Hey

Due to my g/f expecting a baby I have had to re think my grow loacation. Currently I use the spare room (drobe)

The only place left to go is the LOFT


Something inside is telling me that its a bad idea,, I know there has been various topics/posts about this, but i just wondered if a loft grower could check out what i am proposing bellow and give me some pointers (i am paranoid about the whole thing)

My plan is to use 2 tents one with a 400w HPS the other with a 250w CFL (so not great amount of heat)

to help protect me against the filth i thought i would use some of the high performance quilt type insulation (like tri iso super 10,, multi layer foil etc) I was going to pin this to the underside of my rafters above the tents to stop all the heat going that way, parts of my loft space wont be insulated.

I was going to suck air from the loft space and extract from tents to the vented soffit (is this a good idea?)

any pointers would be fantastic, Im sure a few ppl will tell me not to worry but i cant help it


e2a: i dont have a chimney or roof vents to vent into

You will always get someone telling you ''no don't worry about it'' but trust me as soon as you hear a helicopter you wont sleep and the worry is just not worth it.
Extract into a vent in the ceiling of another room.
Hot air streams coming out of unusual places on a building do show up as a heat signature.
Insulating the roof is a good idea even putting some jabba board on top of your tent too.
Make sure you vent in from another room below as the air in the loft may be too cold and have fibreglass partials in it.
With that in mind put tights over the end of any ducting coming into the grow space.
Make sure the neighbours walls are sealed and if possible make a room in the loft from at least plastic sheeting then put the tent in that room.
Extract from the tent and from the room.
These are just my opinions I'M no expert.
Oh and sack the window cleaner.

wow

thanks very much i would rather be belt and braces for this small loft grow if i am going to do it (nowhere left to go but LOFT)

how about if both the ectracts from the tents go into an upstairs cupboard? will that be ok. pulling air in from a room below may be an issue tho.

the more insulation above the grow area the better? i can try conceal a part of the loft space to house the tents

sacking the window cleaner is a good one! i will have to sart cleaning the windows myself now

biggest problem with the loft (for me) is variation in temps , summer very hot, winter very cold
in the summer months i have to bring air from outside ,the temp in the loft can be way over 30C
on the colder months i get air from a room below

to stabilize temps youv got to insulate the whole loft or insulate your tent well
or build your own box and insulate that

if you think about it this way. Some people live in their lofts and have spare rooms etc up there. I know they are not doing nowt wrong but they probably give off exactly the same heat signature (if not more) as a well built loft grow room. A chopper has no way of differentiating between grow room heat and a nice and toasty bedroom..

If you build your grow room correctly and insulate the ceiling with some of that wollen itchy shite and then plasterboard over that, then I cant see what there would be to worry about.

If you do like bart says and have your enviroment spot on then it would be very difficult for them to pick up anything as the temps would be no higher than 27C anyways. I do the same as bart but in the summer I have a cheap £99 aircon to make sure the temps are not over 27C. I also have my extraction running right above my lights.

Its not all that hard to do and you can do it pretty cheap if you use the rolls of insulation and not the kingspan stuffs.

If you need any help or advice, ping me a PM and I will try and give you some help. I will add a link to when I did my room so you can get some idea's

http://www.uk420.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=105562

thanks bart and doobz

doobz there some great points, all insulation would be at little cost to me as i work for a roofing contractor

i do worry, so if i do it i want to do it to the best of my ability and make it as stealth as possible
maybe i will update on here to how i am getting on

once again thanks for your help

first off good luck!!

M left grow was a nightmare its a lot harder to control the conditions. I have the foil and mylar over my tent. When I started had a similar set up over winter and there was still snow etc on my roof so seemed ok. I vent from the cupboard into my room then extract into the loft. I wouldn't worry about the heat etc as 400w will be ok. One thing to make sure you check is the humidity. I and a few others have had probs with humidity in the loft as its too dry

Personally I think anthing thats out of the way i.e. in the loft is the better option if ou can get it right.

What about getting water/power up there?

good luck!!

DD

There was too much for me to read, but I swa that only a part of your loft would be insulated...

Wouldn't that be as good as not insulating it? And wouldn't there be a diff in roof tile surface temps for
the chopper copper thermal camera to 'see'? That, to me, would be the sign.

When I was planning a loft grow for a mate I was using celotex/kingspan (50mm) as a box in the loft and then tents
inside the polystyrene box. Venting in and out of different rooms in the house (obs not the baby's room)
and intake from the bedroom (extra CO2).

Famous last words i do worry tho m8 and every time a chopper goes over i will panic unless i have done everything i can to stealth things
At the moment i grow in the spare room and have humidity problems, i hope to overcome this with a mini fogger, I guess i will just do the same in the loft.



I hope to tap into the shower electrics and plumbing for my water and lecy




Its hard to explain but i am hoping to plasterboard and insulate part of the roof trusses wich will in effect create a seperate usable room in the loft
so yeah only part of the loft will be insulated at this "higher" level but it will be a SEALED room that allows me to control temps. Within this seperate room i will have 2 tents.The other areas in the loft wont have any more heat going into them than normal and wont have any more insulation, i hope this makes sense.

I am looking to use insulation with a very good U value,, most of wich i can source from work for next to nothing.

Extraction will be to a upstairs cupboard (main bedrom)
i will be pulling air in from the loft (outside of grow area) and if the temps are to high i hope to extend the ducting to the vented soffit for fresh cooler air