32kw Grow Rooms - High Pressure Aeroponics - How do I build the layout?

[DluxGrow]

Okay so i've done DWC bubbleponics in the past. had some good results and took a break from growing for a while. Now I'm within 30 days of beginning the buildout for a commercial grow and I'm really stuck on how the most cost effective & efficient way to build this. both 20x20 rooms share a wall. i'll be implementing (16) Gavita Pro Classic 1000w Double Ended Complete Fixtures and running a flip-flop so technically 16 ballasts and 32 lights (16 per room). I'm shooting for 2# per light.

I have (2) 20ft. x 20ft. rooms for flowering. 16x16ft usable space because i'll need a 2ft. center aisle with 1ft perimeter around the room. I want both rooms constantly flowering so when I'm harvesting one room i'm immediately kicking new ones into flowering on the other, therefore pulling a crop every ~5 weeks. I'll grab a few 10x20 tents for cloning/veg and i have a 15x28 room that i will either use for drying or possibly keep the mother plants but it has a commercial 3-part sink in it so really its usable 15x20ft.

I thought PVC pipes (16x) 12"x16ft. PVC pipes but that costs nearly $12,000 for 512ft. of 12" PVC. thats just not cost-effective. I'm familiar with building micro/closet grows from the Centrex Plastics 27ga totes, however to fill each room would be approx. 60 totes (120 total). That doesn't seem very efficient either in terms of maintenance, tubing, etc. - I'm relatively familiar with the pumps, tubing, misters, etc. I'm just concerned about the physical layout of the system i need to build.

I've looked into aeroflo system but i'm not wild about what i've seen and i'd prefer a true high pressure system. Any ideas, references, pictures, etc. would be EXTREMELY helpful, as i'm really dumbfounded with how i can make this happen on the realistic budget i have left after installing both 5 ton A/C units, tons of electrical work ($24k), installing the 3 phase power, etc. etc. etc.

If i can't figure this out i may be forced to growing coco until i recoup some investment, however i don't particularly want to grow coco (not saying theres anything wrong with it, i just have my heart set on high pressure aeroponics at the moment). If coco will be a significantly better, simpler route for the beginning i am open to it. Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Eskander]

So I'm in early stages of planning a similar scale operation. We have a building that will be perfect in a state that is about to go legal and a lot of the design has fallen to me. The first thing I decided on was short stainless carts with wheels so things can be moved around with ease within the room and have the plant at a good working height while standing. The tubs we are looking at are the 55 gallon HDX tubs at home depot (HDX 55 Gal. Storage Tote in Black (Pack of 4)-HDX55GONLINE(4) - The Home Depot) and they are around $25 each and are 46" wide, 21" deep and 17" tall on the inside. Two of them side by side is more or less a 4'x4' grow area for $50. I'm still looking for cheap carts that would hold the tops at around 30" and I'm debating having entire 25 foot rows move as one. Since we will have different rooms for veg and flower, one cart per tub is probably better. These would do if they were shorter, Amazon.com: TRINITY EcoStorage NSF Stainless Steel Table with Wheels, 48-Inch. I'm thinking more and more that just sticking casters on metro shelving will be the way to go. It isn't like they will be dealing with a lot of weight.

With the tub on cart design, we can use almost all of the floor space and still be able to easily access all of the plants. We are going to drain to waste so for simplicity, we may just put a drain in the 55 gallon tub and have it drain into a 3 gallon bucket underneath. Those we will either manually dump out or we can stick a small pump in them and have it automated. I'd like to minimize the amount of wires and tubing going into each cart while also having as much automated as possible. Interesting balance to try and deal with sometimes...

These could be as simple as a single high pressure hose per cart and with a quick connect at the solenoid, that is pretty manageable. Wifi linked temp and RH probes running on batteries will give us monitoring and failure alerts. If anything really goes tits up, we aren't likely to loose more than a single tub do to mechanical failure.

We are going to use two pumps with check valves to feed a large accumulator so we can eliminate single point failures there. Kinda makes the solenoid and the plumbing the only single point failures possible. The only thing I'm having a hard time balancing is the cooling requirements. The only obvious answer I can come up with there is have more capacity than is needed but if there is some general rule about tons of cooling per KW of light, I'd love to hear it.

If anything here seems stupid, please speak up. I'm just going off of what seems logical and cost effective but I have very limited experience at this scale.

-Eskander

 

[Eskander]

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