Well here you are. You've found us in your quest to grow your own marijuana. We know you have lots of questions and we're going to try and address
most of them here. Better have this before we start.

First thing to know is that getting started growing is not cheep Second thing is growing takes time and money. Your planning on a product that is priceless to some ppl. A safe know how it was grown, quality medicine. So plan to spend about $1000 before the first bud is smoked. I'm not telling to this to discourage you from growing, just to let you know it is not a cheep way of life to get started in.

OK lets start the work. Where are we planning to grow? How big a area? How are we getting electric to the areas? How we getting fresh air? How are we exhausting air/heat?

First I'll use a normal closet as a example


Now our closet in this example will be 2 foot(ft) deep by 4 ft wide by 8 ft tall. This gives us 8 square feet(sq ft) of growing floor space(2ftx4ft=8sqft) and 64 cubic feet(ft3) of growing air space(2ftx4ftx8ft=64ft3). With these numbers we will figure out the best fans, lights and placements for fresh air intakes.

Now when we figure the light size we normally will use the square footage of the grow area multiplied by either 3000 lumens minimum for the vegetative stage of growth and 5000 lumens minimum for Flowering. When buying your vegging light, you want a light that gives off light in the 6500 Kelvin(K) range that can be Compact florescent lights(CFL's), T-5 Florescent tubes or Metal Halide(MH) High Intensity Discharge(HID) lights or Light Emitting Diode(LED's) are all good choices. You can find all the same lights in the 2700K range needed for flowering except the MH lights. The high Pressure Sodium( HPS) are the best lights for flowering at this times.

Deciding on the light can be on of the hardest parts, there are so many light on the market today. They all work just some are better producers than others.

Example room is 8 sqft so we need 24,000 lumens for vegging, lets look at lights

List compiled from 1000bulbs.com

Example room CFL's you need 16-26 watts or 13-30 watts or 9-45 watts or 8-55 watts or 3-125 watts or 2- 200watts. you will need your choice of bulbs, fixture, splitters. wiring, timer, and material needed to make light hood. Buy the time your get everything needs you will have $200 to $400 in the lighting system

Example room Flour's tubes you will need 10-T8's or 6-T5's your choice and the fixtures(most fixtures come wired with a plug in cord), timers. The bulbs, fixtures, and timers will cost between $250 to $400

Example Room HID MH you will need 2-175 watt , 1-400 watt or 600 watt dimmable ballast, Fixture and timer $300 to $500 At this time the 400 or 600 watt switchable ballast are the best buy, because you can run a vegging or flower bulb with one ballast by either buying a switchable ballast or conversion bulb.

Example Room HID HPS HPS lights are for flowering and figured at 5000 lumens per sq ft.In this example 40000 lumens is the minimum You will need 4-70 watt, 3-100 watts, 3-150 watt, 1 400 watt or 1-600 watt dimmable ballast. Bulbs, fixture and timer $300 to $500.

Example Room LED 3-85 watt, 1- 225 watt or 1-330 watt led light system and timer $700 to $1500

Notes: When figuring any lighting system the more bulbs the greater the heat generated in the grow area. The lower wattage HID lights are not usually remote ballast and their heat must be dealt with.

Have fun make up your mind on the light

On to Ventilation

Ventilation serves 2 purposes, Fresh Carbon Dioxide for the plants to breath and removal of Heat. If it was just the plants breathing needs exchanging the air in the grow room on a one to one ratio per minute would be fine, but we have the heat of the lights to deal with. By figuring you Cubic feet of the room multiplied by 3 or 4 is adequate but I recommended no less than 6 inch duct work with a 400 cfm inline fan . By pulling you air thru the light hood to exhaust the room you pull the most heat out.

Example Room Ventilation 64 ft3 x 3=192 ft3, 64 ft3 x 4=256 ft3 A carbon filter, dust work and inline fan will run in the $200 to $400


On the fresh air intake I like to put it in the door or wall at a height 2 or 3 inches about the containers I plan to use. I want the fresh air up around the plants, not blowing in on the grow medium, chilling the root zone down. I like to use louvered floor register in the fresh air intake to help control light leaking into the grow room.



I hope this has been a help to you in getting started designing your grow room

Stay Safe
OzzyDioDude

work in progress

What y'all think now

Good info Ozzy.

Where you say you like the fresh air intake above* the containers you're using as well as the louvered cover to control light leaks...

I have my fresh air intake just above my base board so it gets the coolest air and looks normal. To deal with light leaks inside the room I use flex ducting that I can aim at the plants base and it also avoid light leaks. I also put a piece of nylon over the end of the ducting to keep out bugs. (Now I have a intake filter, so the nylon's no longer nessasary.)