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8' X 20' Storage Container Grow....
- Thread starter GET MO
- Start date
squarepush3r
Member
were you going to run air cooled lights vented to the outside? or run an AC to the interior?
Hydrolized
Member
Ive designed and built a 20HC, a 40HC, and a 53HC. The 20 was 10kw air cooled with a mini split, DWC.....the 40 was a 10kw sealed room with a 5 ton AC, and the 53 was/is a 20kw 99 site DWC setup with 2 mini split's and 12" FKD fans for air cooling the lights and uses a 200A marine shore power power connector with 2/0 Type W cable to power it, pulls around 145 amps when everything is running.
They are neat.
They are neat.
squarepush3r
Member
hi Hydrolized
I am interested in how you manage the light cooling with the 20 light room?
Do you like all 20 in a chain and air cool reflectors? or Do you split them into like 4 chains of 5? love to hear more! thanks
Hydrolized
Member
Well there are 2 rows of 10 lights. The setup I left it with (I don't own any of these, built for other people) was 3 reflectors-fan-4 reflectors-fan-3 reflectors. So two 12" fans for a bank of 10 lights. Keep in mind, the fans I used are moving about 1800 CFM, not your average fans. This is just to air cool the lights and reduce the load on the AC's...there are two 3 ton mini split units with 4 indoor units each, 4 on each opposing wall of the container. On start up it was found that only one was needed to keep things at 78F, so the other was to remain as a redundant backup.
All of this is going to change depending on your local climate, obviously.
squarepush3r
Member
hi Hydrolized
Those are some serious fans! I looked some of em up
http://www.hvacquick.com/products/r...ns/Fantech-FKD-Series-Inline-Centrifugal-Fans
$600 a pop! Those sure are top end equipments! nice setup you seem like a real pro, looking for work in southern california?
hi Hydrolized
Those are some serious fans! I looked some of em up
http://www.hvacquick.com/products/r...ns/Fantech-FKD-Series-Inline-Centrifugal-Fans
$600 a pop! Those sure are top end equipments! nice setup you seem like a real pro, looking for work in southern california?
those fans are actually really loud and they tend to burn out of you put them on a rheostat that's not wired directly to the unit. The vortex 12" XL is way quieter and pushes a little more air....
RidgeRebel
Member
i know of 3 people using these. seems to work well for them. id get something bigger than 20' tho.
Hydrolized
Member
They are loud...but the reflectors all have insulation blankets on them ("sun shields") as well as the hard 8" ducting having R6 insulation over it, and the whole container being enclosed in r13, the noise is a lot less than I thought it would be. I've never used a controller with them, always been on full power. I'm sure the Vortex are nice too.
The system I installed into that container had so much equipment running including a 3hp water pump that I actually didn't hear the light cooling fans at all over the indoor AC units, water pump, agitating water from the O2 cone etc. Something to consider if your in a less than friendly MMJ area though, good call.
I have a friend who's thinking about getting a couple 20'ERS. It seemed cheaper and easier than building a room and its rather secure. He can get 20' delivered for about 2300-2500.
3 gavitas in a 20' seems pretty good. Gives you some room to walk around the plants.
3 gavitas in a 20' seems pretty good. Gives you some room to walk around the plants.
how do you plan to manage condensation and insulation?
hot wet air plus outdoor air temps below the dew point= wet walls. just keep that in mind.
fear not however... thousands of folks build strange esoteric homes from these units... so all the work is done regarding retrofit insulation, air sealing,fenestrations, flashing, flooring, hvac etc.
hot wet air plus outdoor air temps below the dew point= wet walls. just keep that in mind.
fear not however... thousands of folks build strange esoteric homes from these units... so all the work is done regarding retrofit insulation, air sealing,fenestrations, flashing, flooring, hvac etc.
I'm nearly done with building out my 20'. back 15' will house 3 1kw gavitas, front 5' will be a 4x5 auxillary/walkway w/ a 4x5 veg room built above a low pro rez. 2 ton mini split. sealed. just waiting on a little more fundage to get it done.
I'm using twist lock rv connectors and a 100ft 6/3 extension cord to feed the subpanel inside of the container.
built a wall w/ a door immediately behind the steel doors so I can close the door behind myself.
Thats wuts up. My folks just got a 40 footer, been trying to convince um to use half of it for a grow n go in on it. 3 gavitas for 15 sounds perfect, i was thinking something similar, flower in the back with a 5' light proof veg room in the front per 20'. so for a 40 that would be 6 thowows in 30 feet with 10' veg with 2 1000 mh for the perpetual.
Big learning curve running a grow in a sealed container the usual scenario is "my plants look beautiful when I first put them into the container then in about 3 weeks they go to shit"
What happens is the sea can is so well sealed that the paint and sealer that was used in the construction of the can starts off gassing various chemicals some of which are toxic to plant in PPT (parts per trillion) and this just fucks plants up.
The poor grower goes through the whole gamut of possible causes of the problem and after much frustration just gives up.
It gets worse if the grower decides to use a burner for CO2 as the combustion uses up all the oxygen in the can.
Sometimes using a carbon scrubber in the can help...a little
It has been my experience that the only way to make a container grow work right is to have vigorous active ventilation with 2 minutes or less air changes.
To summarize, shipping containers can make good grow spaces as long as they are well vented if you dont plan on venting be ready for some interesting times
What happens is the sea can is so well sealed that the paint and sealer that was used in the construction of the can starts off gassing various chemicals some of which are toxic to plant in PPT (parts per trillion) and this just fucks plants up.
The poor grower goes through the whole gamut of possible causes of the problem and after much frustration just gives up.
It gets worse if the grower decides to use a burner for CO2 as the combustion uses up all the oxygen in the can.
Sometimes using a carbon scrubber in the can help...a little
It has been my experience that the only way to make a container grow work right is to have vigorous active ventilation with 2 minutes or less air changes.
To summarize, shipping containers can make good grow spaces as long as they are well vented if you dont plan on venting be ready for some interesting times
