21k watt 3500sq ft grow op cooling idea?

[vangs]

so i just rented 3500sq ft where im going to divide into a mother room, veg room and 7 flower rooms. In my state each patient must have his own room. Forget the veg and mother room, put your focus on the 7 flower rooms. I decided 16.5k btu is enough per room. each room will run 3 1000w under 12 plants. I don't want to install 7 separate mini split a/c, i decided to go with central cooling. between all 7 rooms i landed on 11tons of ac, so say 12ton to be safe.. i was going to have the handlers outside of the rooms and have duct work go into each room but now i came up with the question, Can i Control the temperature of 7 different flower rooms with a central cooling system? I've heard of 1 handler controlling 2 zones with dual zone controllers but not 7. is there any experienced hvac people out there with ideas? FYI. this will be installed by a pro. im not doing the work.

 

[deacon1503]

In that setup I'd say run water cooling. A 10 ton chiller with individual air handlers would be killer and do the job easy. Contact Hydro Innovations, they'll set you up.

Or, run all the rooms as one zone and run a supply and return to each room.

Or, run individual window ac units in each room and duct out their exhaust.

Really depends on the specific layout of the building on what would work best. A healthy budget will also be crucial.

 

[Garden of Dreams]

IMVHO you dont want to skimp on cooling bro, Here's what I would do in YOUR situation. Id get dual zone Mini Split units, Id use 1 unit per 2 rooms, you need 4 units, 3 1/2 units for your flower rooms and the other 1/2 you can rock your veg., Id buy 3.5 ton units. Mitsubishi's, is my suggestion.

 

[Gyreman]

in NW here we're using Climagrow..... climagrow.com. All good people there. We noticed that off the shelf mini-splits with multiple zones share the btu's all at once - so a 36k btu unit might have only 10k btu to each zone and won't work. The pro's have the switches which allow a full 30btu's to one handler, for example, and then the other, and maybe you can find those units on your own otherwise and I just haven't looked hard enough. We will run a 15 ton unit - or two 7.5 - split between two sealed flower rooms in the new grow. Running one 7.5 in winter will reduce our energy cost....and should suffice for 2 seasons here given the sealed ambient cooling setup we have designed....though I as chief of engineering am getting a lot of flak about this right now...lol :-) ....fortunately it's my company and building so it's going to get tried ha ha as long as the hvac guys sign off on it.....and I'm rural/private so we can do whatever we want to the building....

 

[Garden of Dreams]

you run the 2 flower rooms on each 3.5 ton dual head Mini Split on a flip flop brother, this way you get all the btus all day long and each room runs 12/12. 1 from 6am to 6pm the other from 6pm to 6am. Solutions only No Problems.

 

[vangs]

In that setup I'd say run water cooling. A 10 ton chiller with individual air handlers would be killer and do the job easy. Contact Hydro Innovations, they'll set you up.

Or, run all the rooms as one zone and run a supply and return to each room.

Or, run individual window ac units in each room and duct out their exhaust.

Really depends on the specific layout of the building on what would work best. A healthy budget will also be crucial.

budget isnt really an issue. I have about 100k put aside for this... i dont want to go with window a.c if thats the case then ill do a mini split in each room... each room will be 9x22 and the light footprint will be 5x15 and im gunna leave 1 foot between the wall and 4x4 trays on 1 side and 3 ft on the other side so i can walk down the whole room, and on the sides, there will be 3ft bewteen the wall and trays on 1 side and 4 ft between the trays and wall on the other end. theres going to be 6 rooms side by side which will take up 54 feet of 58. then directly across will be another flower room. and to the right of that will be the veg and mother room.. If i run all the rooms as 1 zone, isnt the ac going to turn on and cool all 7 zones. how can i make it so the a.c kicks on and blows the air only in the room that needs it... i dont want the ac to turn on in all 7 rooms if their all at 76f except for one room.

Also, i believe that the hydro innovations 10ton setup will cost more than a 10ton air conditioner, and the space i rented is quoted with eletricity incuded, so the eletrical savings would only be helping the landlord. my rent is set wether i use 21k watts or decide to bump up to 30k watts.

 

[sixstring]

They do make zone controls for conventional a/c systems that run off of a small air pump to open and close the zones.i believe you can get them in bigger sizes up to 8 or 10 zones.i helped put in a 3 zone ssystem last winter, ill ask my hvac buddy what that brand was.i do remember him telling me the controll board was 900.00 and some change.but I do like @Garden of Dreams system of minisplits, and if your budget is there I would def consider that route.gl and hope to see some pics of this setup :)
peace

 

[vangs]

They do make zone controls for conventional a/c systems that run off of a small air pump to open and close the zones.i believe you can get them in bigger sizes up to 8 or 10 zones.i helped put in a 3 zone ssystem last winter, ill ask my hvac buddy what that brand was.i do remember him telling me the controll board was 900.00 and some change.but I do like @Garden of Dreams system of minisplits, and if your budget is there I would def consider that route.gl and hope to see some pics of this setup :)
peace

how can i check out garden of dreams setup? does he have any threads here with it?

 

[sixstring]

Idk if his garden is posted but he does have his own section lol.he is one of the breeders here :)

 

[Garden of Dreams]

budget isnt really an issue. I have about 100k put aside for this... i dont want to go with window a.c if thats the case then ill do a mini split in each room... each room will be 9x22 and the light footprint will be 5x15 and im gunna leave 1 foot between the wall and 4x4 trays on 1 side and 3 ft on the other side so i can walk down the whole room, and on the sides, there will be 3ft bewteen the wall and trays on 1 side and 4 ft between the trays and wall on the other end. theres going to be 6 rooms side by side which will take up 54 feet of 58. then directly across will be another flower room. and to the right of that will be the veg and mother room.. If i run all the rooms as 1 zone, isnt the ac going to turn on and cool all 7 zones. how can i make it so the a.c kicks on and blows the air only in the room that needs it... i dont want the ac to turn on in all 7 rooms if their all at 76f except for one room.

Also, i believe that the hydro innovations 10ton setup will cost more than a 10ton air conditioner, and the space i rented is quoted with eletricity incuded, so the eletrical savings would only be helping the landlord. my rent is set wether i use 21k watts or decide to bump up to 30k watts.

the only way to do that set up is t have the AC running all the time and have sensor activated vents that open and close based on temp, your not gonna wanna go that route, your set ups calling for mini splits if you dont wanna install 7 differnet air handlers, the way I layed it out is your best bet, your gonna hae to run it on a flip flip anyway due to power constrains I would imagine, if you got 7 rooms and 1 is veg then 6 of them are flowing all the time, 3 of them 6am-6pm, 3 of them 6pm to 6am, so your running 3 flowers rooms 24/7, and the veg rooms running 18/6 Forever!!!
So you need enough power to run 3 fower rooms and your veg room plus what ever else you need, 9 x 22 is a odd size, normally you would make that room 14' wide, so you have a 4ft hallway down the middle and 5 ft on each side to handle a row of lights, 14 x 22 is a 10k room. with 1 ton of AC, So 2 rooms is 2 tons, Get the 3 ton units so you got AC on tap. you dont even need air cooled hood with the set up I just gave you. Hope that helps :)

 

[alligator]

Like garden of dreams mentioned, the only way you can adjust the temp in each room is to regulate the flow via adjusting the vents(either manually or automated).
If individually controlled temps is a must, i'd go mini-splits.
Are the lights air cooled? If so...If each room only has 3 k, you could get away with 2 rooms per mini split.

If you're set on using one main unit- you need to take into account the fact that the rooms further away from the main unit will run warmer than the closer rooms. (Another reason i'd lean towards mini-splits).

 

[vangs]

the only way to do that set up is t have the AC running all the time and have sensor activated vents that open and close based on temp, your not gonna wanna go that route, your set ups calling for mini splits if you dont wanna install 7 differnet air handlers, the way I layed it out is your best bet, your gonna hae to run it on a flip flip anyway due to power constrains I would imagine, if you got 7 rooms and 1 is veg then 6 of them are flowing all the time, 3 of them 6am-6pm, 3 of them 6pm to 6am, so your running 3 flowers rooms 24/7, and the veg rooms running 18/6 Forever!!!
So you need enough power to run 3 fower rooms and your veg room plus what ever else you need, 9 x 22 is a odd size, normally you would make that room 14' wide, so you have a 4ft hallway down the middle and 5 ft on each side to handle a row of lights, 14 x 22 is a 10k room. with 1 ton of AC, So 2 rooms is 2 tons, Get the 3 ton units so you got AC on tap. you dont even need air cooled hood with the set up I just gave you. Hope that helps :)

the buiding has 250amps and im running 240v so 7 rooms running the same time is about 108amps. then about 50amps for the veg. thats about 158. then i figured in 50amps for cooling so 208 and then about 40 amps for missc. and i can add a 50amp subpanel if needed, the eletrcian actually recommended that for the a.c i never even considered doing flips cuz of eletric usage. do you still think illl need to do a flip.

 

[vangs]

the buiding has 250amps and im running 240v so 7 rooms running the same time is about 108amps. then about 50amps for the veg. thats about 158. then i figured in 50amps for cooling so 208 and then about 40 amps for missc. and i can add a 50amp subpanel if needed, the eletrcian actually recommended that for the a.c i never even considered doing flips cuz of eletric usage. do you still think illl need to do a flip.

by 108 amps for the 7 rooms im talking about just the eletricity. 21 ballast. then about 10ballast for veg

 

[Billyboat]

You said electrical is included? Your landlord is paying your e bill? That isn't going to raise a flag with said landlord?

That ebill alone is going to be 3k

 

[Gyreman]

I'm with Billyboat.... my years in business tell me as well that your e bill is going to get sticky.... imho, check with an attorney on that... the letter of the lease may or may not hold sway....and even if it does, you could really be messing up your landlord. Mainly though, you don't want to invest 100k here and find out later you have a problem.... law is rarely intuitive or obvious.... Way cool if your landlord signed off up front on your operation though....

if you have to have 7 flower rooms, consider splitting out to two large rooms, one subbed into 3 rooms and one subbed into 4. Seal and insulate the 2 large divisions from each other. Then use chain link fence to divide up each large room into smaller. Floor to cieling, wall to wall, put a gate and a lock on each one. The definition of a room is: a portion of space within a building or other structure, separated by walls or partitions from other parts. It says nothing about not being able to see through the walls. Keep the girls happy and utilize the lights from both sides of the fence. Make ample use of fans. Now you have only two flower room climate zones to manage.

if you need heat in the "night" room consider putting two 6" fans in your divider wall so in winter you can pump heat from the "day" room over.... put a hepa on them if you're worried about cross room contamination....

 

[Garden of Dreams]

I was building a production facilty, 3 lite rooms are pers grows, Shoot you got 50 ways you can go, but Billyboat speak from experience!!

 

[vangs]

i think

Like garden of dreams mentioned, the only way you can adjust the temp in each room is to regulate the flow via adjusting the vents(either manually or automated).
If individually controlled temps is a must, i'd go mini-splits.
Are the lights air cooled? If so...If each room only has 3 k, you could get away with 2 rooms per mini split.

If you're set on using one main unit- you need to take into account the fact that the rooms further away from the main unit will run warmer than the closer rooms. (Another reason i'd lean towards mini-splits).

was gunna gunna go with 5 ton ac for 4 rooms. one handler on each end outside the rooms... but i guess its gunna have to be mini splits..

 

[vangs]

I'm with Billyboat.... my years in business tell me as well that your e bill is going to get sticky.... imho, check with an attorney on that... the letter of the lease may or may not hold sway....and even if it does, you could really be messing up your landlord. Mainly though, you don't want to invest 100k here and find out later you have a problem.... law is rarely intuitive or obvious.... Way cool if your landlord signed off up front on your operation though....

if you have to have 7 flower rooms, consider splitting out to two large rooms, one subbed into 3 rooms and one subbed into 4. Seal and insulate the 2 large divisions from each other. Then use chain link fence to divide up each large room into smaller. Floor to cieling, wall to wall, put a gate and a lock on each one. The definition of a room is: a portion of space within a building or other structure, separated by walls or partitions from other parts. It says nothing about not being able to see through the walls. Keep the girls happy and utilize the lights from both sides of the fence. Make ample use of fans. Now you have only two flower room climate zones to manage.

if you need heat in the "night" room consider putting two 6" fans in your divider wall so in winter you can pump heat from the "day" room over.... put a hepa on them if you're worried about cross room contamination....

my land lord knows.. the landlord has a 200,000sq ft warhouse that he rents out space to medical marijuana growers. He must have shown me 4 other grow rooms while i was getting the tour. Also when we were deciding rent price. i asked him to give me a number and he said 8k a month, and i freaked out and then he said its eletricity included. we settled at 7k a month.. and i asked them what if i decide to throw in an extra 10k watts and they said its ok.

 

[Billyboat]

Sounds like a great way to get your grow contaminated or infested with bugs or pm. I'd run far away if it were me.

Is everyone's electrical up to code?

What happens of a neighbor floods a res and it floods your unit?

 

[vangs]

I'm with Billyboat.... my years in business tell me as well that your e bill is going to get sticky.... imho, check with an attorney on that... the letter of the lease may or may not hold sway....and even if it does, you could really be messing up your landlord. Mainly though, you don't want to invest 100k here and find out later you have a problem.... law is rarely intuitive or obvious.... Way cool if your landlord signed off up front on your operation though....

if you have to have 7 flower rooms, consider splitting out to two large rooms, one subbed into 3 rooms and one subbed into 4. Seal and insulate the 2 large divisions from each other. Then use chain link fence to divide up each large room into smaller. Floor to cieling, wall to wall, put a gate and a lock on each one. The definition of a room is: a portion of space within a building or other structure, separated by walls or partitions from other parts. It says nothing about not being able to see through the walls. Keep the girls happy and utilize the lights from both sides of the fence. Make ample use of fans. Now you have only two flower room climate zones to manage.

if you need heat in the "night" room consider putting two 6" fans in your divider wall so in winter you can pump heat from the "day" room over.... put a hepa on them if you're worried about cross room contamination....

do you have a link to where i can get chain link fence? Have you tried that yourself? im having trouble visializing it.