Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible
anywhere!
If you must wire your own grow room electricity, make sure to plan ahead of time. Attach junction boxes, timers, etc., to a board, and mount the board on the wall once the appliances are in place.
The mechanical timer on the left will operate several lamps at the same time. The digital timer on the right operates a single 1000-watt HID.
Place ballasts on shelves so that they are up and out of the way.
Grow room controllers make dialing in the exact temperature and humidity for your grow show easy.
The timer on the right controls the entire lighting system in the grow room.
Wiring your own grow room is relatively easy. This grower hardwired a separate breaker box and timer that supports four lamps.
Fixing all wiring and electric devices to a control panel makes control and troubleshooting easy.
Attach ballasts to the wall so they are out of the way in the garden.
Diesel generators for truck and train car refrigerators are fairly easy to acquire and last for years. Once set up, one of these “Big Bertha” generators can run many, many lights. Check with wholesale railway and truck wrecking yard outlets for such generators. The generators are usually moved to a belowground location and covered with a building. With a good exhaust system and baffling around the motor, the sound is soon dissipated. Muffling the exhaust and expelling the fumes is a little complex but very effective. The exhaust must be able to escape freely into the atmosphere.
Maintaining a generator that runs 12 hours a day is a lot of work. The generator will need fuel and must be monitored regularly. If the generator shuts down prematurely, plants stop growing.
I once interviewed a grower who ran a generator for six years. He seemed to know a lot about the idiosyncrasies of the machine. He also had the innate feeling that the machine would do something outrageous if he were not there to make it right. This underlying theme dominated the entire interview. Running the generator motor–making sure it had oil, fuel, and ran quietly–was all he thought about when he was growing in the country with “Big Bertha”, who produced 20 kilovolts of electricity. Check this site for more information, www.hardydiesel.com .
Timers
A timer is an inexpensive investment that turns lights and other appliances on and off at regular intervals. Using a timer ensures that your garden will receive a controlled light period of the same duration every day.
Purchase a heavy-duty grounded timer with an adequate amperage and tungsten rating to meet your needs. Some timers have a different amperage rating for the switch; it is often lower than that of the timer. Timers that control more than one lamp are more expensive,because they require the entire force of electricity to pass through them. Many pre-wired timers are available at stores that sell HID lights.
How many lights (total watts) will the timer handle? If you are running more than 2000 or 3000 watts, you may want to attach the lamps to a relay, and control the relay with a timer. The advantage of a relay is it offers a path for more electricity without having to change the timer. There are numerous sophisticated timers on the market that will solve every last need you have.
Setting up the HID System - Step-by-Step
Step One: Before setting up the HID system, read “Setting Up the Grow Room” in Chapter Six, and complete the step-by-step instructions.
Step Two: Both the lamp and ballast radiate quite a bit of heat. Take care when positioning them, so they are not so close to plants or flammable walls and ceiling that they become hazardous. If the room has limited space with a low ceiling, place a protective, non-flammable material like metal between the lamp and ceiling to protect from heat. An exhaust fan will be necessary to keep things cool. It is most effective to place the remote ballast near the ceiling to keep things cool. Place it outside the grow room if the room is too hot. When hanging the lamp on the overhead chain or pulley system, make sure electrical cords are unencumbered and not too close to any heat source.
Step Three: Buy and use a good timer to keep the photoperiod consistent. A decent timer costs from $20 to $30 and is worth its weight in buds!
Step Four: To plug in the HID lamp, it will be necessary to find the proper outlet. A 1000-watt HID lamp will use about 9.5 amperes (amps) of electricity on a regular 120-volt house current.
A typical home has a fuse box or a
Weitere Kostenlose Bücher