There are a few aspects
to consider when deciding on how to set up your grow room. Ventilation,
Odor Control, Temperature, Water Supply and Electricity would be some to
consider.
You will need to refresh the air in your grow room constantly with
either an inlet fan or a output fan. Sometimes depending on your grow
space you may need a fan blowing in and a fan blowing out to provide
enough fresh air. For smaller spaces, say a 3'x3' or 4'x4' grow tent a
smaller size 4in inline blower will work perfectly to suck used air out and
also draw fresh air in through passive air intakes. This will work fine
when using up to a 600 Watt Light. If you are going to use a 1000 Watt
Grow Light you would want to use at least a 6in inline blower for your
exhaust fan.
Depending on the plants you are going to grow you might need to have a
odor control system in place for your grow room. An activated carbon
filter generally will cover any odor control issues you may have. Just
match the size of your carbon filter to the size of your fan by flange
size and cfm. Say a 6in fan with a 6in blower. You can connect your fan
directly to your blower or you can use a length of flexible ducting to
allow you to place your filter remotely from your fan, say inside your
grow tent with the blower outside or on top of the grow tent.
Temperature in your indoor garden should run about 75F. This is a very
general guideline for a lot of plants. Depending on the equipment, grow
light ballasts, fans, controllers, etc. that you have running
temperature may be an issue. Fixing it may be as simple as using a 6in or 8in
inline fan instead of a 4 fan or moving your ballast to another
room. You may need to use supplemental air conditioning to keep your
grow room temperature within tolerable levels.
It's definitely handy to have a water supply close to your indoor
garden. Lugging buckets of water through the house is a pain in the
butt. Maybe you can splice off your washing machine cold water spigot or
have a half bath or whatever. Even for a smaller size indoor garden you
will be using more water than you want to carry around. Water quality is
very important to your plants health in your indoor grow room. Water
quality varies greatly region to region and rural to urban. Some well
water will straight up kill your plants and some will make them grow
like jack's beanstalk. When in doubt just get a reverse osmosis system
and you will know what your plants are getting.
You will need to assess your electrical usage on the electrical
circuit your are going to use for your indoor garden. If you have a 150
Watt high pressure sodium grow light with 2 plants and a 4in fan you
don't need to bother. But you can't just plug a 1000 Watt Light system
plus blower, fans, hydroponics systems and other grow room equipment
into the same circuit that's running your space heater. If you can use a
dedicated 20amp circuit for your garden. This will easily power a 1000
watt grow room with accessories. Remember to never use more than 80% of
the rated circuit. If you're not sure, consult an electrician. The last
thing you want to come home to is a fire in your grow room.
Happy Growing!
About the Author: Jason Cullen is a long time gardener and owns www.rvfgardensupply.com a complete indoor growing and hydroponics store.
