Heres the frame, it will have rockwool sandwiched inbetween 2 pieces of hardboard either side, with diamond sheeting on inside walls
[attachmentid=100731][attachmentid=100734][attachmentid=100735]

Heres my plan for intake, it will be covered with a load of cooker hood filter i nicked from B&Q
TIP: shove some cooker hood filter in between the shit load of hardboard your buying
[attachmentid=100736]

Heres the extraction RVK 150
[attachmentid=100737]

Im still not sure what lights to put in here yet i was thinking 4 x 600w but im sure thats over doing it
check out my profile for the exact dimensions

Also still undecided as too what technique to use, im probaly gonna go organic as its my first time, how many plants should i put in there ? i want as much bud as possible

Hey man, looks like you have a nice space there.
I'm still pretty new to this but here's my two pence worth: I have a 600w hps and it really does kick out some heat, I have a much smaller space but I've had some real problems with temp. If no-one else has any help for you maybe try 2 or 3 600w first, then get more if temps are controllable.

I kinda wished I'd gone for a 400w after all the trouble I've had.

I would probably go with 2x 400w or 1x 1000w, like LimpetBeans said 4x 600w is gonna give off a lot of heat, even if the ballasts are out side. At least that is what I would do.

2x600w would probably be cool too, sorry I left that out

Looks good Cupboardbound,
Will you be changing your name to Loftbound now.

I want to try a loft grow soon so if you dont mind i will pinch a few of your ideas dude

Look forward to seeing it finished,Keep us updated with loads of photos.

Did you already have power up there ?

G.A.T.I

oh that is a weight lifted from my shoulders !
i was not looking forward to the heat and electricity bill that the 4 x 600w were gonna cause, 2 x 600w sounds good but ill wait for some more people to confirm it before i go ordering them

thanks chaps, oh and how many plants should i get in there you think ?



no not yet my bro has a friend thats an electrician so hes gonna nip up there and sort that out, but we were gonna leave that till last.

I've gone for 1 plant under mine, because it's all I need. You could get as many as you like in the space, but I would go for no more than 10, it's a nice round number, they will all get plenty of light, and you will be able to grow them BIG!

Nice looking room in the making!
Though 2x600w will be ample in my opinion mate.Any more and you might have some serious heat problems unless your lights are air cooled...

As for plant numbers,I reckon it will be trial and error until you find what works for you,and will also depend on how you choose to grow them.
I work on 9 plants a square meter,veg til they`re about 10" and then flower them.
Even with the switch at 10" my plants ended up being 4ft tall but it will all fall into place after a few grows

Good luck matey,not that it looks as if you`ll need it!

Burnage

I was thinking of 12 plants as its 4 rows of 4 it would'nt be cramped i dont think, 2 x 600w it will be then, i am realy chuffed i only have to buy 2 lights now



hey sbb, yeh that was actualy a question i forgot to ask im not sure where to vent the extraction too , i dont want my entire loft getting heated up by the air from the room, call me paranoid but i have copter fear

i have a disused chimney on the other side of the loft i could run a long bit of ducting to that but its easily 20ft across the loft, will that make a difference on the extraction if i run ducting that far ?
also is the air thats extracted from the grow room a showup on IR cams ? or is it just direct lamp light heat i want to worry about

thanks for looking peeps

I would try and filter and vent into the house, that way you benefit from the heat of the grow and lower your energy bills, building heat up is a problem, but so is flooding it all out the chimney at once, that would def show up. My 400w heats up my entire 2 bed flat when it's on, I haven't turned my heating on yet.

Surely heat coming out of a chimney is not going to draw attention!
I know a couple of people who do just that with no problems.

Venting anywhere back inside will only lead to higher temps in my opinion as the loft will be pulling air in from the flat,and if vented there it will surely get warmer.

Horses for course mind

Burnage

looks cool sbb
i like DrT's idea tho venting into my house, i could benifit from that heat in my house, i have a cupboard in my hallway that would be a perfect place to vent down into

heres a pic of the cupboard, it has a vent style door so it just might be ideal , you can also see my loft hatch on the right, the actual grow room is just above that cupboard but a little to the side
[attachmentid=100763]

the intake wouldnt be effected by venting into my house as my roof isnt realy insulated so air can be drawn in throu the tiles, and believe me it does it gets freezing cold up there at night

Looks ideal! Get it done!

thing is i might get a whooshing sound from the cupboard i know my mates 125 rvk gave out quite a sound from the point it was blown out !, but maybe it wont be that bad after i have the carbon filter and ducting all setup

my 100mm rvk is suprisingly quiet?

I have my extraction blowing out on the hot lighting ballast! Does the job.

looks like your gonna have a top growroom there cb

all the best mate

p.s
my avatar is wicked bruv many thanks again

hi CP

looks like you have been hard at work mate .


a couple of points:

you have 42 sq ft, to light this effectively you will around 2000 watts of hid lighting.
i'm not sure how you will deal with the heat produced but this is the kind of wattage you should be aiming for.

venting your grow back into your house will send all the moisture transpiring from your plants back into the house along with the heat(and any smell you dont deal with).
all the water you use to water the plants will end up in your house .with a couple of plants its not too much of a problem but with the size of grow you have you are going to have damp problems.
fortunately you have a chimney breast to tap into,even if it is a way from the plants this is by far the best option for a loft grow.it takes the heat away and should anyone ever point an infra red thingy at your house they will see heat coming from the chimney.a lot of gas boilers exhaust through the stack on old houses so even in summer this wont arouse any suspision.

Good luck with ur room m8,hope u have many plentyful grows,the idea of venting through the chimney sounds adout right,take the heat,smell and water vapours away from the house ..............

ok so 2 x 1000w then and i should be fine ? edit to add: were the feck do you find 1000w lights for cheap prices the ones in the uk420 store are very expensive



very good point you have there it would be straight down into the floor so theres gonna be a shit load of condesation in that little cupboard


chimney stack it is then will i need the inline fan that sbb pointed out ? as it is quite a way to the chimney

thanks for the helpful advise guys

well you could go that way ...or five 400's,or four 600's ...something like that,they will give better coverage than a pair of 1000's.

shit.... i need 4 x 600w again

but i was thinking im only having 12 plants in there do i need so many lights ? the room isnt that wide its just pretty tall

i suppose you know best tho, better start saving the pennys

at the moment im running x2 600w this will increase to x3 600w then x4 600w and for the last 2 weeks x5 600w. i can have heat probs rooms only 8 ft by 8ft and x2 4inch rvks extracting.will change to x2 6inch extractors on nxt grow.I wouldnt worry 2 much as the weather is getting colder.try and get a bigger extractor for spring though.if your room is smaller than 8ft x3 600w is the best 4 u.

Those fans really aren't up to much, and you're going to have to think much bigger if you'll be running the kind of lights set-up you've been discussing.
As your loft is uninsulated, you're going to have some wild temperature swings in there too. I'd be looking for a place to draw fresh air in from outside mate.

omg it goes from good to bad ... then from bad to shite
the room will be insulated seperate so it might not be too bad, i can always stick a heater in there on a thermostat

i get told my fans will be ok so i go ahead and buy them then another person comes along and tells me there too small im just back to square one again.

if i add the fan sbb mentioned i should be ok , right ?

Good size room CB.
Planning probs eh?
cf is right .Go 4 x 600w and use your fan to vent.Is you fan 150 A1 or 150L1.There is a difference.L1 moves 250m3/h more and is worth having.
Try vegging with 2 x 600w and flower with all 4.You do not need all that much light to veg and you save on electric.Also the problem of heat will diminish.When you have too much light and not enough leaves to soak it up , the temps go through the roof(get the pun).As more foliage grows then more light (heat) is absorbed by your plants.Some will say different but i've run this size grow before and most problems are early in the grow with heat!
12 plants aren't too few for that room or light.I once grew 4 plants under 4 600w and 1 plant = 1 light.Great crop.
Good luck working out what to do.

Hi SBB , R1 fan myself, .
The problem of putting reducers on to reduce down is the noise factor.150mmL1 rvk split to 2 x 100mm ducting causes so much whistling it is unbareable.Plus you lose you fans high output by smaller ducting even x2.
I've never used in line fans just RVK and acoustic boxes.Does 2x 107m3/h compare with 660m3/h.Surely if anything they would slow down the air movement as a restrictor in the ducting?
How do they work in conjunction with each other.

rvk is part of an lti part number. lti are an airconditioning company and import them into the uk. rvk means its a reverse bladed centrifugal inline duct fan. the part number continues with the duct size in mm, then the motor version, and how many phase supply. rvk150A1 for instance. i was getting them direct 10 years ago, i got the first local shop to stock them. I'm not sure why all inline duct fans have coined the name. (is it the K means plastic?)

genetically, there are two main breeds of fan. there's the axial bladed variety which give very high results but lack real body, and there's the centrifugal type that dont get so high a maximum yeild, but has serious grunt.

on your desk, an axial will shift the most air. however, shown any real work, like a resistive duct, and they go downhill rapidly. They just dont have any push. by stacking them with overlapping blades you can improve this, but there still weak bathroom things for domestic use.

the rvk is the tool for the job. it will cope with the long run to the chimney pot, because thats what its designed for. all its blade's overlap. they work like a fairground ride by spinning the air out. they dont catch as much air, but what they do catch they shift. a cars turbo uses this kind of fan in the compressor side.


when ducting into the chimney, take the duct in, and point it up. if you were to point it at the back wall then it would cause a high pressure area which would also cause noise and slow the airflow concidderably. if you can, also pull the ducting tightish to keep it straight through the loft


edit: the rvk will try and eat them little things

same here.

i ignored you, because your talking shit. the guys already presumed you mean two fans as the idea's so daft. take his 650cubic meter fan, throttle it with 100mm ducting, then force the air through a 107 cubic foot fan??

and yes, ive seen the picture. 107cu foot not meters and there ducting performance is pittyfull. i can piss harder than that.

your doing this?? photo's then




edit: cb, 20 foot is nothing. its like a single bend. route is much more important than length. keep the duct tight and straight as you can. this is esspecially important with the pvc coated fibreglass stuff.

Friendly E is onto something there, a big straight lenght has less drag than a couple of bends. I found if doing long stretches, use something like plastic soil pipe/drainage pipe/ etc, it has nice smooth surface inside and is availible in 3m lengths and good diameters like 130mm/160mm. I would definately vent the exhaust out of the chimney, get rid of the smell and heat, wash your hands of it! I'd worry about low temps later, run your lights at night, and if possible pull the air intake from your living space (i intake from outside world with no probs). If it is too cold get a heater and thermostat obviously

I think so far that studding work is great, bigger is better as you can always put deviders in to suit your lighting budget. Very nice room to be.

Hey and dont worry about heat coming from chimneys/flues, thats what they are for!