Help To Design My Grow Room

1 room veg and mothers with t5s the rest of the room for flower dry your shit in the flowering rooms

https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/6592-get-harvest-every-2-weeks.html

I've been doing SoG perpetually this way ^^^^ for years with very minimal adjustments to the methods Al uses. That's a LOT of space to manage solo. I would focus on getting your mother/clone/veg room operational and growing before you start going Bill Gates on this shit.

Sublime, yeah I've read a lot about Al's harvest and think its a really great idea and I'll definitely be doing a prep grow, but its not completely solo, I'm just the brains of it and the one thats doing the work, they just list to what I ask them to do lol.. But yeah so far I've got that all setup, but I'll be building some tables with resi's and everything for the mothers room and I'm working on getting the first flowering room setup and everything. All of the setups are *kinda* temporary but just until I start building shelves and everything, but I'm still growing throughout this time too..

But also good news! I kinda did more digging and moving of boxes and such, and the back room (on the top of my little paint picutre) It turns out that the room is about 8'(possibly 10')x 20' and after cleaning it up and building some tables, it would be a perfect mother/clone room.. so that makes it possible to a harvest every 2 weeks a definite grow room design and potential. I can just clone the mothers, and when I'm moving them to their rooms throw them on a cart and go to the room and setup them up and everything.. But now its looking more so like I am wanting which is a biweekly harvest and 4 grow rooms to be a perp harvest..

Bsw9090 said:

but does anybody know about how many amps I would need, because the breaker box is right next to the grow and I know how to wire it, but I just don't know how to convert to amps..

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Watts/Volts=Amps.......... 1000Watt lamp/120V= 8.3 Amps, so you would be safe putting 2 1000watt lights on a 20 Amp breaker.

You can stretch your breaker box a little further by wiring up 240V ...e.g. 1000W/240V= 4.16Amp so you could safely run 4 1000watts on a 20 Amp breaker

My advice to you is if ya plan to go big buy all lights wired for 240V, this just makes more effective use of your wiring.

Parannoyed, thanks, exactly what I needed!

I know wiring and thats easy (thanks to when I was military), but you ask me volts/watts/dc/ac and I suck lol.

So say I run my new breakers/wires and everything, I could expect 2 outlets on one breaker for the 4 lights per room.

1 20amp breaker - 4 1kw light
4 kw light - 2 outlets
4 20amp breaker - for just lights for the flowering.

Couldn't I just install larger breakers rather than having to run several 20amp couldn't I just run like 2 50 amp breakers? Also for ventilation and fans and everything, what can I expect to have to use for all of that? How many amps would I be able to have and not have to worry about having anything happen as far as tripping a breaker? I'm sorry for all the questions, I just want to make sure my plants would be okay when I'm all setup and not have to get by with just luckily not tripping the breaker and have the power safe and without fires.

What would you suggest for the veg/mother/clone room for lighting? T5 600 800 1kw MH? Or what? I'll probably have a few different types of strains now that I found a giant mother room lol..

You want to hire someone to put it all together for you and get you going? Lol I'd be all for that. Seriously though I could only dream about having that much space to grow...but if i did I would go 1 room flowering, 1 room veg, 1 room cure and 1 room for cross breeding different strains.

My passion would no doubt be alllllll about the cross breeding and creating my own unique strains from some of our favorites.

Each 240V would have its own outlet, so you need 4 outlets for 4 lights. Kinda like your dryer outlet. You will want to use mechanical hot water heater timers on your lights ($38 @ home depot)

No, you wanna use 20Amp breakers, a 50amp with more wiring going to it would be a fire risk. Ya want the breaker to trip if you have a wiring problem.

Ventilation, Fans, water pump, air pump ya want all on 120V

Veg room use a High Output T5 ya want mostly blue spectrum 6500k with say one red spectrum 2700k per 4 bulb unit. Remember even in the veg room ya need a hoist system for your T5, ya wanna be able to keep it within a foot of your veggies

Haha I wish I had the money to hire someone but I want to learn all the ins and outs to know how to fix something if something happens and be able to troubleshoot very easily, but if I had all the capital up front, I'd buy everything and grow just like one room for right now and then slowly keep adding onto what I'm growing to be able to get accustomed to the routine and become more efficient, but yeah I could tell it was the perfect grow and I was excited when I saw what I got to work with and use for the space and grow.

I'll eventually be cross-breeding as well but I think that we would be using the full house to be growing at that point or just be growing males at another location, and then steal the pollen at those locations and bring it with me and store it at my grow rooms after finished with that pollen and plant. I've also read about using Colloidial Silver, but again this is a while down the road, because if I used the CS I could just take a few clones, and then have the CS create the pollinated leaves and end up having a female plants that grows some sacks and then I would just be able to get complete feminized seeds for a crossbreed plant.

Again I know I'm talking about waters that I probably shouldn't even know but hey I like knowing all the ins and outs before I start something. And I just think having the CS it would be a great possibility to have a good feminized cross bred strain. But I still have that possibility with the rooms I have because I have 1 mother/clone room, 4 flowering rooms, and 1 drying/curing room, and just have the crossbreeds in the mother room in a group by themselves but I definitely can't wait because I'm really excited now that I'm starting to see exactly what I'm going to end up having after a couple harvests and what I can look forward to in the coming months/years.

I really apprechiate all the help and I've given +rep to just about everyone that gave me ideas.

parannoyed said:

Each 240V would have its own outlet, so you need 4 outlets for 4 lights. Kinda like your dryer outlet. You will want to use mechanical hot water heater timers on your lights ($38 @ home depot)

No, you wanna use 20Amp breakers, a 50amp with more wiring going to it would be a fire risk. Ya want the breaker to trip if you have a wiring problem.

Ventilation, Fans, water pump, air pump ya want all on 120V

Veg room use a High Output T5 ya want mostly blue spectrum 6500k with say one red spectrum 2700k per 4 bulb unit. Remember even in the veg room ya need a hoist system for your T5, ya wanna be able to keep it within a foot of your veggies

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Okay, so for the 4 outlets, I wire them all to the one 20 amp.

Okay, now I see what you are saying for the 50 amp and I can see why now.

For Ventilation, fans, pumps should I just break it up over 2 20amp? Because in my ideas (just added up in my head right now) I think is around 55 (give or take). So that would be 60 pumps, 4 inline vortex fans, and 40 oscilating/mounted fans. I'm thinking I would want to at least break it up into 2 breakers if not more.. If you can correct me, please do I apprechiate your help.

you can get started cheap. Get that HO T5 set up, plant some bag seed in generic dirt fertilize with cheap ass 10-10-10 and when flower time comes, change out your bulbs and supplement with some CFLs

I know its not optimal but hey if ya wanna grow its a start and I guarantee with some TLC this set up will get ya smoke

$300 and your in biz

That is a very good attitude to have and honestly it's sort of refreshing after some of the crap I have been reading lately. the more you research and plan it out, the better off you are. I more or less did the exact same thing you are doing before one of my first major grows, and had some very rewarding results

One tool I found especially useful after I figured out how to use it, was google sketchup. It's basically a program that allows you to create a 3d model of anything really, but for our purposes: the grow space. there are plenty of templates to down load and mess with... but for me it really helped put all my ideas down in one place and start putting all the pieces together before I actually have to go out and buy everything. if you have the patience for that sort of thing of course, i would definitely recommend downloading it (it's free) and fiddling around a bit

Bsw9090 said:

Okay, so for the 4 outlets, I wire them all to the one 20 amp.

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correct if your using 240v

Bsw9090 said:

For Ventilation, fans, pumps should I just break it up over 2 20amp? Because in my ideas (just added up in my head right now) I think is around 55 (give or take). So that would be 60 pumps, 4 inline vortex fans, and 40 oscilating/mounted fans. I'm thinking I would want to at least break it up into 2 breakers if not more.. If you can correct me, please do I apprechiate your help.

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Also important use GFI outlets.

Ok 60 pumps sounds extreme. most fans pull 1amp (there is a label on em) so you would need more than 2 breakers just for the fans. ya dont wanna max out your breaker, if its rated for 20amps try to keep it under 18

lets talk about these pumps, what do you have in mind?

Well I do have a setup but just trying to piece together the other sides of the growroom.. Right now I have a DWC setup, but I'm going to be building aeromist totes and using those for the majority of the setups. After a little while, I think that I will end up getting 6 4x4 aeromist setups per room after a little and I could modify it if needed because not all doors are centered so they would be flexible.

But for right now, I'm growing 10 small plants along with 5 other random plants around my house..


Now for the pumps ..

Well I had one specific type of setup which was a 2x4 tote posted by mrgreenman and if I did that setup it would be 12 totes per room 48 per flowering, and give or take 5-8 for mother plants.. Total of around 60 pumps.. I'm really not sure how many I can get in there.

But I would have the pump per unit so if I do the 4x4 theres 6 per room 24 flowering and give or take 28-30 total

Im working on an Aero system myself. Mine is a slow project due to $$ and work. here is a damn near perfect setup skip ahead to post #22 but read the whole thread. Its worth it. https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/116859-harvest-pound-every-three-weeks.html

Oh okay, I had originally liked that method but personally, after looking all over the site, I've come to favor this setup - https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/156863-grow-2-lbs-2-x.html

I think it would be very efficient and its actually fairly cheap and the prices are actually somewhat accurate but its very detailed and it can be efficient after a little while when I'm getting ready to upgrade again to larger trays I'll probably have about 24 setups so 2 full rooms.

But I'll be applying this concept to to the 4x4 trays but doubling the holes to 64 total holes for plants and my local hydro store stocks the trays and lids that I need.. I have a lot of plans and can really visualize everything. But I can try and get some plans like that drawn up.

I've also thought up a new drying method, I've read several different DIYs on Quick Drying, and tere was one that stuck out and I really paid attention to, and I think I could really improve it and be able to dry like 2-3 pounds at a time if not more. Some of the methods I've seen are around 1/2 lbs and I have converted it to a larger scale. Basically building a 6' tall wooden box with a tray every 4-6" and having a few intake fans pulling air out of the box leaving less moisture in the area and just having it become less humid in the box and I could even just drill a couple holes all over the box for a small amount of air to come in to and having the trays on magnetic push buttons to have a nice seal for the box...

But thats completely untested and its just a conversion on a smaller dryer into a large scale but I definitely plan on building it soon!

If you're serious about expanding someday into a semi-commercial sized op, you'll want to install a dedicated sub-panel for your electrical. This way you just use 2 breaker slots in your existing box for the entire grow op. I like to use 50 amp 240V sub panels. This would require a 50 amp dual pole circuit breaker in the existing box, and 6 gauge wiring to the sub panel. I always surface mount EMT for my wiring runs. The actual sub panel box will cost you under $30 plus the cost of the breakers. The 50 amp 240V panel can carry 5-20 amp 120V circuits.

Size the sub panel for your ultimate grow room. Running additional electrical in the middle of a functioning grow op is a major pain in the ass. You're way better off installing the right sized sub panel right off the bat. If 50amps 240V won't cut it, put in 100amps 240V. You'll have to verify wire sizing for 100 amps...I believe 4 gauge will do it fine...but check. 100 amps 240V will be more than big enough for any op that can be safely run in a residence. You could run a dozen lights plus all the other shit.

Be sure to account for several extra breakers and outlets. You'll always end up using more than you calc. I never trust existing electrical. Every grow gets a new sub panel , surface mounted EMT and outlet boxes, and GFI's. I place all outlets at 48" from the floor. I prefer 2 - 4 outlet boxes on every wall. This is in addition to lighting circuits. For lighting, the CAP lighting distro/timer can't be beat. You just hard wire that fucker and you're good to go. I would install a 4 light unit in each room. Use 8 gauge wire for these.

It doesn't cost that much to plan ahead. Your main cost will be the wire itself to feed the main sub-panel. Breakers can be purchased as needed, but the wiring must be sized right to allow for expansion.Existing circuits should only be used for fans and the like. Commercial grows draw alot of power and you want to know that all that power is being fed through nice new shiny gear that won't burn down your house.

I agree with CG to a point. Unless you are confident in electricity, its best to be overly safe. I wired my own stuff and know my shit. I suggest you hire someone if you decide to do a sub panel. I do not think sub panels are needed in a lot of cases. it seems as if you are dedicating a house to the grow, therefore you just use the main panel. No need for the sub if you arent living there. If you need ADDITIONAL power then add sub panels. As long as the main panel has room for the amount of breakers you need, then you don't "need" a sub panel. If you need more breakers than you have room for, install a sub panel.

Agreed that new wire for all your shit is best. Knowledge of electricity and how it all works trumps it all. either learn it or hire someone who has the knowledge.

collective gardener said:

If you're serious about expanding someday into a semi-commercial sized op, you'll want to install a dedicated sub-panel for your electrical. This way you just use 2 breaker slots in your existing box for the entire grow op. I like to use 50 amp 240V sub panels. This would require a 50 amp dual pole circuit breaker in the existing box, and 6 gauge wiring to the sub panel. I always surface mount EMT for my wiring runs. The actual sub panel box will cost you under $30 plus the cost of the breakers. The 50 amp 240V panel can carry 5-20 amp 120V circuits.

Size the sub panel for your ultimate grow room. Running additional electrical in the middle of a functioning grow op is a major pain in the ass. You're way better off installing the right sized sub panel right off the bat. If 50amps 240V won't cut it, put in 100amps 240V. You'll have to verify wire sizing for 100 amps...I believe 4 gauge will do it fine...but check. 100 amps 240V will be more than big enough for any op that can be safely run in a residence. You could run a dozen lights plus all the other shit.

Be sure to account for several extra breakers and outlets. You'll always end up using more than you calc. I never trust existing electrical. Every grow gets a new sub panel , surface mounted EMT and outlet boxes, and GFI's. I place all outlets at 48" from the floor. I prefer 2 - 4 outlet boxes on every wall. This is in addition to lighting circuits. For lighting, the CAP lighting distro/timer can't be beat. You just hard wire that fucker and you're good to go. I would install a 4 light unit in each room. Use 8 gauge wire for these.

It doesn't cost that much to plan ahead. Your main cost will be the wire itself to feed the main sub-panel. Breakers can be purchased as needed, but the wiring must be sized right to allow for expansion.Existing circuits should only be used for fans and the like. Commercial grows draw alot of power and you want to know that all that power is being fed through nice new shiny gear that won't burn down your house.

Click to expand...

I'm definitely planning on having those 4 flowering rooms filled and ending up having a semi-commercial grow. Now for the electricity portion, I there is already a sub-panel downstairs just hidden, but I know where its at now. And theres room for I believe about 7 more breakers in that box, but I could potentially end up creating a would new box and running it and having another subpanel from my main box and place the new sub panel in the dry/cure room, although thats only one room from the sub panel box that is already installed.

I definitely want to have my electricity run for the most part before I am actually growing perpetually, and at the same time I could still have the grow going as I would running new outlets and can just get one room completed and then move everything into that room that was completed while I finish the rest, so whenever I have that grow harvested I will have more to be able to re-invest and keep building it up and having more systems and everything until I feel it is sufficient and a good setup and grow op.

I am also going to be definitely having more power than I probably will even need to think of using. I'd rather have more than enough and then some for the electricity to just make sure that I don't have to have the risk of fires and such..

But I can understand reasons for installing a brand new sub panel and probably will end up installing a new sub panel either way and end up re-wiring all the rooms top to bottom lol. I just want to actually have an itemized list of what I want to have a actual list of what I should have around 3 months down the road, 6 months and 1 yr so to speak but I think I'll probably start gathering prices, and building a spreadsheet of prices of what I think would be a compiled list of what I would need at each "milestone" so to speak..

As for Chasmtz,

It will just be the basement for the first little bit of the grow while my partner will be living upstairs (there are locks on the door to the basement) but after we have money that has been re-invested it will be the whole house dedicated to the grow.


Oh and now some people may say that this is a stupid question but I feel that I would rather ask now to plan on something first.

Now I will be completely re-modeling the walls, ceilings and everything, what should I replace the walls and ceilings with? Walls, not so much worried about it, but I plan on using panda plastic through the whole rooms and putting it over the floor as well as walls and then putting mylar over it about 6" below the base of the plants to the lights highest level.

For the ceiling I'm unclear what I should use, I was thinking drywall as thats in some of the rooms currently, but after all the lights are installed, having 4 1kw hanging from the ceiling, I just want to make sure it wont have the potential to fall or anything like that so I have thought about either using mdf for the ceiling or building a setup and just re-inforcing it and hanging the lights from that, but I'm just saying this as a cautious subject because I don't want a light to fall on the plants or anything..

mount your lights to studs only. use your mylar or panda plastic to cover the studs.

Sheet everything with plywood and paint it white. This makes it possible to mount gear anywhere. Look at ouy grow. That's what we did and it works out great. Fuck that plastic. It's a temorary covering. If you're going long haul, plywood is the only way to go.