4000w Design: will this work?!

[dayLite]

Hey guys it's time for me to nail down my final design for the grow room so I can get to building it! Main concern is plant limits, which will be (12) mature plants at any one time. The plan is to grow 1 plant in each bucket using a recirculating DWC SCROG system. Will be putting three rows of screen in each room, so I can walk down 2 of the rows all the way. Each room will operate at opposite times of the day to even out power usage. Each room has 12 plants and (2) 1000w lights which will be sealed and air cooled. I will bring 220v into the room. Should I also bring in a strand of 110v or can a get some kind of panel that has outlets built into it for both voltages?

Has anyone tried this or something similar? What am I up against? Thanks for any help, this site is great!

Here is my design:

 

[darookie2000]

You might need a chiller in each res if it gets too hot with all those lights, I'd definitely consider venting lights outside (sealed hoods) or an AC. It's going to take a pretty big pump to circulate through that much plumbing. A/B lighting is good with a relay (then you can use half the ballasts). Unless you have a time of usage electrical meter it's not likely to make a difference about having them both on vs even load. I prefer night time because it's cooler and hence cheaper since I don't have to run the AC as much. I'd think about light movers to get more even coverage, they'll prevent hotspots and create a more even canopy.

I like this setup http://www.randmsupply.com/productdisp.php?pid=18&navid=4, my shop has one setup and it seems to work quite well. http://www.genhydro.com/genhydro_US/megafarm.html these look like monsters and they are 1'x1'. I haven't seen these live, so I'm not sure how well they work. I have almost bought a waterfarm the last two times in the shop just because I want to try something new. Maybe next time

 

[dayLite]

darookie2000: thanks for your response! The lights will be vented through the ceiling into the attic after passing through a carbon filter. I've heard both blower and inline fan from others.. haven't decided on that yet. Hadn't considered sharing the ballasts -- will have to look into that! I have been looking at the light rails, but with the lights being air cooled it almost looks more of a PITA than it'd be worth. I was hoping to take care of the even canopy by training the plants with a screen.. will give it more consideration. By the way, each room is fully enclosed and reservoir and controller buckets sit outside of the rooms to keep the water cooler. Ballasts will likely be located outside as well.

The final details I've yet to decide. What I really want to know is if this design will work and I can start construction, or if I should go a different route? I've considered ebb/flow, but I'm not sure I can really maximize yield with that system and smaller plants.

 

[Lazyman]

Yep that is called a flip flop room, or flip for short. Nowirenuts.ca can make you a flip and timer box, email them for a quote.

E&F and Sea of Green (SOG) is the most efficient way to grow, but requires a LOT of plants. I have 8 4X4 tables and I'm not sure 190 plants is enough (!) WAY past your 24, if plant counts are a big concern stick with bushes and 1000W lights, if you toss the counts go for SOG with 600s.

 

[dayLite]

Well actually the plan is only 12 mature at one time! The other room will need to run on it's own schedule (24hrs during veg) so I don't think sharing the ballasts are an option here..? Another way to put it is the 2nd room will be 4-6 weeks behind the other with respect to flowering/harvest times.

Looking at the plans, does anyone think I'll need more room to work the plants & canopy? Would the 2gal. buckets be better?

 

[darookie2000]

http://www.cch2o.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_31&products_id=97 This line of systems is really interesting. I saw one set up at a shop and was trying to figure out what the brand was. The guy at the shop actually told me the wrong thing, so when I tried to research it further, I couldn't find it. It's got 8 gallon buckets and big PVC pipes (I think they are 2") for recirculating. It's a very clean system. The net pots are huge, I'm sure you can get enormous plants in this system.

 

[TheGreenBastard]

Have you decided on a strain?

 

[Doobie Nyce]

2 gallon pots seems too small for the size plants you've planning on. bigger pots=less maintenance

 

[EvilTwin]

Hi daylight,
It seems to me to be somewhat wasteful of space and light to have such a large veg room. Since you're growing from clones, you could probably veg your plants enough just using a 4x4 ebb and flow tray (with plants in pots) and a 600 light. Then transfer to the flower room with hydroton intact.

And where is the cloning going to be done and you'll also want to consider seed starts in case you want to try out some different strains.

I've never done DWC so I can't comment on that. Seems troublesome to me. I lean toward drip irrigation. Smaller res, great aeration and growth somewhere between DWC and E&F...
Peace,
ET

 

[NorCalFor20]

Since you want to keep low plant numbers you need to lower your wattage a bit, with 12 plants you could go with a system like "darookie" said (the under current rdwc) a nice setup for what your trying to do (grow huge plants, keep numbers low) and you can run the 12xl system with 3 1000wers im sure with great results.

Then if you feel the need to run another 1000 make it a MH in an enclosed space or grow tent and keep moms, vegging plants in there...

sounds like your planning to blow air through your carbon filter instead of sucking from it this is generally not reccomended because you will be passing hot air though your filter reducing the effectiveness and longevity of your filter 10 fold... you may find it not to be effective at all operating that way, for that resaon i would suck air instead of blowing hot air though it... activated carbon dosn't like hot air

 

[mrred]

i'd start with cups, then move to gallon then to 5 gallon buckets , youre going have to go with modular scrog or lst for a even canopy

norcal420, wouldnt the air be the same temp if you sucked or blew thru it in another room? how would it get hotter? but i think most are designed for sucking otherwise the prefilter would be on the inside

 

[NorCalFor20]

i'd start with cups, then move to gallon then to 5 gallon buckets , youre going have to go with modular scrog or lst for a even canopy

norcal420, wouldnt the air be the same temp if you sucked or blew thru it in another room? how would it get hotter? but i think most are designed for sucking otherwise the prefilter would be on the inside

air that has cooled 4000w is going to be hotter than air the is 'about' to cool 4000w does that make sense?

 

[JustanotherDave]

^I've been around the block a while and I've never heard that high temps affect carbon negatively. RH(relative humidity) yes...but temps? No.

As a matter of fact...having spoken with a Can Filter bigwig some time ago...if you accidentally pull a bunch of humid air(over65%) thru a carbon filter...drop a 400-1000w bulb into the center of the filter for 12-24hrs to help dry it out.
Humidity kills carbons ability to control odor cuz at a certain RH(above 65-70%)...the carbon prefers to absorb water first.

 

[JustanotherDave]

So you're giving about a 3.5x5' area a 1K?
Nice...intense
Orient the bulbs properly tho...sockets pointing towards the veg/door end of the room.

 

[JustanotherDave]

Almost forgot to comment about the split idea.

I wouldn't worry about readings of spikes in power use. Warrants and shit are for total use per 30day period. At least here.
Splitting up power use is for the USERS benefit when needed...doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the LEO.

IMHO.

 

[mrred]

what kinda intake does a room like this take?

 

[JustanotherDave]

what kinda intake does a room like this take?

Depends.

 

[dayLite]

The reason for splitting the light cycles was for my benefit, mostly temperature. I don't think I mentioned LEO; Not worried about him as my intent is to follow the law. Same reason I can't flower more than 12 at a time Thanks for that link Darookie, that looks like a pretty good setup. I'll have to check it out at a local shop.

thegreenbastard: I have not decided on a strain yet.. will certainly be an indica dominant variety, though. Yield is a large factor for me.

 

[mrred]

better start vegging now, takes a while for your plants to get big enough to fill a room that size

 

[darookie2000]

The reason for splitting the light cycles was for my benefit, mostly temperature. I don't think I mentioned LEO; Not worried about him as my intent is to follow the law. Same reason I can't flower more than 12 at a time Thanks for that link Darookie, that looks like a pretty good setup. I'll have to check it out at a local shop.

thegreenbastard: I have not decided on a strain yet.. will certainly be an indica dominant variety, though. Yield is a large factor for me.

There are some sativa dominants that have good yields too, but they typically take longer to flower (just make sure you let them mature - my buds gained a lot of weight at the end). I have seen multiple pound per plant indoor grow journals of Jack H (it was like a 30 gal bucket per plant DWC with 3600W of light). I'm not sure if every pheno is like that, but the breeders advertise jack as being capable of producing up to 750 g/sq. meter. I have only seen that system at one shop locally, so you might need a special order. I'm going to mention it to my shop next time to see if they can get a display model and test it.