Appeal for help to design a stealthy, efficient and productive grow cab

[Benjigreenthumb]

Hey guys!!
Been lurking for a while now, and reading some awesome threads, while planning for my own return to green thumbed activities…
I’m appealing to your knowledge to help me design an efficient, stealthy grow cab. I’ve done some growing in the past- soil, fluro veg chamber and a couple of 600w to flower in a LST semi sog style: 24 plants in 9”pots , running clones from a White Widow and Grapefruit mother for about 2 years. I loved growing, providing my own smoke, and the extra $ really helped…
Fast forward 10 or so years, and I have permission from my wonderful wife to get ‘on the grow’ again…


Location, location, location!
I own my own home (aka the bank does) and don’t have immediate neighbours, but do have occasional house guests etc so decent smell/noise proofing would be ideal but no landlord house inspections/cop over the hall /parents to worry about.
I have an almost full height basement area under the house as a location to use: its right under the lounge and at the front of the house, so again- noise and smell need to be controlled
Temperatures here are not extreme: average summer temp is 20 degrees c (68f) and winter is about 8 degrees c (46f)
I’m very close to the ocean so higher humidity than you might expect, but a moderated temperature.

The Cab (s)
I have sourced a pair of old cabinets that on their side and joined together might just do the trick: I have reasonable DIY skills, and some standard power tools, and am not afraid of getting stuck in.
Dimensions of the cabs are H: 134.5cm (53”) W: 70cm (27.5”) D: 44.5cm (17.5”) with a void boxed on 3 sides (open back) created by the kick boards of 18cm (7”)- I can either chop this out, or use it to run vent ducting and possibly site my scrubber.

 

[Benjigreenthumb]

Design thinking so far...

Design thinking so far...

The current design thinking
I’d love to be able to fit in a pair of flowering chambers with a 2 site RDWC setup in the bottom of the cab in a Rubbermaid style set up, and steal enough head room for a veg/clone chamber (bonsai mothers will be in order), with a veg chamber above one, and a utility zone and drying area fully vented/filtered in the other side, BUT I’m aware that headroom is probably the biggest limitation of this build.



I’d like to maximise my potential crop, and am aware that with a light that needs lots of space from plant tops, and a decent sized DWC set up plant space is going to be pushed. I’m leaning towards LED lighting in the flowering chamber, but wondering about the (not enough) heat factor with my lowish temperatures. Some LEDs also recommend up to 24” space above plant tips, which is a total no-go with my available space… would I be better with 150-250w HPS?


I’m not looking to grow any crazy leggy sativa ladies, but I’d still like some space for a decent amount of bud… I’ve already acquired some seeds- going to start with Heavy Weight Seeds-Green Ninja: a NL x Afgani hybrid with squat growth and low odour while I get the system, and especially smell proofing dialled in… Then its Master Kush o’clock



In the veg zone I’m thinking I’ll probably going to go the CFL route or plain old fluro tubes, and may supplement with small leds for some blue spectrum action.


Am I missing something really obvious- any experienced cab growers dealt with a similar space before? Suggestions? Hints?
I’m happy to bring you guys along on the build with regular updates and a grow journal when we get to that stage. Look forward to some great ideas - Thanks for your time people!

 

[Levitationofme]

As far as air goes. I did a unusual thing because I want all the space in my chamber for grow space.

I have a 4 inch ducting coming out of my box
Going to a 4 inch fan pulling air out and thru an oversized can filter. Incoming air from bottom back side. Out top backside by light.
My LED recommended 24 inches, but I dont follow that. The plants burn when they get 3 or 4 inches away. I use LED for all stages.
Seedling to harvest.

 

[Benjigreenthumb]

Thanks for the input dude!
Couple of questions: what wattage of LED light you running?
How big is your cab?
soil or hydro?
strains and yields?

 

[ganjourno]

How much are you trying to produce? Just personal or producing for other patients as well?

 

[Benjigreenthumb]

producing for myself and my wife, and a few other friends who need some good medicine.
Ideally I'd like to be harvesting around 8 oz per cycle, from 4 plants.
I'm leaning towards a pair of 250w hps lamps, one in each flowering chamber, and venting lighting heat separately: by isolating behind glass, to cut down on air changes per minute and the need for a massive fan pushing air through a filter (I've been reading the ventilation 101 thread carefully!!)
Each of my flowering chambers has a footprint of just over 3 sq foot (27.5 x 17.5") so 250w gives me around 80w per sq ft which should be plenty.
Its just the fitting of lights, hydro system and plants (even LST'd and Scrogged) plus a veg chamber into a total available height of 53" that is making me pause .

 

[Drop That Sound]

Stealthy, efficient, low ceiling basement... makes me think along the lines of using old free refrigerators and freezer's as cabinets to setup a perpetual grow in. It really wouldn't look that out of place If someone walked down there, as they would just think you store alot of meat... or bodies, and not want to ask haha. What they don't know is your pulling 2 zips off one plant in each fridge like a boss.

 

[Benjigreenthumb]

I hear ya buddy, I was considering the fridge/freezer approach, but they are tricky to source for free here, and I didn't want to pay lots of $ for a working unit I was going to desembowel. I also didn't really want to play roulette with the freon.
I picked up these cabs for 70$ for the pair, and hope they will do the trick.

 

[rykus]

if you own the house take the time to frame in a designated space... it will be way more stealth and not be as detrimental to your home.


weed stinks and growing weed is kinda bad on houses. a small sealed space can be built to porpose to be safer and not damage your place.

 

[ReikoX]

Your dimensions are similar to the cab I designed. This one is a dual 150w CMH cab, I'm doing my first run now. Check it out here, maybe you'll get an idea or two.

 

[Benjigreenthumb]

Cheers for the suggestion dude!
i had already had a really a good look at your thread, it's a crazy cool build, but I'm under strict instructions to keep the plant count under 12. And its WAY outside my build skill levels. Ive been thinking putside the box (pun entirely intended!)... I'm seriously considering a custom middle section with utilities and a decent veg chamber, and using the existing cabs as a pair of flowering chambers with enough headroom for some decent dwc bubble buckets. I think I can squeeze that out of the space under the house, and avoid a heavily compromised build by robbing height and endi g up with squashes plants/heat issues/light burn.

 

[ReikoX]

Good idea, use up that horizonatal space and save yourself some headroom. A Mars Hydro LED has a pretty low profile, that might help with the headroom. As mentioned before, you can save lots of headroom by moving your exhaust outside the cab. 53" should be plenty workable. My main cab is 48" with a LED panel and exhaust inside the cab.

 

[justanotherbozo]

yeah, it's going on 2 years since Anti has been active but i'd bet you would find inspiration in his work.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=207356

...be sure to check out some of his other threads as well, he was a prolific author and a very clever guy.

peace, bozo

 

[Benjigreenthumb]

Thanks ReikoX. Appreciate the input... been checking your journals: cool grows. What do you think of the mars led units?
I've been under the house and think I could add an extra 2' or so on the horizontal, giving me plenty of space between the 2 flowering cabs for a compact veg/clone space.
The biggest compromise will be drying. I guess I'll need to purpose build something with a fan and filter that is separate from the cab, but that seems like a minimal price to pay, and is at least 5 months away...

 

[ReikoX]

yeah, it's going on 2 years since Anti has been active but i'd bet you would find inspiration in his work.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=207356

...be sure to check out some of his other threads as well, he was a prolific author and a very clever guy.

peace, bozo

As for the Mars Hydro, I've never used them myself. I have a pair of Blackstar Chrome 180W. They look exactly like mine, and I have seen a few people use them here. Pretty good price too. That or go the blynx route with the off the shelf LEDS. COBS are great too once you get over the learning curve.