Advice. Going away and need to make grow room self-sufficient

Hi All,

I am just brainstorming but...

I want to make a trip for 2-3 days and I need to make my grow room as self-sufficient as possible before I can go; therefore, I need some ideas on heat control and blocking out light. If I can't figure out a way to make it possible I will have to cancel my trip bc I don't want to waste away all the effort I did to get the plants this far.

I am currently doing a DWC indoor grow with 3 girls in a closet. They share a res and I got about 12 cfls. They are not in the healthiest of shape but are growing nonetheless and are budding. Here is a link for my thread (appreciate advice on how to make em healthier) pics of plants and grow area.

So they are on a 12/12 light cycle where the lights turn off at 11:58pm and turn on the next day at 11:58am.

Usual routine:

At night: check ph/ppm- hang a black light blocking curtain on the inside of my closet, close my closet door, and hang two other light blocking curtains outside the door by 11:30pm at night.

Next day-In the afternoon: Remove the two outer curtains, open my door, remove the inner curtain, and check temps.

Due to the lack of ventilation inside the closet, I can't leave the door closed for long during the light-on period or the humidity/temps rises >45% / >84-86 F.

Also I have two other windows in my grow area which I leave open to allow air-flow. I have one curtain on each of them that is made of breathable fabric but blocks off some light.

What I am thinking:

- Leave my closet door open but block off the light from the other two windows by covering them with 1 more curtain each.
- Leave my inline fan in one of the windows but cover around it and cover the front of it with some nylon fabric to block out light (becomes a problem from 6-11:58am as the sun rises. I don't want the light to leak into the room to disrupt the 12 of darkness).
- Have a friend check the ph, temps, and res temps at 11pm for the days I am gone. (Ph has been stable lately and I have only been adjusting it once every two days. The res temp rises if the weather is warmer so I use frozen water bottles to keep it around 68 F.)
- Fill the res with an extra gal or half gal of water to compensate for any water loss.
- Do a fresh res change right before I leave.
- Leave two other fans on so they can circulate air within the room.

Anyone have any better ideas or recommendations? I am on a budget and have access to target, wal-mart, and home-depot.

if you can find an old industrial dishwasher, they mix solutions for each wash, usually with 3-5 tubes to mix cleaners/disinfectants and the sort. scrap yard might have a couple, or a restaurant that is closing/renovating. you can set up a few buckets and timers, then you just have to find the right amounts to feed it. you can use it for nutrients, ph's, backup resevoir if your going to be gone for a while. there are a couple kits and such out there, you can prolly reverse engineer them and simplify it for your own needs. if you have an extra pc tower, you can add video and monitor the direct portions that will be mixed into the res. you can also use the pc tower to control all the fans/ventillation and lighting. then you can control it from your phone/tablet/pc. industrial dishwashers, mixers, and the sort. just use your imagination with the tools available, if the tools you want arent available, make new tools.

you can also pre mix your solutions, put it in a coke bottle, turn the bottle upside down. then suspend it just below the water line ( kind of like a dog's watering dish)

Feeding isn't that big of a concern as I change the res every 4-5 days with a fresh batch of nutes. I will only be gone for 2-3 days max. I have someone that can top-off as needed. I am more worried about the light interrupting the dark cycle.

I was thinking of removing my closet door, getting some panda film or black/white material, velcro to line the door frame and hold the panda film, and one Air King Advantage 50 CFM Ceiling Exhaust Fan and some 4 inch ducting to route it to the window. Also running some 6 inch ducting from my inline fan into a hole in the panda film for fresh air circulation. All in all I am looking at $50 worth of materials but I was hoping not to spend as much.