I am building a custom home so I will be designing my grow from the ground up. I have a plan to run 4 rooms. 240v plugs in the ceilings for lights. I can do a tile floor for cheap as I have tile I already have. Centre floor drains. Vapor barrier walls/ceilings. Exhausting each room through vents that I can connect an 8” duct to. I have a few things I am not sure about though.
Air intake - all my rooms will be sealed. Exterior doors on there with rubber seals. I want this to not interfere with the rec portion of the basement. I would prefer to intake air from the basement instead of outside. I am in Canada and there’s so big fluctuations in weather from winter to summer. Also spores, pollen, etc I want to avoid as much as I can. The issue is taking air from that portion of the basement and how to do it without creating smell in that area. I am used to setting my fan to kick in only when humidity levels need to be reduced. So it’s not constant. I guess if I have a constant air flow in then I would not have smell but not sure if there’s a controller that I could set it to run at say 10% 24/7 and then full force when dropping humidity levels to a target percentage.
Heating and cooling - mini splits? How easy is it to hook up 4 rooms with 1 wall unit each to one condenser. I’ve never used them before and also don’t want a bunch of condensers outside. If I’m pulling air from the basement it will be room temps going in to help reduce strain on that. Or I can use individual AC units and heaters but not sure how I’d control them all with targeted settings. When to kick in and shut off.
Automated watering - I plan on running organic. So I will just feed plain RO water. No mixing nutrients or PH’ing. I want to be able to leave for a couple weeks and everything is fine. I don’t want to hand water anymore. My body is sore from it lol. I have heard good things about blumat but no experience with it
Ideally I’d like all rooms to be controlled settings with automated watering to reduce the amount of work on me. I have a job and family. It’s too much to handle things solo and manually.
Exhaust - I had planned to vent from basement up and through the roof. To reduce smell. I was thinking this could cause issues though. If anything needs repair. I don’t want stinky humid air getting into the rest of the house or a hard time finding it due to the length of ducting. Guessing the only option is out the side of the house with carbon scrubbers. Any advice on the best quality ones to use would also be appreciated.
Any advice as far as the construction would be greatly appreciated too. Thanks!
You are thinking of the basement right? There might be an issue with the floor being too cold (for the roots). You might need those 2’x2’ interlocking gym mats for a thermal break (depends on the construction of the slab etc).
Excellent! I was thinking of a large sealed box structure that would have a couple furnace filters filtering the incoming air. The box being large enough to house a humidifier or dehui. as seasons require. Consider separate air paths if you are thinking of breading.
I think it’s everyone’s dream to start from scratch and build a grow space to our exact specs. Awesome that you have that opportunity. Good luck with the build and have fun. Perhaps @misterbee could chime in. I believe he did a custom job on a garage.
Hah. How did I run out of likes exactly on your post.
This thread just made my nipples hard boy!
I wish I did have some input for you. But I’ve been coastal living for the past 25 years almost and haven’t seen a basement since. This sounds awesome as hell and I hope you keep all of us abreast of your progress.
Definitely will be breeding. Which is also why I am skeptical of pulling air from outside of the house. One room will have pollen and some will make it out through my exhaust. Don’t want it pulled back in through my air intake into a flower room. Also the -20c temps in winter
Look forward to seeing what you come up with in different aspects.
Getting ready to start o a build myself, but mine is going upwards rather than basement.
Ayyo!
If you are concidering a mini split:
Get a heat pump version that can run in reverse and can be used as a heater too. Higher the seer # the more efficent on power they will be. Mine is 19 seer. They work really well for dehumidification too.
An idea ive been collecting bits for is to have the lights in a sealed loop with the living space to use for heating the house in the winter, and in summer switch the loop to outside intake/exhaust.
For automatic watering, checkout Tropf Blumats. German product, not commonly used in USA, so they can be tricky to source somtimes, the 12x kit has everyting you need for ~90$
If you have it available in “O’Canada”, I would mention a Four/4 Zone DIY Mr Cool Mini-Split (premiumhomesource.com)/mrcooldiy.ca The 4th Generation Series is the way to go. I went with Ventless Propane in my Garage, both in the Basement (Growing Area) AND Upstairs in the Garage/Workshop. Because I have a separate 10’ish x 30’ area for Seedstarting/Cloning (Hydro, Fog, and Atomizing Cloners), I’m going to supplement the Propane Heaters with a Three Zone DIY System this Fall/Winter for more complete coverage. I really don’t need the “Cooling”, the Garage is nice and cool in the Summer. ALL installation can be performed by yourself, although I’ll get an Electrician Friend to actually hook it up to the Service Panel. I see that the new 4th Gen 4 Zone Unit can come in just under $5,000US.
The comment concerning the Floor was spot on. I went with Molded Pallets (had a source), but will install 1" Insulating Sheating underneath them this Fall. In the Basement, I installed ALL my Outlets at the Ceiling Level, none toward the Floor. If, in the Garage, don’t forget to install GFI Outlets at the Beginning of EACH Run. I wish you all the success possible in your endeavors. Take care, stay safe and, be well…mister
Yeah get the mini splits with 4 inside units that all connect to one outside heat pump unit. I recommend doing completely sealed rooms with no ventilation. Use carbon filters and co2 injection and you never need outside air. Definitely insulate the floor and try to get a space for a mop sink somewhere down there.
