sunlight and cfl's

dank daisy

New Member
So I currently have my grow in my closet. It's starting to smell in the whole house and it hasn't even started to flower. I am 2 to 3 weeks away from starting flower. I am thinking about moving the setup into my old bathroom that no one uses. It is a 4 x 5 room with a standard height ceiling. It has 1 AC vent and 1 window. So what I am asking is will the sunlight coming through the window affect my grow or should I seal the window off so no sunlight will come through? Or will the sunlight aid my cfl and soon to be hps lights? I am currently using about 170w worth of cfl bulbs. My hps light is 400watts. I have two hps lights but I will probably only use one with some 2700k cfl
 
It wont do any harm until lights off and there maybe light coming in so ......... If there's a ligh that can come in during the dark period seal the window :)
 
1. During your veg cycle, the sunlight shouldn't harm anything, and in a 24-0 cycle, the sunlight should actually HELP, since you won't need as much light going to get the same lumens per plant.

2.In the flowering cycle, however, can have problems with the sunlight coming in during the months between March and September, as the spring equinox (March 20-September 23 this year, March 20-September 23 for 2015, and March 20- September 22 for 2016). The Equinox is the days where day and night are exactly the same length. Between those 2 dates, Days will be longer than 12 hours, peaking June 21 for 2014 and 2015.

3. However, the issue should also be looked at from an external look too. A room or bathroom that you NEVER use, people are used to seeing dark and empty, suddenly beaming out purple light all the time, or bright light? Might not be a wise idea to leave the window uncovered.

Recommendation: Securely cover window inside, make sure it is light tight. However, instead of wasting this light, perhaps sandwich solar panels between the light blocking material and the window, and use the electricity for an aux light, or charge a battery. They make small panels like this for as low as 50 dollars, and when used with some LED's on the market (not LED grow gear, but wiring LED's) you could literally power some lighting without risk.
 
I agree with sealing the window If stealthiness is needed. The "Sandwich solar panel" idea sounds amazing to canalize that energy!

If stealthiness is not a problem, I would try use as much of that sunlight to complement my lights. But probably as Srilania suggests you'll have to seal it when the flowering period starts and you need to control your light period more carefully.

Peace
:peace:
 
Well, while we're trying to make something wonderful, why destroy the planet? Every lumen you can squeeze out of things, without generating additional carbon dioxide from generating and using electricity from "traditional" methods, such as coal, natural gas, etc, then it's an improvement. Not to mention it will save you money, since if you are able to power just ONE CFL with the panel, it's reducing CO2 created at the power plant, and reducing your electric bill.

Just because one can afford to throw money away burning the man's electricity, doesn't mean one should do so.
 
Thanks people. Once again you guys are there to help. Greatly appreciated. I think I'll leave it for now. Not worried about stealth when it comes to lights. My back yard has a line of trees so no one can see the window anyways. Mainly worried about smell. I'll seal the window when it comes time to flower. I suppose I'll need to shut the water off to sink and toilet so it doesn't get too humid.
 
Thanks people. Once again you guys are there to help. Greatly appreciated. I think I'll leave it for now. Not worried about stealth when it comes to lights. My back yard has a line of trees so no one can see the window anyways. Mainly worried about smell. I'll seal the window when it comes time to flower. I suppose I'll need to shut the water off to sink and toilet so it doesn't get too humid.

Way not a good idea.

1. turning off the water in the sink and toilet is a really BAD idea. Besides having a handy place to wash your hands, leaving all water off on a fixture allows the water in the toilet and sink traps to evaporate out. Once the traps lose their water, you leave an open pipe to all that fresh dairy air (derriere ) smells a LOT worse and permeates a house a lot worse than the smell of pot. Not only that, but a little bad luck, and you could blow up your grow room, if not yourself too.

2. It's a WHOLE lot easier to fuss with engineering issues, like covering a window, fixtures, etc BEFORE you start growing in there. Better that you take a bit now, BEFORE the plants are in. Construction and improvements often has mishaps, where someone drops a board, or a hand tool swung winds up clocking something you didn't want to hit.

3. Outside visibility, even if you can only see it in your back yard, ANY ability to see it from the outside can get you in trouble. It can be someone over to visit, or even someone looking to break in. Make your new grow area as light tight as possible. I'd even consider adding some kind of camouflage for the bathroom door, such as one of those full length mirrors, to where the average joe poking around can't find it.
 
No one has used that bathroom in at least a year. Would it still smell bad if I turned off water? What should I do about humidity? Will it be a problem? I have not done anything to the bathroom yet. Grow is still in the closet.
 
I'd make sure that the toilet has at least a little water in the bowl, and run the sink like 10-15 seconds, just enough to make sure the drain trap's not going to be left open air. I'm assuming you're going to be using the tub for the grow area. It's just a wise idea to keep those traps filled, unless you wish to permanently retire it as a bathroom. If you're going that route, you can disconnect the drain, and cap it. The toilet, you'd have to remove the whole thing to install the cap. If your bathroom has an exhaust fan duct alrway on the ceiling, it will reduce buildup of any methane in the sewage. As far as humidity though, if you've got decent airflow, the humidity should stay fairly level, and should be adjustable with adjusting the airflow.

Had my bathroom sink go dry like that. I woke up at 3am with my house smelling like 100 hobos dropped a deuce in my house, and the smell STILL isn't all the way gone, in spite of putting down about 500 incense cones and fumigating the whole place, and scrubbing the walls, and soaking the carpets in a sodium bicarbonate solution three times in the carpet cleaning machine.

As a side effect, it's not till you go into the room the closet's in that you can smell my babies
 
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