Insulation

[C Dog]

Hello growers!

I’ve grown outdoors for several years but am setting up my first indoor garden. I have two grow tents. I have a 3x4x5 LA Garden Lodge tent for propagation and early veg and a 5x9x7 Mars Hydro grow tent for late veg and flower. I plan on growing with a Scrooge method. I’m in the Oakland/Berkeley area. This will all be going inside of my garage. I need to install some insulation and am thinking I may need to build out two walls from one corner and at least have the large tent inside a well insulated room to help maintain a stable environment. I have 8’ of ceiling clearance. The garage has no insulation currently. What do you all suggest for insulation and wall construction? I’m going to be using LED’s so won’t have heat issues from my lighting. I have a dehumidifier already and will likely need an A/C unit as we do get some warm days here in the summer. My goal is to make this room as energy efficient as possible. I’ll be doing a RDWC setup using a chiller which I already have. Hopefully I’m posting this in the right place.

 

[TheFertilizer]

Hello growers!

I’ve grown outdoors for several years but am setting up my first indoor garden. I have two grow tents. I have a 3x4x5 LA Garden Lodge tent for propagation and early veg and a 5x9x7 Mars Hydro grow tent for late veg and flower. I plan on growing with a Scrooge method. I’m in the Oakland/Berkeley area. This will all be going inside of my garage. I need to install some insulation and am thinking I may need to build out two walls from one corner and at least have the large tent inside a well insulated room to help maintain a stable environment. I have 8’ of ceiling clearance. The garage has no insulation currently. What do you all suggest for insulation and wall construction? I’m going to be using LED’s so won’t have heat issues from my lighting. I have a dehumidifier already and will likely need an A/C unit as we do get some warm days here in the summer. My goal is to make this room as energy efficient as possible. I’ll be doing a RDWC setup using a chiller which I already have. Hopefully I’m posting this in the right place.

Any reason you haven't thought of just insulating your garage? The larger airspace being insulated would be more consistent and more efficient down the line.

 

[Darf.Vappor]

If it's in your budget I would insult the whole garage. If your garage is like mine and it's part of the first story and you have a room on top of it. I get a lot of cold from the garage in that room because it's uninsulated.

 

[Old Salt]

Put insulated sub-floor under your tents. Rigid foam insulation works well around three sides and the top of your tent. If you need more, you may as well go whole hog and insulate the garage.

 

[C Dog]

All good suggestions. I have a detached garage built in 1939. It’s all wood. To really insulate the whole garage would be difficult because of the front door. It’s about 20’ wide and 7’ tall and all wood. It weighs a ton and doesn’t really seal very well on the sides and bottom. Ideally a new lighter and more modern garage door would be nice but I don’t really have a budget for that now. I was thinking a smaller insulated room inside the garage would be more economical to climatize.

 

[Darf.Vappor]

If insulating the whole garage is out of the question you could build an enclosure out of EPS insulation. It's relatively inexpensive and easy to work with. I built one to keep my clones in next to my grow tent.

DIY Enclosure

You would just have to scale it up. Maybe use 2x4's instead of PVC.

 

[C Dog]

That’s along what I had in mind. Thanks for posting this. I was thinking of framing with 2x4’s for the two walls I’d need to build. I saw that foam board at Home Depot but I have no firsthand knowledge about how well it works. It comes in different thicknesses so I’d think the thicker ones would be better. Looks like the sheets were probably 4x8’ in size.

 

[HayStack]

Use the 2" foam insulation. The only thing better is spray foam, but that gets expensive. It would be better if you could do the whole garage. You can cut the foam to fit the garage door and seal the door around the edges to keep the heat and cold outside. The cost might be about the same as building a few walls with insulation.

 

[C Dog]

You all have been great. I think a visit to the hardware store is in order after I do some figuring & measuring in the garage.

 

[ozzybruin]

build the frame with 2x4 about 2.00 at home depot. frame inside with 1 x 3 firring strips, across top, middle, bottom. cover with blk /white poly. R- tech 1in foam board on top 4x8 - 13.00 sheet. then use R-19 or higher battes about 45 $ 24 in X 96"on the outside frame. and cover with poly. in Oakland that will work.

 

[C Dog]

build the frame with 2x4 about 2.00 at home depot. frame inside with 1 x 3 firring strips, across top, middle, bottom. cover with blk /white poly. R- tech 1in foam board on top 4x8 - 13.00 sheet. then use R-19 or higher battes about 45 $ 24 in X 96"on the outside frame. and cover with poly. in Oakland that will work.

Thanks for your input! This is along what I had in mind! You just broke down the details much better!

 

[ozzybruin]

it will give you a nice cheap area. it can be 7.5x7.5just using the 8 ft 2x4's and if you build it with screws you can modify the size easy later. the 1 x 3 firing strips use across the studs facing flat to the inside and across the top help with the bracing of the walls and holding the insulation to the walls. buy using the coner of the garadge and build out two walls, bracing them back to the origanal walls for strength. and either drill a few cement anchors into the floor, use a few 2x4 to the ceiling or cross
the far corner back to the walls, or few few cinder blocks to keep the bottom stable.
12 - 2 x 4 24.00
16 x 1 x 3 firring strips 24.00
2 - 4 x 8 foam board 26.00
poly film 25.00
1R-19 batts 8pcs 46.00 for original corner walls
1- R 15 batts 11 pcs 51.00 inside frame walls
screws 10.00
make your entry buy encasing the insulation between two pieces of poly glued together around the edges that is attached to the top beam but not on the sides and bottom so you can push it aside but stuff back in place. and use another sheet of poly on outside about 4 inch's wider like a curtain with a little velcro to secure edges to keep any light leeks out
about 225 $ and a weekend to build. it will do what you need, and you can slowly build it better, and expand it you want .
Just take time to draw out a plan, make a list of everything you need at home depot order online and pick it up. ( so you don't but what you don't need) . stick to your plan and make changes after you are done not while in the process.
this will work, I did something similar years ago in Reno, gets about as warm in summer and way colder in winter and it kept temps fairly well in both.
good luck

 

[C Dog]

it will give you a nice cheap area. it can be 7.5x7.5just using the 8 ft 2x4's and if you build it with screws you can modify the size easy later. the 1 x 3 firing strips use across the studs facing flat to the inside and across the top help with the bracing of the walls and holding the insulation to the walls. buy using the coner of the garadge and build out two walls, bracing them back to the origanal walls for strength. and either drill a few cement anchors into the floor, use a few 2x4 to the ceiling or cross
the far corner back to the walls, or few few cinder blocks to keep the bottom stable.
12 - 2 x 4 24.00
16 x 1 x 3 firring strips 24.00
2 - 4 x 8 foam board 26.00
poly film 25.00
1R-19 batts 8pcs 46.00 for original corner walls
1- R 15 batts 11 pcs 51.00 inside frame walls
screws 10.00
make your entry buy encasing the insulation between two pieces of poly glued together around the edges that is attached to the top beam but not on the sides and bottom so you can push it aside but stuff back in place. and use another sheet of poly on outside about 4 inch's wider like a curtain with a little velcro to secure edges to keep any light leeks out
about 225 $ and a weekend to build. it will do what you need, and you can slowly build it better, and expand it you want .
Just take time to draw out a plan, make a list of everything you need at home depot order online and pick it up. ( so you don't but what you don't need) . stick to your plan and make changes after you are done not while in the process.
this will work, I did something similar years ago in Reno, gets about as warm in summer and way colder in winter and it kept temps fairly well in both.
good luck

Thanks Ozzybruin! Now you really broke it down. I did not realize Home Depot would deliver this stuff if I order online. That will solve the problem of no having a larger vehicle that these things would fit into. Did you use any A/C in the summer? If so, what type unit did you use?

 

[ozzybruin]

no I ran my light cycle at night. and in winter it didn't matter. and that was 7 years ago so LED was not a choice. I was running 2 600 HPS with crap exhaust system. temps were mid 80's. if you run a good vent
fan you will be OK. my friend has a 8x8 room with a small seed / veg tent and a 4x4 tent. we set it up using a 4 inch fan and he has a 600 watt in it. that fan hung from the ceiling has no problem pulling a carbon filter through a light reflector and pushing the air out 15 feet. he has it on a dimmer and it only gets push to 3/4 during the last month of flower. can't remember the brand but it's the green fan on amazon. there is a silver vivoson thats the same. about 65 bucks. all others suck, don't get one made a plastic either. then when you budget allows DYI build LED. and you will be golden.