My First Grow Room

Sneaky6 · Sep 13, 2013

I am stoked to have my first pepper grow room complete. I am going to give the CFL a try as I am limited on options. Heat is a big issue so I am not going with HID at the moment. Depending on how this goes I may have to make a switch though and try to modify the door setup for some ventilation (Apartment living sucks!!!) So I tried to pull as many lumens as I could and utilize power strip lights to get side penetration for the undergrowth.

4.5sqft grow space with more than enough height adjustment via shelf shuffling or the adjustable chains
1x 200W 6400K CFL putting out 17,600 lumens - Maxlume BLB-019(That thing is a BEAST!!)
6x 75W 2700K CFLs at 1600 lumens a piece
Total lumens of 27,200 which equates to 6044 lumens per sqft
Power strip light will mostly be used once plants are bigger and placed on the sides to help with light penetration (I have 3 more power strips and bulbs if I need them in 2700k and 6500k)
Heat pad for the seedlings
Small fan for air circulation (Not in pictures)
I still need to buy a timer for the lights and will mount that on the rack

Questions:

With this type of thermometer do I place the control unit outside the room for the "Out" temperature and the little sensor in the grow room for "In"? Sounds like a stupid question but I have never used one with dual sensors like this and instructions were not in the box.
Do you think there is an issue with the platforms being wood? I planned on covering them with a heavy plastic.The weight load is very high (400lbs)
For germination if I line them with plastic or leave it on the wood will the heating pad cause any melting or fire hazards?

And here it is!

Jeff H · Sep 13, 2013

Looks good.

What are you planning on growing in there?

Only issue I see at all is that some plants can get decent sized in 3-4 months, You have plenty of room for 100 or more seedlings, but if you start 100, you will run out of room after a couple of months.

willard3 · Sep 13, 2013

Sneaky6 said:
. I am going to give the CFL a try as I am limited on options. Heat is a big issue so I am not going with HID at the moment.

Try not to perpetuate things about light source that are not correct.:

CFL will make more waste heat than HID because they are less efficient
Don't confuse temperature with heat, they are not the same.....heat is btu/hr, temperature is degrees F

rebelgrower3 · Sep 13, 2013

With the dual thermometer the in side is your main unit and the out is the remote sensor. A germination heating pad doesn't get hot enough to cause any fire hazard so no worries there. Like willard3 said with all those cfl bulbs you would be better off with a hid light you would have more efficient light with around the same heat if not less. You could go with a 250 watt hid and have only the one light.
The only issue with the shelves is if they get wet.Those are partical board and when it gets wet it swells and crumbles. If it were me I would cover them with something like shelf covering for cabinets.

theliveculture · Sep 13, 2013

OP,

Nice start on an indoor setup. Good equipment goes a long way in this lifestyle!

That thermometer / hygrometer is a decent little unit that I run also!

The "IN" meter usually reads the temperature of your hydroponic reservoir and the "OUT" is reading your ambient temperature. An efficient garden in an indoor environment will generally be 65-72 degrees fahrenheit inside your reservoirs, while maintaining a 72+ temp in ambient.

Your ambient temperature can exceed 85+ but you really should consider using a blower to remove heat or add co2 injection. Both is better of course

Here are a few ideas to incorporate:

1. Use mylar to add reflective material to all sides of your make shift grow chamber.

2. Light ratchets that allow you to lower and lift your lights easily.

If your feeling like a good read, check out some theory on the inverse square law of lighting.

cheers!

rebelgrower3 · Sep 13, 2013

The in temp is the main unit the out is the remote wire.

theliveculture · Sep 13, 2013

The in temp is the main unit the out is the remote wire.

just went down in to the basement to look in my tent. I use this exact same meter.

for the unit that OP is using, "IN" corresponds to "inside the reservoir" aka. The water proof probe.

rebelgrower3 · Sep 13, 2013

Oh I thought it was just a temp unit didn't know it could be used in the rez also my bad.

theliveculture · Sep 13, 2013

Oh I thought it was just a temp unit didn't know it could be used in the rez also my bad.

All good man!

Sneaky6 · Sep 14, 2013

Jeff H said:
Looks good.

What are you planning on growing in there?

Only issue I see at all is that some plants can get decent sized in 3-4 months, You have plenty of room for 100 or more seedlings, but if you start 100, you will run out of room after a couple of months.

I will be growing a Carolina Reaper, Fatali, Choc Hab, Numex trinidad scorp, and Numex Suave Orange

My plan is to LST them to maximize the space and then once they get too big they will go down on the ground with probably an HPS.

willard3 said:
Try not to perpetuate things about light source that are not correct.:

CFL will make more waste heat than HID because they are less efficient
Don't confuse temperature with heat, they are not the same.....heat is btu/hr, temperature is degrees F

This is good info coming. Keep it up! From what I gathered my temperature would skyrocket since I do not have a way to vent the room. Good to thuroughly understand the difference between heat and temp.

I am going to be running the light for the next few days to monitor the temp and see where it peaks.

rebelgrower3 said:
With the dual thermometer the in side is your main unit and the out is the remote sensor. A germination heating pad doesn't get hot enough to cause any fire hazard so no worries there. Like willard3 said with all those cfl bulbs you would be better off with a hid light you would have more efficient light with around the same heat if not less. You could go with a 250 watt hid and have only the one light.
The only issue with the shelves is if they get wet.Those are partical board and when it gets wet it swells and crumbles. If it were me I would cover them with something like shelf covering for cabinets.

Yeah I figured I was going to need to cover them, I just wasn't sure about the heating mat on plastic. In my previous non pepper growing experience we always used clones and no heat mats so I wasn't sure how hot it gets. Really don't want to be the guy who burnt down my apt complex lol.

I am going to use the same blk/wht material on the bottom as I am on the sides.

theliveculture said:
OP,

Nice start on an indoor setup. Good equipment goes a long way in this lifestyle!

That thermometer / hygrometer is a decent little unit that I run also!

The "IN" meter usually reads the temperature of your hydroponic reservoir and the "OUT" is reading your ambient temperature. An efficient garden in an indoor environment will generally be 65-72 degrees fahrenheit inside your reservoirs, while maintaining a 72+ temp in ambient.

Your ambient temperature can exceed 85+ but you really should consider using a blower to remove heat or add co2 injection. Both is better of course

Here are a few ideas to incorporate:

1. Use mylar to add reflective material to all sides of your make shift grow chamber.

2. Light ratchets that allow you to lower and lift your lights easily.

If your feeling like a good read, check out some theory on the inverse square law of lighting.

cheers!

I'm not a fan of mylar. I have some blk/wht foil or what ever it is called. Again from my understanding white will reflect more light without creating hot spots. I will be putting that up once the seedlings pop up.

Rather than spend the money on ratchets I bought flat chain ($1.45) and am using some heavy duty picture frame hooks that fit right into the notches of my rack. Makes it super easy to adjust the height as well as where the main light is centered. That and it only cost me $1.45 since I had all the other stuff.

As far as Inverse law of lighting, I remember discussions of this in College and we had to do some experiments using cameras and different distances/sensor settings. Was a pretty cool little experiment.