need help with my first grow room

Hey guys, I'm gonna be building my first real grow box soon and Ive decide I wanna set it up in a shed in my back yard for various reasons, the problem with this location is that during the summer the temp reaches over 90F and during the winter will drop to around 10F. I was thinking that the best solution would be to put insulation around the outside of the grow box (as it will only be about 3x2x6) which should keep the heat from the lamps in during the winter, and maybe rig a mini fridge up to pump cool air into the box during the summer, what do you guys think? what have other people done to combat this problem as I'm sure im not the first person to have to grow around ambient temperatures.

if you have a wall of your shed facing away from everyone, get an a/c with heater combo and stick it in the wall. wouldnt be hard to camouflage either just put it low and put stuff around it. wait...its your "work" shed. shouldnt be that conspicuous.

the minifidge will most likely over heat the whole area as its only designed to keep that little area inside it cold. learned from personal exp. the fridge was VERY hot after a half hour.

db:smokin:

Hmm I was wondering if the mini fridge would be able to keep up with a larger space, as for putting an AC unit on the shed this is really over kill as the shed is around 15x10x10 and im only looking for a grow space of around 2x3x6, so I would reather find a solution to cool the grow box and leave the remaing space nether cooled or heated. thats where i came up with the fridge (typicly around 6-10 ft3 the box being 30ft3 it would be cool roughly 3-4x the space it was meant to but only to around 80F vs the 50-60F it would typicly be reaching so i was hoping this would work, but i see it over heating and using excessive power being as it would basicly be running a fridge with the door open 24/7

A fridge produces as much heat as cold. Well u can't produce cold really. U draw the heat from the medium (air in this case) ans sweat off that heat (in your case into the same air) so its not doable like this.

Outhouse sheds are never a good idea really as sucurity becomes a serious issue due to possible light leaks, sound and the traffic in and out with water and materials.

If you can make sure all of the above is not a problem you still have to worry about kids or what have you snooping around.

In your case you need a way to get an even temperature in there that stays between prox 20-30 degrees C (68-86F).
The shed will have to be insulated and totally light proof. Insulated both because of temperature and sound as you will have fans running as well. If it is lightproof you will have to activelly ventillate the area to always keep fresh air inside. You dont have a similar area in your home you can box in to become a growbox for your needs?
I normally always advice against setting up in outhouses. But you know your surroundings better than me.

Puffzter

I originally was going to put it in a closet but there are two major issues with that the main one being I don't wanna risk a fire. and the 2nd one being that although I live alone my mom comes to visit and when she dose so do my niece and nephew, all three of which are prone to snoop around inside the house so I would have to lock the closet which that alone would cause suspicion as to what is inside. I choose to go with the shed because 1. if it burns down no loss i don't care. and 2. It is locked preventing anyone access and sense its always been locked this wont draw suspicion. Now back to the grow room, It seems that you guys are thinking that I will use the entire shed as an open grow room, which i don't think would work well at all (light leaking, temp control etc etc) so the plan is to build a small closet size grow room inside the shed sense I only plan to grow 5-10 plants at any given time ranging from seedling to veg. (This is mostly to supply myself and some friends with good buds for cheep not a commercial set up) This also solves the problem of light leaking sense if it did it would only leak into the inside of the shed, and any secondary light leaking should be mild if any at all, and any sound leak would have to go through the small box, the insulation for that box through open space and through a 2nd wall, I don't think the fans required to cool a closet size grow box will produce enough noise to an issue. I did some research online and found some portable AC/Heating units for around $200-$300 thats more expensive that i want to spend but idk what else I could do during the summer to avoid the temps inside of the box from going well over 100F with the lamp (400w HPS). Do you guys think I would need the heat for winter? outside temps will be around 5F but I'm thinking the heat from the 400W bulb in a light tight box combined with the box being insulated should keep the temp in a 60-70F range but I have yet to deal with the heat from on of these lights so I may be over estimating how much heat it will put out but I've assumed a 400W bulb could easily heat a 30 cubic ft box.

So if anyone has experience growing in a hot space id love to know what you have learned from the experience. ATM all I have been able to come up with is maybe cutting vent holes in the shed, mounting fans to them to force a steady flow of fresh air, but the air temp would still be into the 90's so all this dose is provide me with fresh hot 90 degree air before the lamp heats it up, so maybe 110 in the box... :mad:

Also advice on growing inside to avoid suspicion / fire hazard would be wonderful. Sorry if I'm asking a lot of questions but I'm the type of person who dose a ridiculous amount of research and trys to learn more than they will ever need before they start a new project.

Oh yeah and please let me know which you guys would go with and some possible solutions to the problems presented;

1. Inside a closet -

Benefits: Stable temp. Don't have to worry about neighbors (they arnt snoopy anyways) don't have to carry water outside, I can closely monitor the progress of the grow.

Problems: Fire Hazard. Have to worry about adults snooping, and a 5yo and 8yo snooping and running their mouths to all their friends and their friends parents. Smell. (a carbon filter should take care of that). Light leakage. Noise leakage. Cheaper setup

2. Outside Shed -

Benefits: Locked/secured little if any attention is ever given to the sheds existence. No property value. Smell won't be noticed. Light/noise won't be noticed.

Problems: Heat/Cold. Carrying water out (solved by a large plastic bin holding large amounts of water and a timer driven sprinkler only would require occasional re-filling). Extension Cable (can easily by burred an inch bellow the ground to conceal). Possibly needing more power than can practically be delivered via a high quality extension cable or outside outlet (I would say thats doubtful, although running AC would certainly hurt me on this). More expensive setup.

I would go simpler than that... I mean, I had a good closet going for 2 years, and we started them all outside...

Just remember, it's a weed... it'll grow naturally, just give it a chance. :)

i posted in the wrong spot. excuse me


:jointsmile:

when you go into flower your light will be off for 12hrs, your plants will freeze in the winter. Those portable heat/air units can cost a bit to run on the heat side, but you will only be heating a small space so maybe it won't be too bad. I moved my grow from my garage to my basement because of the heat issue.

you dont have to a/c the whole shed. place the a/c in the wall and run a duct (as big as the front of the a/c vent) straight into your insulated box. then you take the thermometer(its right behind the plastic front) and put it in the grow box. should work fine IMO

db:smokin: