Plant Room Construction

[Brotherly Monkey]

Originally Posted by littlefrog

Yeah, like I said, it was an idea. Supposedly somebody tried this, but it is anecdotal. Plural of anecdote is not data...

I still might try it.

Rob

did the person mention if they measured the FCs from the system, at all?

[littlefrog]

Originally Posted by Brotherly Monkey

did the person mention if they measured the FCs from the system, at all?

Not that I know of. Like I said, anecdotal... Quote was 'It worked'. How well? I have trouble believing it worked at all, but maybe. Hard to tell without data, a lightmeter would be a step in the right direction. But, I really have my doubts about light meters and artificial light setups. Most meters don't do a very good job with fluorescent lights, much less LEDs which you would assume have a very tight spectrum.

Now I could be dating myself, new meters might be better. I haven't used one in 15 years. I use the shadow of my hand and the way the plants look as my light meter.

Rob

[Brotherly Monkey]

do you mean due to the various spectrum issues you run into with artificial set-ups? Or do you mean actually measuring the light intensity accurately?

[littlefrog]

A little of both, I think. Not a physicist. I have found that the light meters I have tried do a spectacularly bad job of measuring artificial light. Perhaps they are measuring in wavelengths that aren't predominant in the various light sources. I've seen meters read much higher than I would have estimated, or substantially lower. It is probably due to the spectral output of the bulbs.

I'll qualify that by saying I've not gone out of my way to try higher end meters, they probably do a better job. And I haven't tried any at all in the last many years, so perhaps the technology is better now. I really do estimate by eye, and since I've done it for a long time, I'm pretty good at it. The true test is always whether or not the plants look right. That can only be determined with time.

It turns out this is important to me, and I'm glad this thread is here, because I'm going to have to grow 100% under lights again very soon. Setting up a grow room this month. It has been a while since I've been entirely under lights, and I'm probably going to miss my greenhouse a bit. It will be interesting to see how 'modern' lighting technology is different than what I used 10 years ago.

[Oscarman]

How come you are moving indoors Rob? I would be very sad indeed to go from greenhouse to under lights.

[littlefrog]

Started another thread... Basically we moved. New house is zoned agricultural, and I'm permitted a greenhouse by right, but that doesn't mean the building department has to go out of its way to give me a building permit. They want ~3000 worth of engineering 'stamps' for a hoophouse that is already engineered... Someday I'll go back and argue with them about what is reasonable and what is not, but the greenhouse i want to put up is recycled and free, I'm not spending $3000 to get it engineer approved when it was designed by an international company to withstand virtually anything that nature could throw. I've shown them the original diagrams and a letter from the president of GCS, but that doesn't seem to be enough.

So... regardless of what I want to do, a new greenhouse isn't happening this fall. Lights it is!

Rob

[Brotherly Monkey]

3000 dollars worth of building permits to toss up a green house? How long would that even take to pop-up?

[littlefrog]

Originally Posted by Brotherly Monkey

3000 dollars worth of building permits to toss up a green house? How long would that even take to pop-up?

That wasn't building permits... That is extra. The 3k was for an engineer's approval and stamp. Might have been less, might have been more, I sort of tuned out when they started asking for the moon.

With the crew I use, would have been up and covered in two days. Would have taken another week to run all the electrical and hook up the furnaces (I do that myself). Really not a big deal.

[RJSquirrel]

LED Grow Lights by ProSource Worldwide Inc.

a 1000w LED sufficient for 8 x 6 growing area = 1200 bucks..an HID IMO for the same space would cost you at least that much trying to cool the place down in the summer as just the electric bill alone would choke you some more on them..If LEDS are all they are cranked up to be we will see a lot more of them...you can program the spectrum to meet your needs with an LED.

Lets see how that metal cover does over the HIDS got bacon?

[Brotherly Monkey]

Originally Posted by littlefrog

That wasn't building permits... That is extra. The 3k was for an engineer's approval and stamp. Might have been less, might have been more, I sort of tuned out when they started asking for the moon.

lol, I could only imagine.