Need help with my new basement flowering chamber

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ChebbyFlowers

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Hello Farmers, Thanks for looking.

I used to grow exclusively in a very small cabinet I made years ago. It is pretty much 2x4 feet with about 7ft of head room. Ventilated with a small inline fan cooling a 400w HPS fixture. I only wanted to outline this to let everyone know what I AM familiar with. Lol. I am not familiar with larger setups, or higher wattage lights, which brings me to the focus of this query....my lights.

I am in the process of completing a new flowering chamber that has been converted from my root cellar. It stays dry and the ambient temp is pretty much the same as the rest of my basement and current grow space. Really it is just a concrete room in the corner of my basement. It does get a bit warmer or cooler than the rest of the basement simply because the ceiling is my front porch slab/floor. Right now in July heat it is about 75°F and 55-60% RH. Mind you this is in its stagnant state with no circulation. Only the door left open.

The room is 9X5.5 feet with 7ft headroom. My plan was to space 3x 600w air cooled HPS hoods equidistant from each other with 16" from the wall on either side. I can draw a diagram later if anyone feels it necessary.

I already have purchased all the lights and mounted them, so please don't suggest I use LED instead or anything like that. It's not that I am opposed to that, but I already spent the coin and did the work. Hindsight is 20/20. I am old school, I like old school tech, and the shit was cheap. I am aware that LED may have been a better choice but among the listed reasons above I also am totally unfamiliar with LED lighting.

I plan to cool these units totally inline with each other using a CanFan Max 8" H.O fan. It pushes 930cfm at max setting but even on low moves a ton of air. I plan to exhaust this either outside as there is a vent to outdoor right there in the room, but also am toying with blowing it out to the other side of my basement. During the hot season the air in that side of the room is about 65 degrees and even cooler in the winter. I don't mind blowing it outside in the summer, but in the winter I am afraid it will cause ice issues on my porch and make a ton of unwanted noise in general.

So anyway after all the details here I am now wondering, nervously I might add, if anyone thinks this is way too much heat/light/wattage for this small a room? I tend to go overboard with things and jump in before thinking it out entirely. I really thought initially that this would all be totally appropriate but am now just concerned about all the heat. What do y'all think? Any advice or input is greatly appreciated! Thanks again for reading.

TLDR: is 3x 600w HPS going to be too hot for a 9x5.5 foot room?
 
Need help with my new basement flowering chamber
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Bdubs

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This is all down to light distance and intensity. Right. So your DLI is going to matter. Consider how much veg light you’ll give and you may want to consider a 16/8 vs a 18/6 so you can reduce that DLI a tad. If you want old school you know that there are two types of lights to use in the different stages. You have the HPS with is great for flower. But you also want to use Metal Halide for Veg. Hold out your HPS for flower my dude. You need more equipment, MH for veg! Then you are fucking king with that shit. Use CO2 with that shit as well! Light limit is going to be a big thing for you because you will be pushing temps and intensity with those lights. Aggressive nutrient schedule, CO2, 84 peak temps lights on in flower, good air circulation, night time air exchange. This will give you primo with that setup. The space is small, just keep those temps no higher than 85 at the colas. Leaf temps are to focus because it will tell you if she is going to burn before she does. Leaf temps should be no higher than 88 maximum in flower with proper airflow and humidity, but that’s ultimate max, 80is great, 85 is high 88 is bring that shit down(raise the lights) can’t? Better start breaking necks or bending shit to the leafs level that are in leaf temp range. Shorter veg so that light burn doesn’t become a problem. Use a screen or net to keep the plant low to guarantee light distance is proper. You can always lower light but you can’t raise it. So keep that shit low and HST like Manifold or quick topping. Flip to flower when canopy is lower rather than taller. Allow at least 50% growth for stretch, where HPS won’t be too close to scorch your plant. Alternatively, during flower flip, if you suspect she will grow too tall, you can perform mild defoliation and pruning to stunt her during the 1-3 flowering phase. But you may suffer yields to do such a thing. But if it keeps them from cooking and herming…

Blazzzed 🫠 cherry pick out of what just said. But I think I am correct on some of that, with some personal opinion crap.
 
RootFarmer

RootFarmer

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Idk 3 600w in a 9x5.5 seems like way too much even with ducted lights. Keep the left and right hoods, turn 90° and place them where the connecting ducts are now. Right now you have the wide spread oriented to the shorter side of your space and the narrow spread oriented toward the wider side. You see what I mean?

You might get better utilization of light that way and keep your temps down. It looks like a low-ish ceiling.

Just something to consider.
 
Natep

Natep

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I think you will need an ac. With that much light plus the rh is already at 55-60. When those lights get going they are going to bring the humidity up. I would run a acinfinity 69 pro plus with 8 port. 1 8” fan venting the lights and another 8” venting the space if it get to hot mini spit 2 16” fans.
 
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ChebbyFlowers

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Idk 3 600w in a 9x5.5 seems like way too much even with ducted lights. Keep the left and right hoods, turn 90° and place them where the connecting ducts are now. Right now you have the wide spread oriented to the shorter side of your space and the narrow spread oriented toward the wider side. You see what I mean?

You might get better utilization of light that way and keep your temps down. It looks like a low-ish ceiling.

Just something to consider.
I get what you're saying. If I turn them duct work is gonna be super bendy twisty and cramped though. Also, I would need to add cross members on the ceiling to mount the hangers. Ugh I feel dumb for mounting all that shit now.
 
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ChebbyFlowers

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I think you will need an ac. With that much light plus the rh is already at 55-60. When those lights get going they are going to bring the humidity up. I would run a acinfinity 69 pro plus with 8 port. 1 8” fan venting the lights and another 8” venting the space if it get to hot mini spit 2 16” fans.
This is my current chamber that is right next door to the cellar. Same height and everything, just much smaller footprint. 22"x5'. I run a 400w MH for veg and HPS for flower. I don't have humidity problems in here. Does this change your mind at all? Also wouldn't the lights being RH down?....I know the plants will add moisture to the air obviously but the light will dry out the air to some extent...

Is the AC Infinity controller just for a fan or what? I have a dehumidifier I can run at a set point. I don't believe I need a controller. I can't justify the cost of that anyway. I'm at the peak of my budget as is. I have several Inkbird thermostat controllers, couple that with an adjustable dehumidifier and I think I'm pretty much covered eh?

I don't mind just running two of the hoods. The two Sun System Yield Masters are what I would choose. The one in the middle is just a small cheapy. I really don't want to re orient for the sake of saving my back. I had surgery recently and am just trying to get this thing running.

I don't mean to be argumentative I'm just trying to justify the current setup if it is possible.
 
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ChebbyFlowers

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I could swap the center light for a 400w MH and even dim the ballasts of necessary in the other two.

Anymore thoughts?
 
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ChebbyFlowers

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Or hell I could just do the two 600w if that would seem more feasible. I'm not trying to push the plants to the max or do anything extreme. I just mounted what I thought was necessary for the space. If 2 600w would be more inline with what's normal I'm all for it.
 
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ChebbyFlowers

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Well I reconfigured the setup and retained two 600w HPS fixtures and got my exhaust set up. It's exhausting into the room just outside the flower room right now, but will soon exhaust outside and pull cooler basement air into the room.

It's staying a steady 80°F in there and the RH is 50% currently. I'd say that's right where it should be. When the weather outside cools down I'm sure it will be slightly cooler in there as well as a bit cooler when I have the exhaust configured appropriately.

My CanLite charcoal filter is just sitting on a table. I'll mount it up on the ceiling soon enough and that may even suck a bit more heat out since the heat would theoretically be rising.

Here's a pic if anybody is interested, though by the activity level on this thread I would think I maybe not so much.
 
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HerbalEdu

HerbalEdu

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Bbs hpswatt


so 2 600W would fit perfect for 8x4 and that would be also rather fine for 9x5, 3 was a bit overkill

also you would need a real powerfull extractor to pull the heat from 3 chained hps ...
 
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