200w, 2 during the day and 2 at night. a 2k and a 1200 tent during each shift. Each tent is air cooled and exhausted by one fan, leaving one side of one reflector open to pull hot air out of the tent. The exhaust goes right back into the main room and the two doors to the room are left open all the time. The back door has a box fan pushing cool air from the hallway/garage into the room over the ballasts (pics in the next post, damn 5 img/smilie limit)


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So thats the main flower room.

couple flowers to keep it interesting
A new one im tryin out from a batch of freebies. Northern Lights x Blueberry. This is #1. need to get a better cam.

main basement area/trim room/veg tent


13 x 11 room currently being wasted on soil mixing/storage. you can even see the cement mixer on the edge of the pic lol

that pile of tubs looks like my veg room.

pulling up a seat for this one.


I hope to do something similar in the near future... on a smaller scale of course! gotta get my green thumb back first though..

rock on and your rooms look good
much respect

-ERUS

Got my chair, grabbing a brew, and watching the show.


Best of luck with the upgrading!

Im so used to tents and cabs and closets this whole house projects has me overwhelmed still. Just when I think ive got my mind wrapped around it, another facet pops up. Its got me so frazzled, im thinking about just underlighting the basement rooms to make temps easy to control and stick the remaining lights into the two upstairs bedrooms. I saw in Lapides's thread that his rooms are 7x11 with 2k each, but im guessing that there is some walking/working space in there.

My best idea right now is to split my 18 x 14 room into two 9 x 14 rooms, 3200w per room, 2k and 2 600s each (possibly 4k split). Im really inspired by tona's room, and would love to run a full 8 light 6400w room in that space, but I fear during the dead of winter my lights off temps (day time) would be too low.


It did get me thinking about a 2k flip in 2 14x9 rooms then a tent in bedroom 1 a tent in bedroom 2 on another 2k flip and im still only lookin at 4k runnin 24/7. Could probably keep the doors closed If i gotta sleep in the dining room for the winter to make this happen, so be it.


Busy day today. Here's breakfast...

Thanks for taggin up, fellas! I'll do my best to make it a good show.

Looking good, man. I'll tagalong for the ride!

looks like quite a show starting up

While Im puffin this bean, I'll discuss grow methods for a minute.

As far as cycle goes, Ive been running perpetually, adding 1 light a week, on an 8 week cycle. I was on a roll till the heat wave came and I was unprepared. The damage done is what's prompted this reassessment

For years and years, Ive been doing TLO/Recycled/ROLS, whatever you like to call it, with great success quality wise, stealth wise, price wise, and ease of maintenance wise, but not 100% speed wise or yield wise. It was never a problem with a couple cabs or a couple lights even, but with all this space, the extended veg times, and these huge heavy containers, not too mention wasting a whole room just to prepare and store the stuff, Im really thinkin its time for a change of pace Reading the DTW drip coir thread and seeing the 9oz plants in 1.5gal containers has me dreaming about running my whole show on the same amount of medium that goes in one tent now.

Another limiting factor has been the tents and the subsequent height limitation. Ive been flipping stuff way too soon out of caution and therefore not filling up the tents all the way, cutting into yield further. Also, since the tents are air cooled and exhausted simultaneously, they are not running as cool as they could. 2 of the tents are cheapo ebay jobs that only have 2 exhaust ports, so i have no choice without cutting them open and making another port.

bean's done. time to get to it. back later with more pics

im in bro. sending you good vibes F.A.M.

Batteries died on the shitty cam, forgot to grab some when i just went to the store. Sheeeeeeeeit.

Thanks Phillthy! I need it!

just taggin in to stay updated. following over fromthe orig.
Lookin forward to see how this show lines up.

Here's another little sketch for what im thinkin of doin with the bloom room during the transition to the winter. Heavily inspired by tona's room, except a flip relay will be employed to light the bulbs in a checkerboard pattern. 4 1ks and 4 6s for a total of 3200w on at once. This is a more accurate portrayal of the dimensions of the main 18 x 14 bloom room than in the layout





Lights marked O will be on 2hrs, then the flip will switch it over to the lights marked X, and back again in another 2 hrs, for a total of 6 flips in a 12hr cycle. Depending on how temps are with the 3200, I may switch out the 6s for more 1ks, for a total of 4k on at a time.

Im going to use some plastic sheeting and/or some foam insulation board to create a second door inside the door frames, allowing me to leave the actual doors open. The improvised door will be a foot or so shorter than the actual door way, leaving a rectangle that I will use for the ventilation ports. This is to avoid (or delay at least) cutting holes right into the walls. Planning on 2 6" holes for each door's panel allowing for a separate circuit to air cooling the lights, and for intake/exhaust of the room itself.

I figure if Im already running that wattage 24/7 in the room in tents, with no ventilation into or out of the room outside of the doors being open and the temps are in check, then running that same wattage only 12 hrs will be no sweat with 4, 6 in fans. Especially with all the extra air movement/ air volume/ ceiling height. And its the perfect time really, as the day time temps for the next wont make lights off temps too low.

Just enough time to pull a nice big one to catch up, and then split the room into two to resume the flip schedule and keep the house warm. Phew! Piece by piece I say! I'll figure this out if it kills me!

Some of the last stuff that made it through the heat mostly unscathed. Them Cheese's sure are floppy girls.