Advice needed for grow room setup

[matcat]

In the short future I will be setting up a professional grow room, and I have a general idea of what I need, but not sure how much of it I will need.

For cooling and air I plan on using passive intake with carbon filtered exhaust, the room will probably be basement based. I plan on building an isolated room with buffer space in all directions, completely insulated for thermal and noise.

I will run a sub panel for electrical needs, and plan on a fully automated system probably using an all in one unit.

Now this is what I need to know, I plan on capacity for 20 to 30 plants, so...

how much physical room do I need?
how much lighting (how many lights at what wattage)?
How much airflow (CFM) do I need and at what sized ducting?

For the air system I plan on feeding the intake from elsewhere in the house to near ground level near the plants, with carbon filter near ceiling on opposite side, with exhaust fan mounted after the filter, and ducting going from the fan to the buffer area around the grow room, which will be temp controlled to cool off the exhaust.

The attached floor plan image is just a rough draft idea of how I want to setup the room, and is not to scale, but just gives the idea of how I want to setup. If anyone has any ideas or improvements please feel free to let me know :).

[crabbyback]

To determine how many plants you can run, you need to know how and what you are going to grow. Is this going to be a SOG (sea of green)? Or are you going to grow trees? Plant selection plays a part also, some strains won't SOG as well as others.

Here's a link to growroom setup that I found invaluable when I was going through the process.
http://boards.cannabis.com/indoor-growing/132514-noobs-guide-growroom-set-up-work-progress.html#post1634161

From my own experiences with this, in a basement, pay close attention to your ventilation. I wanted "extra" capacity so I wouldn't have to run my exhaust at full setting (noise levels). But, even though I tried to go twice the CFMs that I calculated, I didn't end up with extra. :mad: Damn CFMs get eaten up quickly with filters, ducting bends, long runs. My advice is, if you can afford it, buy the most and best ventilation that you can get. You won't regret it.

Good luck and keep us informed of your progress!

[crabbyback]

I was in my "grow room" and thinking about what I would do differently now that I've been through it.

I don't know what geographical area you are in, but have you thought about when you will grow? All year or certain seasons?

If you are somewhere warm and you plan to grow in warm weather, make sure you compensate with your climate control decisions. Any heat generated can be put to great use in the winter, but excess heat in summer really sucks. :(

If you are somewhere cool and damp, then your issue may be excess humidity which can cause mold and mildew. Ventilation fixes those problems also.

Since you are concerned with noise, you can help yourself out there by using either regular tin ducting for your runs or the insulated flexible kind. The flex ducting that I used works fine but I wish I had gone with the insulated kind. The stuff I use is not lightproof :mad:, and I think its noisy as hell. I'm using just the mylar looking regular flex ducting. I've read the insulated flex is lightproof and quieter.

I would also upgrade my ducting to 8" instead of the 6" that I'm using everywhere. I would also upgrade my 6" (~450cfm) exhaust fans to 8" (~750cfm).

I have fan controllers on all the exhaust fans so I can control how much I want at any time. These are invaluable. Spend the ~$30 ea. You'll need them anyway to do the automation thing.
Can you tell I love to spend other people's money? :jumphappy:

[crabbyback]

Give thought to how you will dispose of plant prunings, stalks, used soil or medium, and water/nute runoff. Obviously, you cannot throw it in the trash.

Plant material:
Be careful composting greenery outside if you have close neighbors. It will smell. You can chop it finely and bury it I suppose. An easier solution is start a worm farm. You can do it easily with commercially available materials for about ~$125 (cheaper if you build it yourself). They don't take much room, they don't smell, they don't take much care, and they do just fine in the basement. Added bonus; you get to use the castings they make if you want.

Soil or medium:
You can choose a reusable medium (has to be cleaned/sterilized between uses) or use new each time. I dispose of all my used medium (soil, perlite, vermiculite) in my own garden. You don't want to rely on your worms for this. Worms can process this, it just takes more worms than you will probably have.

Runoff:
Please be careful here. Try not to pollute any waterways. I dilute any nutrient runoff with plain water and distribute it sparingly to my regular potted plants and beds around the yard. Its not that much anyway and they dig it. :D

Lights:
I worry about all the growers using CFLs. They shouldn't be thrown in the trash but specially recycled. You know that is not happening. Why can't they make them without the harzardous crap in them? :wtf:

[matcat]

Yeah I already planned on insulated duct work. As far as climate goes, I am on the north east, I am not too worried about climate control, I will have everything in place for that, and plan on continuous run, so that is why I have my rough draft design with so much security in it. Neighbors won't be a problem, I am going to buy a piece of property with a few acres, specifically chosen for the privacy of the property. I am still saving up for this project, so I am hoping to start in 6 to 12 months, depends on how long it takes me to save up for the property + have the extra money for the building of the grow room.

I am thinking a SOG setup, my inspiration for my setup is from this video Step by Step Grow Room setup to harvest!! Awesome Video!! (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3522676950230105924). I am going to setup fairly similar to that setup, but I will not exhaust directly outside, that is why I decided to go with a buffer zone around the grow room.

I haven't decided yet on strain, but I am thinking of starting with white widow, I want to stay more on the indica side then the sativa side, but I want enough room available, I will probably start with 20 plants, but I want the room for 30 or so. Still not sure exactly on the CFM required for exhaust or the amount of lights I will need, thanks!