Urgent attic setup help

[NEWBIE_GROWER]

hey peeps,
Need some advice on my attic setup please. I've been growing in my wardrobe, but got to the stage where they are too big so i need to move em into my private attic. I've been growing in hydro, under 3 x 15w fluorescents & 3 x 60w incandescents. (see attached pics). Thing is, I need to build some kind of enclosure, cause the attic floor is covered with fiberglass insulation and I dont wanna be smokin glass fibers (cough)! The attic is small, 4foot tall at the apex, by 4 foot wide, by 2foot deep. I wanna use a 500w MH, but the heat coming off is serious, and I'm worried about the felt on the roof melting or burnin. I gotz an industrial centifugal fan (seriously high flow rate) to take air from outside into the enclosure. Oh and btw its winter so not very warm up there. Also got a 300w MH, would this be better than the 500w to grow/manage in this small space? So I was thinkin I'd build wooden walls, enclose the whole thing, roof included. I wanna keep the plants small, cos the head room isnt great. Any advice or alternatives would be great.

[Tomthehippie]

humm something to think about man.. winters comming up.. its goint to be mighty cold up there at night?? think bout gettin some kind of heater for ur night cycle.. :)

[NEWBIE_GROWER]

Thanks for the reply dude, Ya think it would still be cold even with a 300w or 500w MH in such a small enclosed space? Its usually like 6degreesCelsius (42F) most of the winter in Ireland, but if it freezes it can get down to -5 max (23F). I'm more worried about cooling the space, with such a small height and such a hot light

[hudson88]

Hey newbie, i'm in the middle of putting a grow into my attic. I thought about builing walls and lining the inside of the roof, but it seemed like a hell of a lot of work, laying the flooring up there was bad enuff, so for now at least i've decided against that. I was looking at getting a grow tent but like you i've not got a lot of headroom, about 5 feet at the apex, and none of the tents i've seen would fit. So what i've done it get a regular grow house from b & q and cover the frame with light proof sheeting. It's saved me a lot of money, £20 for the grow house £5 for the sheeting, and a lot of hard work too. It's just metal poles that slot together. Might be worth thinking about?
Any probs with heat you have will be lessoned if you use the 300w instread of the 500w but your yields will most likely suffer a little. I'm gonna be a chicken and get an envirolite, i know my buds won't be as potent but i've seen some good results with cfls and wanna save my self the hassle of fighting the heat. I know i'm lazy lol
One question i've got for you is how are you getting power up there, did it already have a light and sockets? i'm just running an extension lead up there at the minute, but i need to make sure thats gonna be ok when i hook up my lights and fans.

[c of green]

i just started setting up my attic room and it was a bitch.i had to rip every piece of wood down to 2 foot so i could get it up there very annoying i wish i had the $$$$$ for a tent. i built my shit completely out of found materials(other than the floor which cost me 15 bucks)i'm not so much lazy as cheap as fuck:D anyway here are some pics of my shit.i plan on 2 400 watt hps and about 50 sea of green plants.ordered the seeds a few days ago so should be able to get started soon wooooooooooohoooooooooo!!:thumbsup: there is more done to it now but i dont feel like taking pics so you dont get to see it:Dit is about 4x6x5

[NEWBIE_GROWER]

hey m8, yeah was lookin at similar type thing in da argos catalogue. Just discovered that the light i have is actually a tungsten halogen, which apparently is shit for growing, wastes money and gives out serious heat. I'm kinda lucky cos i have access to building sites with loadsa free materials, including lights. Gonna try getting a HPS for flowering, hopefully no more worries with heat up there once i build the box. My plants are about a foot tall now, if i start to flower now, will i still have enough head room? (4foot).

[NEWBIE_GROWER]

nice setup c of green, wish i had that space!! Do your hps' give out much heat?

[hudson88]

Yeah if you flower now you should have enough room. As a guide, indica's will double and sativa's will treble in height after you start them flowering.

[yabatab]

Do you have central heating and air? I have never grown in an attic
but maybe you could run a duct and a vent into your attic so it can
receive heat in the winter and A/C in the summer.

[c of green]

that is how i plan to do it.i will have two intakes coming from"living quarters" and an exaust out the roof.i planned on cool tubes but i think i might not do that for the winter that way it heats itself and then i will use them in the summer.still not done with it though.soon hopefully.i harvested some of my outdoor so hopefully i will be able to buy what i need soon.

[mistyganjatree]

i asure you you will have all the oposite probs if you do not insulate fully the underside of the roof!, the heat source in the roof would be like a red light for police helicoptors with infra red! the light would proberbly escape around the eaves of the roof, where ventilation is kept to stop dry rot! hot air should if possible be carried away from the roof area and pumped either into a chimney or heating shaft!, the other way to disguise your exhaust heat is by extracting behind an aircon/ heater unit! they naturally give off heat sources and dfont send any alarm signals to police!, insulating the loft is a big job, setting up any grow is a seroius job!, better to take longer, pay more, and stay safe, than to rush forward without proper concideration and get busted for your efforts!!
as for heating up there!, once the loft is light and heat proof, you wont have that problem, and you will be searching for a cool air inlet, to keep everything right!. if you put either a grow tent or cupboard in the loft, it should be fully insulated, so as to avoid a heat signal build up in the loft, and then draw the cool air out of the loft into the cupboard!,, although you should open the lights at night and go look from outside! you may find ya have light leacking from the eaves or from the venting grills in the soffit!
be sensible and stay safe!
i think in the uk, more busts have been made threw poeple growing in the loft than for any other grow set ups.! damn they have infra red heat sensors to find them for christ sake!, which means you got to be plenty smarter than they are!


welcome to the world of endless possibilities,,,,,hydroponics!