JayJammer'z Custom Grow-Room Design Thread

Originally Posted by JayJammer

Good info. my man and I'd agree with every word but we're only working with 3600 Watts Total. ^

600 Watters run pretty cool when vented and i think a portable A/C or window unit would handle it.

You may still want to incorporate some sort of lighting controller. And think about running a dedicated circuit to room just for lights and A/C.

i've run that many lights and a lot more. a 12,000btu portable ain't gonna do the job. not unless he lives in alaska. you are talking about an extremely large amount of radiant heat being produced. just would suck to get a 12,000btu unit and find out it's not enough. 12,000btu window unit "MAYBE" just because they are much more efficient.

if you run that whole room on 120v you're gonna need an electrician for sure. you'll be pulling probably somewhere around 50-60amps off your board. 35 in lighting, 7 for an a/c, maybe 5 for a dehumidifier, and then fans and other stuff. most homes are wired in zones and all of the outlets in that room are probably on a single 15-20amp breaker. i would get an electrician to either wire contactors and relays to a box (DIY light controller) or just have him bring in a subpanel. you are going to need 1 (240v) or 2 (120v) dedicated lines for the lights and then another 15-20amp dedicated outlet besides the existing one in the room.

Originally Posted by JayJammer

If you haven't already started setting up you can have an electrician come in and run a new line to the room for a couple hundred bucks. Just tell them your starting a home business and you need to run a lot of computer equipment, or something like that. You don't need much extra power, maybe just another 15amps. It's actually not too difficult to do yourself if you don't mind some reading. There's a few good tutorials here on Rollitup that will walk you through it.

Other than that you may want to pick up a light controller that you can plug all your ballasts into and control the night/day cycle. I know Sentinel makes a unit that can control your lights, temps, humidity, and CO2 levels all in one.

can u direct me to the right path on those tutoriols?

and yup sentinel is in my arsenal =)

Originally Posted by ScoobyDoobyDoo

i've run that many lights and a lot more. a 12,000btu portable ain't gonna do the job. not unless he lives in alaska. you are talking about an extremely large amount of radiant heat being produced. just would suck to get a 12,000btu unit and find out it's not enough. 12,000btu window unit "MAYBE" just because they are much more efficient.

lol alaska is about 10,000 miles from here haha, i live in southern cali, however due to lobal warmin(and other overnment conspiracies) its beens below average, but i do feel the heat coming everyday.

so ill look into a stronger unit, but even if these lights are air cooled that wont make much of a diffrence??

Originally Posted by ScoobyDoobyDoo

its either 120v or 240v. what kind of ballasts did you get? you can probably just send them back and get the 240v cords. the reason you want to run them 240v is that most light controllers have 240v receptacles. just cause ifyou ran them 120v you would need to pull a lot more amps of the panel which means you would have to run much thicker wire to the controller. like in your situation...3600w wired 240v would only draw about 17amps. you could run 12 gauge wire for that. if they are wired 240v though that's 33amps which mean 8 gauge. just a more efficient and safer way to run them. i would look into it.

yea correction 120v lumark,and i cant send them back i dont think, i got my equipment from a wholesale distriubter, so we buy in bulk, and cant really make another purchase unless its over 10,000.
anywayz i orignial got these thinking they require less energy which would be a plus, now im confused as shit, but either way, i am in the process of hiring a trusted electrition and having him handle it,
even tho im scared of electricity(lol) i do want to read up on wtv yall think i should look into, if its a easy DIY that involves common sense, then im more then down to learn!

Originally Posted by ScoobyDoobyDoo

if you run that whole room on 120v you're gonna need an electrician for sure. you'll be pulling probably somewhere around 50-60amps off your board. 35 in lighting, 7 for an a/c, maybe 5 for a dehumidifier, and then fans and other stuff. most homes are wired in zones and all of the outlets in that room are probably on a single 15-20amp breaker. i would get an electrician to either wire contactors and relays to a box (DIY light controller) or just have him bring in a subpanel. you are going to need 1 (240v) or 2 (120v) dedicated lines for the lights and then another 15-20amp dedicated outlet besides the existing one in the room.

so overall its just better to add a subpanel dedicated to this room? i have other smallprojects thru out my place and i dont want to have to cut production just for this room.

Originally Posted by foreverflyhi

can u direct me to the right path on those tutoriols?

and yup sentinel is in my arsenal =)

honestly i really don't think you need to get an environmental controller. your fans will run on timers or the same light controller and trigger cord since the room will be sealed. the ac and/or dehumidifier will have built in controls. plus it will be much cheaper to buy a controller for your Co2 generator than it would be to buy an environmental controller. plus your a/c will not run on your environmental controller because most of the time it will end up shorting out the controller if you hook a dehumidifier or a/c up to it. the ac needs time to cycle and let the pressure stabilize. the a/c's are designed to habe the compressor cycle on and off while the fan constantly pulls air over the coils. the controller doesn't allow for this and you will have huge condensation issues. plus, the simple fact is that most of those boxes are rated for only 15amps so an a/c and any other equipment will just be too much.

for what you need to have done in that room you need to call an electrician. this isn't changing out a breaker...you need a professional. tell him you are putting in saltwater tanks with a chiller, lights, pumps, etc... let me know when you are ready and i'l tell you exactly what to tell him.

Originally Posted by foreverflyhi

lol alaska is about 10,000 miles from here haha, i live in southern cali, however due to lobal warmin(and other overnment conspiracies) its beens below average, but i do feel the heat coming everyday.

so ill look into a stronger unit, but even if these lights are air cooled that wont make much of a diffrence??

air cooling makes a huge difference. but you are running 6 lights and you will get radiant temps off the hoods and from the other equipment in the room. if you go with a window unit you could probably get away with 12,000btu but i would go with 18,000btu. i just don't think 12k will be enough. especially in the middle of summer.

Originally Posted by foreverflyhi

yea correction 120v lumark,and i cant send them back i dont think, i got my equipment from a wholesale distriubter, so we buy in bulk, and cant really make another purchase unless its over 10,000.
anywayz i orignial got these thinking they require less energy which would be a plus, now im confused as shit, but either way, i am in the process of hiring a trusted electrition and having him handle it,
even tho im scared of electricity(lol) i do want to read up on wtv yall think i should look into, if its a easy DIY that involves common sense, then im more then down to learn!

yea, get an electrician. if you can't simply change out the power cord for a 240v one then you need to have a subpanel brought into that room or at least a hardwired light controller and another 15-20amp outlet.

Originally Posted by foreverflyhi

so overall its just better to add a subpanel dedicated to this room? i have other smallprojects thru out my place and i dont want to have to cut production just for this room.

if your ballasts are gonna stay 120v then you will need about 40amps just for the lights. then you will need power for the a/c, dehumidifier, fans, and other equipment. either a subpanel or 2 seperate lines; one for the controller and one for another 120v outlet.

Okay, here you go. Fantasy medical grow.
Empty 30 by 40 building. Overhead door on one end with a window on walls closest to overhead. Walkin door in middle of left side when looking out of overhead door.
Dedicating rear 16 feet to grow.
Thinking a veg and bloom room on each side 16 x 11.
In the middle back a clone and dry room 8 x 8
Leaving the front 8 x 8 for a control and fertilizer mix room. All the ballasts will be mounted on the control room side. Lumatek air cooled electronic 1000/600/400 switchable
Each grow room would have 3 1000 watt lights on each side. Leaving a 3 foot path in the middle and 4 feet at the end for work space and room for additional equipment or to cram in a 4th light for overkill someday.
Entry door in the middle front I think for each grow room.
The clone room could maybe have a 4 x 4 cloning table under 400 or 600 watts and a 4 x 4 drying cabinet.
The front of the control room could be open with a door in the middle of the clone room front wall.

Control room would have an 8 light control panel on each wall of the grow rooms.
2 twenty gallon mixing tanks with hoses for watering.
Storage shelves or cabinets somewhere in control room.

Thinking to avoid CO2 initially in favour of lots of air circulation.
two 6 inch vortex fans (649 cfm) at front bottom of each room for fresh air from the building and a 12 inch vortex exhaust (1140 cfm) at the top of each grow exhausting towards the control room.
The exhaust fans will both run into a single Airbox 4+ (3500 cfm) carbon box filter hanging from control room ceiling and exhausting into remainder of building.
Probably a 6 or 8 " fan from the clone/dry room into the Airbox.

I like big plants and long veg so 4 plants per light in extra large tubs.

I think that is the basics. Open to comments on what is overkill and what is missing.