Attic grow pro's and con's

[Paht_Hed]

Man I can't wait... Soon (maybe early 2008) I am going to be moving into my own house with a nice sizable attic in it. I hope to set up some type of false walla and set up a hydroponics grow room up there. I was just wondering, since I have read some things that tell me so, is it bad to grow in an attic? I read that the overwhelming heat can easily make your plants wither and die overnight. I plan on having a beastly exhaust with a carbon filter on it and I was also planning, since there is a closet under the area in the attic that I want to set up, to cut a hole in the roof as the intake so I can get cooler air from the air conditioned room right under my grow room. Hopefully that would keep the heat down. Also I was curious about humidity since I do live in the south. Way way south that is.... GO SAINTS!
Thanks in advance to any posts made here!

Hey hey hey.... Smoke weed every day :jointsmile:

[rhizome]

Attics are cold in the winter and way too hot in the summer- It will be expensive to be cooling air that you're then going to exhaust thru the room. Kinda like having a window open and a fan blowing out while you're running your AC. If you're going to run AC'd air thru, I'd insulate the space and have exhaust return to the part of the house that was climate controlled. I'd also use air-cooled fixtures to dump as much heat as possible, with the intake sucking attic air, and then exhausting to attic air- and you have an attic fan, right?

Really, you'd be better off in the basement. It's really tough to keep an attic space cool, what with heat from the house rising and the sun on the roof all day. Attics are doable, but you need like 3-4 times the cooling capacity.

[PharmaCan]

Next time there's a big hurricane, when you see the guy on his roof trying to ward off the rescue boats, that will Paht Head.

:rambo:

[hybridracers]

Really, you'd be better off in the basement. It's really tough to keep an attic space cool, what with heat from the house rising and the sun on the roof all day. Attics are doable, but you need like 3-4 times the cooling capacity.

unfortunately there are vast portions of the country that dont build basements as part of the housing structure.

Very little of the lowest south have them as well as the far west coast.

[Cannabis476]

Fact: Your going to need at least two air conditioners up there in the summer if you dont inulate properly and it will be very expensive to run!

[Paht_Hed]

Well here is the thing... 1. No bills... parents are building a new house and have a lot of property so they are moving their house to the back side of their lot which is a total of 5.5 acres I think so I won't have to worry about bills and I also plan to insulate the crap outta the area before even thinking about growing. Secondly I don't live in NO, worst hurricane I have ever seen was andrew and that really didn't hit us too hard anyways. Never seen flooding never seen a tree fall on a house anywhere near me. And yeah it sucks that we don't have basements in the south... Really is a good find if you can come across a house with one... I know I would definately move if I could.

[PharmaCan]

Do your parents know that you'll be growing? If they do, why don't you get a shipping container and bury it under the house with a stealth access. You'd have a whole lot fewer environmental worries.

PC :smokin:

[khronik]

It's doable, but your yields will not be as high as if you grew in a cooler space. I've done this successfully though, so here's some tips off the top of my head:

1. Only grow during the cooler part of the year. You can try growing during the summer, but it'll be harder.
2. Have your lights come on at night. You don't need both the sun and your lights heating your attic.
3. Get heat-resistant strains. Mandala Seeds (http://www.mandalaseeds.com) has some good ones.
4. Give your plants more dirt than they need. Letting them develop large root systems can mitigate heat stress.
5. Keep your plants watered. Plants are like people in that they can keep cool by drinking a lot. But if they run out of water, they're screwed.
6. Insulate your attic roof.
7. If you're replacing the roof any time soon, go for lighter-colored shingles.

Good luck!

[khronik]

Do your parents know that you'll be growing? If they do, why don't you get a shipping container and bury it under the house with a stealth access. You'd have a whole lot fewer environmental worries.

PC :smokin:
Heh, I can tell someone's been hitting the bong. :smokin:

[PharmaCan]

Heh, I can tell someone's been hitting the bong. :smokin:

That too. :D However, if you check survivalist websites there are a lot of people who have made basements and bomb shelters from shipping containers.

...I even had a dream one time where I owned a backhoe and I would dig big holes in the ground for friends. ;)

PC :smokin:

[khronik]

That too. :D However, if you check survivalist websites there are a lot of people who have made basements and bomb shelters from shipping containers.

...I even had a dream one time where I owned a backhoe and I would dig big holes in the ground for friends. ;)

PC :smokin:
I just had this mental image of some guy stoned, buying a shipping container, bringing it home, and saying "hmm, this might not fit through the door." then going and getting a shovel. :D (shipping containers are the size of train cars)

Oh, I thought of one more thing for attic growing: don't move your plants in there until they're at least 6-8 inches tall. Seedlings are a lot more vulnerable to stress.

[PharmaCan]

I just had this mental image of some guy stoned, buying a shipping container, bringing it home, and saying "hmm, this might not fit through the door." then going and getting a shovel. :D (shipping containers are the size of train cars)



:S2:

DOH... You must have missed the part where Paht Hed said his parents are going to build a new house so they are moving the existing house to a different location on the property.

PC :stoned:

[Paht_Hed]

I wish my parents were cool with it, thats why I can't do a under the house compartment... I was thinking of going hydroponic though not soil... my current grow I started a few weeks ago is dro. It would be ideal to have 2-3 strains growing in a veg room as mother plants and take some clones from there to a flowering room every few months... maybe even try crossing them if I can get some males separate. It's either the attic or I can try to turn one of the walk-in closets into a grow room using a stealth wall or something. Hell the house is on stilts so I could grow underneath it if it comes down to it... Just dig 3 foot deep 6x6 hole or something underneath... wow I must be stoned... now that I think about it thats hella hard.

[ledgrower]

as i grow in an attic...a 10 feet long...7 feet wide and 7 feet hight..theres a few ways go too...seal off the whole fucking thing....run the lights during the night to heat the place and then pull ac from a bathroom to cool the room if it gets too hot..i had this for more then a few months where the nights got to the 30's//// my 1000 watt heated everything perfectly....secondly...you can setup hydro huts to make this even better..have one fan on 24/7 to cool the lights..run cool tubes..then have the other fans to push air in and out to corect for the changes in heat..you can draw from the houses own ac system..i had it cooling a hydro hut while it was 101 degrees out side and it was 110 in my attic but the hut was a chill 78 degrees...hope that helps...