I am a new member and a COMPLETE noob when it comes to growing.
This is my first "content" post.
I was planning a grow within a converted, medium sized (155 bottle, current model) wine cabinet. The cabinet was going to be in an unheated garage (in the Southeast) that was subject to wide ambient seasonal temperature swings. My expectation that the large concrete slab would act as a heat sink, moderating the air temperature swings. I concluded after many heat gain/loss calculations that my 13 cubic foot would not be a reliable grow chamber for my uses although I did uncover some novel ways (for me anyway) to provide supplemental heat w/o taking up a lot of space, e.g., rope incandescent lighting wove (weaved?) between the pots. I can comment in more detail if someone is curious.
While I was working on this knotty problem I was trying to come up with a way of keeping heat in the chamber. So I decided to use an adjustable shelf approach with 8 CFL's in two four socket pole lamp fixtures (some people call them other things). I chose these because:
1)I wanted more lamps as opposed to fewer 2) the geometry worked out that the axis of cluster was directly above the center of each of 3 gallon pots. 3) the clusters would (and do) rotate so that rotating (clock and counter clockwise) the cluster up to 45 degrees would give me 360 degree adjustability (I nudge them a bit every day) 4) could easily accept 46 watt bulbs 5) I wanted a horizontal bulb orientation because I think its more effective and tp preserve as much vertical grow space as possible. I am aware that the horizontal/vertical CFL debate is largely unresolved.
Most importantly, I didn't feel that I could use reflectors (unquestionably the better approach under normal/other conditions ) without severely affecting grow space or limiting the number of reflectors.
That's where I was when I abandoned the idea of a garage grow so I focused on making the cabinet super stealthy which I did when I got an idea. (I can comment on what I did regarding noise if there is interest.)
Why not "gasket" the light shelf so that a variable volume (by raising/lowering the gasketed light shelf) growing chamber is created? In this fashion, virtually ALL of the cfl output is kept in a smaller space. In my case, its a square chamber 21" on each side for an area of 441 sq inches. Venting takes up 48". So the "roof" of the growing space (mylar) is about 400 sq inches net. I think that's not so bad. Also, though not unique to this specific instantiation, the amount of reflected light (top half of horizontal bulb) is always a constant.
A simple way of considering this design approach is to ask yourself if you had three (or more) identical footprint (area ) grow cabinets that had exactly the same CFL lumens but were of different heights, would you think it would be advantageous to start the plants in the smallest chamber and then moved it to the next larger chamber and so on as the plant grew? That's the basic idea.
As a new member and aware of the "butt-sniffing" that new members get, I would like to emphacise that I do not feel this is some major advancement in growing weed. Its simply an idea which I stumbled across when I realized my initial design for the garage would not work. Maybe this design has merit, maybe not. If you're butt-sniffing (like animals do when a newbie tries to join a pack), I hope you don't think I'm an a-hole who thinks he has all the answers. I don't have ANY answers as my grow journal will attest to.
I am interested in your thoughts on this concept which MAY result in a higher degree of CFL light "flooding", i.e., more of the lumens generated are kept in close proximity to the canopy.
Humbly submitted for discussion-
T.
Note: The white door sweep "gasketing" is being replaced with a different door sweep - the rubber and aluminum kind that has slotted holes for screws. The sweep will use a butterfly nut which will enable sliding of the sweep against the walls then the butterfly will be tightened to lock it in place.
This is my first "content" post.
I was planning a grow within a converted, medium sized (155 bottle, current model) wine cabinet. The cabinet was going to be in an unheated garage (in the Southeast) that was subject to wide ambient seasonal temperature swings. My expectation that the large concrete slab would act as a heat sink, moderating the air temperature swings. I concluded after many heat gain/loss calculations that my 13 cubic foot would not be a reliable grow chamber for my uses although I did uncover some novel ways (for me anyway) to provide supplemental heat w/o taking up a lot of space, e.g., rope incandescent lighting wove (weaved?) between the pots. I can comment in more detail if someone is curious.
While I was working on this knotty problem I was trying to come up with a way of keeping heat in the chamber. So I decided to use an adjustable shelf approach with 8 CFL's in two four socket pole lamp fixtures (some people call them other things). I chose these because:
1)I wanted more lamps as opposed to fewer 2) the geometry worked out that the axis of cluster was directly above the center of each of 3 gallon pots. 3) the clusters would (and do) rotate so that rotating (clock and counter clockwise) the cluster up to 45 degrees would give me 360 degree adjustability (I nudge them a bit every day) 4) could easily accept 46 watt bulbs 5) I wanted a horizontal bulb orientation because I think its more effective and tp preserve as much vertical grow space as possible. I am aware that the horizontal/vertical CFL debate is largely unresolved.
Most importantly, I didn't feel that I could use reflectors (unquestionably the better approach under normal/other conditions ) without severely affecting grow space or limiting the number of reflectors.
That's where I was when I abandoned the idea of a garage grow so I focused on making the cabinet super stealthy which I did when I got an idea. (I can comment on what I did regarding noise if there is interest.)
Why not "gasket" the light shelf so that a variable volume (by raising/lowering the gasketed light shelf) growing chamber is created? In this fashion, virtually ALL of the cfl output is kept in a smaller space. In my case, its a square chamber 21" on each side for an area of 441 sq inches. Venting takes up 48". So the "roof" of the growing space (mylar) is about 400 sq inches net. I think that's not so bad. Also, though not unique to this specific instantiation, the amount of reflected light (top half of horizontal bulb) is always a constant.
A simple way of considering this design approach is to ask yourself if you had three (or more) identical footprint (area ) grow cabinets that had exactly the same CFL lumens but were of different heights, would you think it would be advantageous to start the plants in the smallest chamber and then moved it to the next larger chamber and so on as the plant grew? That's the basic idea.
As a new member and aware of the "butt-sniffing" that new members get, I would like to emphacise that I do not feel this is some major advancement in growing weed. Its simply an idea which I stumbled across when I realized my initial design for the garage would not work. Maybe this design has merit, maybe not. If you're butt-sniffing (like animals do when a newbie tries to join a pack), I hope you don't think I'm an a-hole who thinks he has all the answers. I don't have ANY answers as my grow journal will attest to.
I am interested in your thoughts on this concept which MAY result in a higher degree of CFL light "flooding", i.e., more of the lumens generated are kept in close proximity to the canopy.
Humbly submitted for discussion-
T.
Note: The white door sweep "gasketing" is being replaced with a different door sweep - the rubber and aluminum kind that has slotted holes for screws. The sweep will use a butterfly nut which will enable sliding of the sweep against the walls then the butterfly will be tightened to lock it in place.
