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Calling the Grow room growers

  • #21
I didn't get to read all the responses on here, so forgive me if I say something that has already been said, but I recommend T5 lights if heat won't be an issue. I was using all T5's at one point but I have since made some of my tanks T-12's only (for plants that can't stand warm days). I like the Home Depot kind that sell for like 9$ because I can fit 3 fixtures (6 - 4ft. bulbs), on the grow racks we have come to know so well in this hobby (from Lowe's). Still, I have noticed the coloring on my plants has started to suffer from the decreased light. 4 bulb T5 lights are still better than 6 bulbs of T-12's. You could also use a metal halide light, or even a high pressure sodium lamp with a conversion bulb, but the heat output from these things is horrendous. I had a couple 600 watt fixtures and the heat is just unbearable.

Anywho, I have since decided to go big or go home, and will be starting up a 12x10x11 ft greenhouse fairly soon. I will also be writing up a little tutorial documenting my problems and responses along the way. With a fatty swamp cooler blasting away, I should get all the light I need and just the right temps :).

Daniel
 
  • #22
The thing is a GH in MN is going to be a bear to heat in the winter. But I may end up giving it a try eventually.

I think I am going to use a combo of t-8 and t-5 bulbs. It will be in the basement so hoping the temps stay good. I am thinking about using a GH cooler to cool the room instead of shunting it outside and returning outside air.
 
  • #23
Josh,

avoid that light you are looking at, if you notice the reflector is nothing more then one flat piece of polished aluminum. It is an overpriced POS, this defeats the main advantages of the T5 format

here is a 6 bulb T5 with the individual 95% parabolic style reflectors and programmed start ballast for 159!!!, they also have a 4 bulb for 129

I can personally recommend these, I have em both and love em... but be prepared for heat my friend, making the leap to T5 is much more then just installing the fixture.

When I first installed mine, I then had to install some means of cross ventilation, then the added ventilation dropped the humidity, so I had to add humidification.. etc etc etc, they are not for the faint of heart, but omg what energy levels and canopy penetration LOL

cause and effect mate....more energy equals more heat more heat equals lower relative humidity etc etc etc, plus I also included 2 fans on 2 separate power supplies for redundancy failsafe sake

the mother of T5 lighting deals
 
  • #24
Av, I think you just sold me on your recommended one, instead of getting a SylverStar T5 fixture. $100 bucks less and same lumen output.

Now on the link you sent, do you think it's okay to use the bulbs they ship it with? Or should I think about changing them to something else?
 
  • #25
they dont ship with bulbs unless you request them... IMHO i would look for a 5000k, 85 cri bulb...

if you look at the hard data and spectral curves, the highest PUR/PAR values typically come in at 5000k/85CRI... dont go for any higher CRI, it is just wasted energy in the wrong wavelengths

that is what I use anyways... now as for manufacturer I would prob try and find phillips or sylvania... the phillips are nice,

personally... I came across a sweet deal on a whole case of german made 5000k/85CRI
 
  • #26
I use T8s in the walmart fixtures. I grow in a 10x10x8 chamber in my basement using 14 fixtures total. I'd love to go to some more high powered lighting, but I think I have all of the heat my highlanders can handle. I get temps in the low to mid 80s in there during the day. I also use the big metal shelves from lowes. For the larger plants, I have an area with hanging baskets and the ceiling above them is covered in fixtures. On the shelves, I keep the lights about 2" above the tops of the plants.

I use air conditioning to get my temps down at night. They drop to about 70F without the AC and to about 60F with the AC. I played around with tons of different ideas to cool the chamber without losing humidity. Some methods worked pretty good, but the temps usually remained at 65F. I ended up deciding to simply pump AC air directly to the chamber. I run four different humidifiers to keep the humidity up at night.

I've yet to have a problem with the light fixtures and moisture, although every now and again a single light won't come on in the morning (not sure if that's related). Unplugging the light and plugging it back in makes it come back on. I've been running these particular fixtures in a high humidity environment for about a year. Has anyone run them longer and experienced any problems? I put the light fixtures near the walls of the grow chamber so the power cords can be run through a hole in the side of the chamber to be plugged in outside of the chamber.
 
  • #27
Thanks Ryan ans Sara. That is good info too. Have you thought about using a freezer to help lower the temps in your chamber? I am planning on a chamber on top of a small freezer. It will pull air in from the chamber into the freezer and then back into the chamber. You need to do routine defrosts on the freezer, but it is supposed to keep the temps down in the chamber. I will plan to insulate the chamber as well as i can with foam and the lights will be segragated from the chamber itself by a piece of glass so I can duct away the heat with little of it affecting the chamber itself. For that fixture I will definately be using T-5 lights because it will be a little further from the plants than the GR. The chamber will be astheticaly pleaseing to the eye by design. I hope to keep my villosa alive long enough to get it to the chamber if not I will buy another and then have a Hamata and other ultra's in the chamber with LFS and a few orchids.
 
  • #28
Josh,
We used to use a freezer in our first chamber (much smaller). We would need a pretty big freezer to do any good with the current chamber. The freezer we used to use is about 3' tall x 2' wide x 1.5' deep and it was able to get an insulated 4 x 4 x 6 chamber in a basement down to 60F each night.

The current chamber is actually surrounded by an outside chamber, with about a foot of air inbetween the two layers of plastic. This has provided an excellent source of insulation for the chamber at a very cheap cost (for the size of the chamber). There are definitely some easier ways of making a highland chamber if you're wanting to stay pretty small with it (or an ultra highland chamber). You can build a chamber that sits off the floor and surround it in another layer of plastic like I described above except you have a layer of air under the chamber as well. Then, you insulate the ouside of the structure and air condition the insulated layer of air. That way, you get the cold temps from the AC but no humidity drop in the chamber itself. I've tried this setup on a larger scale and it just doesn't work the same, although it might if you have a layer of air under the chamber and use a pretty powerful AC.
 
  • #29
I would love to see some pictures Ryan and Sara
 
  • #30
I'll have to get some more up to date pictures, but here are a couple of older pics. These were taken before I made the outside chamber to enclose the original one.

IMG_2354.JPG


IMG_2357.JPG
 
  • #31
Thanks for the pictures! Nice setup there.
 
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