- Details
- Written by: Francesco Nicoletta
- Category: Gardening Corner
How to set up a Growroom.

If you too are waiting to vote in the referendum on cannabis to be able to grow comfortably at home,
it will certainly be useful to understand how important the environment and habitat that is created inside a grow room can be and what are the main characteristics that it should maintain to allow us to get the best from our beloved cannabis seeds .
Index of sections
- How to determine the lighting in the growroom.
- Ventilation system.
- In conclusion.
If you are undecided about which solution to adopt due to the limited space, the same proposed layout, but scaled down, could be useful for setting up simple household wardrobes. The grow room is the space generally larger than a common growbox in which to install the tools necessary for growing indoor plants:
- Lighting system;
- ventilation system;
- odor control system.
After this short guide you will be able to understand and set up a simple grow room for your plants. First of all, for intensive cannabis cultivation, HID lamps are used that must be able to illuminate a certain surface on which our plants will be planted. Assuming a 4x8x10m grow room, our first step will be to calculate how many and which lamps to choose to start our production; The second step will be to connect the HIDs to an air cooling system that takes place through a ventilation system chosen based on the size of the room and the power of the lights used in cultivation; The third step will be to connect all the elements that make up the ventilation system with the carbon filters and the ozone release system through a temperature control panel. By carefully following these three steps, we could guarantee health and well-being to our small plants.
How to determine the lighting in the growroom.
Tornando alla nostra ipotetica grow room di 4x8x10, dovremo per prima cosa calcolare la nostra superficie di lavoro che sarà fondamentale per determinare quante lampade e quale ventilazione sarà sufficiente per il nostro ambiente.
- So our work surface will be 4x8 = 32m ° 2.
The power of HID lamps generally varies from 400W, 600W and 1000W. This type of lamp is known as metal halide. A name that mainly refers to its chemical composition. These high-powered lights with excellent color reproduction are generated by passing an electric arc through a mix of gases (argon, mercury, iodide and bromide of different metals, among others). This mix regulates the naturalness of the light produced by being able to vary the color temperature and its intensity. HID lamps on the market are considered to be among the cheapest; they are also easy to use and do not involve large installations which increase the costs of our cultivation. Furthermore, its efficiency in indoor cultivation is more than guaranteed, as long as the manufacturer's instructions are followed. Understanding which power will be the most suitable for our cultivation will basically depend on the quantity of plants and the energy consumption we want to take.
Having said that, its main drawback is that they are not plugged directly into standard sockets, but you need to have an electrical regulator, an appliance that serves to keep stable and limit the intensity of the current, and a special coating for connect it, which leads to an increase in electricity consumption. Furthermore, they have a much more limited life which is around 10,000 hours of light. This kind of lamps will be used to replicate, on our cultivation, the natural light of the spring and autumn months. Thanks to their composition, they are more powerful in the blue light spectrum than in the red one, and for this reason they represent the best option for our plants to receive the right light requirements during the vegetative phase. In this phase, the stems, branches and leaves grow and develop, there is the possibility to act with pruning and maintenance, so that thanks to the blue spectrum of the lamp the photosynthesis process is facilitated in order to produce very luxuriant plants.
The average life span of a metal halide is approximately 10,000 hours, therefore over 400 days of activity. Furthermore, its low cost will not involve a large investment when the lamp reaches the end of its cycle, since they can be found (although the price always depends on the power) from 20 euros. Approximately within a growroom in each square meter there are approximately 40w of power; therefore, our lighting will be determined by multiplying the square meters of the surface by 40w.
- 32mq x 40w = 1280W
And these 1280W will be the total lighting needed to make our chosen space productive. Once this data has been obtained and returning to the power of the lamps generally used, it will be necessary to choose between 3 400W lamps (400x3 = 1200), or with two 600W lamps (600x2 = 1200watt) to be placed in our growroom.
Ventilation system.
The second step consists in connecting to these HID lights a ventilation system that includes the use of cooling reflectors connected with the lamps that allow to obtain a temperature control system that passes directly through the lights expelling the hot air generated by the strong. lighting wattage. Once we understand which component to add, we need to calculate the size of the air intake fan. The intake fan, which we will conventionally call Fan A, must correspond to a certain size sufficient to extract the hot air created by the HID system. The size of the intake fan should range between 0.2 and 0.3 cubic feet per minute (CFM) x watt of the lights. CFM stands for cubic feet per minute.
Each fan is evaluated in CFM and this classification tells us the volume of air that the fans can move over time, if the CFM grows, consequently the size of the fan nozzle increases and also the air capacity that can move. thus creating greater cooling. Also this second step the important data on which the cooling system depends is the total wattage of the lamps that will be subjected to cooling.
The equation for Fan A will therefore be:
- 600 + 600= 1200watt
- 1200 x 0.2 = 240 CFM
- 1200 x 0.3= 360 CFM
These two results of the equation represent the right oscillation that the fans can go through in order to have the optimal result in terms of air intake. Obviously, the larger the fan size, the greater the amount of air moved. The basic dimensions of the Fan A therefore needs 1200 x .2 = e40 cfm and 1200 x .3 = 360 cfm which would be the oscillation threshold of the fans to be used. Fans typically have a size of:
- 4 pollici (100mm);
- 6 pollici (150mm);
- 8 pollici (200mm)
The question that arises is how to choose the right fan size?
4 inches we have 175 cfm;
6 we have 450 cfm
8 we have 750 cfm.
So looking at our equation of 240 and 360 CFM we can decide the right size of the fan which in our case is the 6 one, since it manages to cover the right range of action. Consequently, all the air vents and junction pipes must be of the same size to ensure the right amount of air.
In conclusion.
The components listed above will be useful in order to assemble and compose spaces dedicated to cultivation in your home, both large (growroom) and within a smaller space (growbox). The light, the passage of air and the temperature control allow to recreate and simulate the necessary conditions useful for the growth of vegetables, allowing us to intervene manually when a problem in the production circle should occur. Furthermore, by connecting all the instruments to digital control panels, it is possible to monitor the status of the cultivation and the internal atmosphere. We remember that in the course of its life, the plant will go into different stages, germination, vegetative and flowering. All these phases require particular precautions such as, for example, different temperatures and humidity, from a maximum of 90% in the germination phase, to a 70% in the flowering phase; the hours of light will have to change according to the growth, from 18/6 to 16/8 hours of light and dark. But with this little guide and the particular precautions you will be able to obtain an optimal growth space for the production of flowers with satisfactory results also in terms of quality.
Fonti.