Hi,
New here and hoping to get a little advice from people who clearly have more experience in this area. After years of begging, I finally allowed my husband to set up an indoor grow room. So we did a lot of research in so many areas but it seems the lighting part is the most confusing.
We were under the notion that if you buy the most expensive automated setup, use the best nutrients, it would grow itself. Lol that was the stupidest waste of money ever!! We actually did a run and the results were horrendous. Literally everything that could have went wrong did. From PH fluctuations, to clogged hydro tubes (starving and dehydrating the plants) to overheating and burning. The only thing we didn't get was root rot, mold, or bugs... smh.
First note that the utility cost in Hawaii is about $0.28/kWh. Yes I know! OUCH. Naturally we want the biggest bang for our buck or it's not even worth it. The original investment quickly climbed to over $10k after utilities, filtered water, and co2. TBH, it may even be more than that but I stopped counting after a while. But our electric bill went up to about $700/month during flowering and we were probably only running the 2 bulbs at 500w each.
The biggest problem we could not escape was HEAT. We used 2 Gavita Pro 1000w de all in one setups for commercial with standard height ceilings. I know it says you need high ceiling but we figured we could counteract that with a really strong portable AC (14k btu).. not a chance. We came home and the room was over 100 degrees with like 100% humidity and 75% of the plants were burned. That was a sad sad day. At the end of harvest, the total yield was about a pound from 12 plants that were about 6 feet tall, and is there such thing as a C grade? We honestly couldn't even give the crap away it was so bad.
Anyway, we figured out how to fix all other problems except the lighting and related heat. Naturally, we're getting rid of the Gavitas but we want to stick with DE because of the need to have maximum yields per wattage used. We were looking at the Sun Systems AC/DE reflector and think the air cooled option may alleviate most of our heat problems. Using ballasts outside the grow room will also help. We can even use 3-4 600w rather than 2-1000w. The problem is that reflector says you need to run it at like 3 feet away or something so it wouldn't work on standard height ceilings unless you're keeping your plants at 2 feet (which isn't even feasible). What I don't understand is if it's air cooled, why would you need so much space?
If this isn't an option, is there any alternative AC/DE reflectors available for standard height ceilings? I really would like to not have to use the AIr conditioner as well to lower our utility bill. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Aloha
New here and hoping to get a little advice from people who clearly have more experience in this area. After years of begging, I finally allowed my husband to set up an indoor grow room. So we did a lot of research in so many areas but it seems the lighting part is the most confusing.
We were under the notion that if you buy the most expensive automated setup, use the best nutrients, it would grow itself. Lol that was the stupidest waste of money ever!! We actually did a run and the results were horrendous. Literally everything that could have went wrong did. From PH fluctuations, to clogged hydro tubes (starving and dehydrating the plants) to overheating and burning. The only thing we didn't get was root rot, mold, or bugs... smh.
First note that the utility cost in Hawaii is about $0.28/kWh. Yes I know! OUCH. Naturally we want the biggest bang for our buck or it's not even worth it. The original investment quickly climbed to over $10k after utilities, filtered water, and co2. TBH, it may even be more than that but I stopped counting after a while. But our electric bill went up to about $700/month during flowering and we were probably only running the 2 bulbs at 500w each.
The biggest problem we could not escape was HEAT. We used 2 Gavita Pro 1000w de all in one setups for commercial with standard height ceilings. I know it says you need high ceiling but we figured we could counteract that with a really strong portable AC (14k btu).. not a chance. We came home and the room was over 100 degrees with like 100% humidity and 75% of the plants were burned. That was a sad sad day. At the end of harvest, the total yield was about a pound from 12 plants that were about 6 feet tall, and is there such thing as a C grade? We honestly couldn't even give the crap away it was so bad.
Anyway, we figured out how to fix all other problems except the lighting and related heat. Naturally, we're getting rid of the Gavitas but we want to stick with DE because of the need to have maximum yields per wattage used. We were looking at the Sun Systems AC/DE reflector and think the air cooled option may alleviate most of our heat problems. Using ballasts outside the grow room will also help. We can even use 3-4 600w rather than 2-1000w. The problem is that reflector says you need to run it at like 3 feet away or something so it wouldn't work on standard height ceilings unless you're keeping your plants at 2 feet (which isn't even feasible). What I don't understand is if it's air cooled, why would you need so much space?
If this isn't an option, is there any alternative AC/DE reflectors available for standard height ceilings? I really would like to not have to use the AIr conditioner as well to lower our utility bill. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Aloha
