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Building Your Indoor Hydroponics Gardening Sealed Grow Room

Written by Chris Jefferson
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Guard your hydroponics indoor gardening investment using CEA

There are two basic types of indoor hydroponics gardening grow room. One of them is open to the world because it draws air from outside the grow room and removes air from inside the grow room in a circular venting and intake exchange. The other type of hydroponics grow room is a sealed room that does not exchange air with outside the grow room. A sealed grow room gives you the opportunity to engage in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA). Using CEA, you block out plant pests and diseases, maximize your C02 levels, and provide ideal temperature and humidity conditions for your hydroponics plants. In almost all cases, you get more yield per watt, and less risk to plants, using CEA. So what goes into building a hydroponics gardening sealed grow room? Here are the basic steps:

1. Measure total space you have for your indoor hydroponics gardening grow room.

2. Calculate the amount of lighting you’ll need to provide adequate coverage for that size room. Calculate the size air conditioner you’ll need and its electricity requirements. Calculate the electricity needs of any other electrical equipment you’ll use, such as fans, light movers, monitors, security equipment, pumps, etc. Add up all the electricity you’ll need, and then make sure that there’s adequate electrical supply, wiring, outlets, junction boxes, and circuit breaker infrastructure. If not, add up the costs and hassle of upgrading your electricity delivery and infrastructure, buying a generator or solar power unit, or downsizing your equipment so you decrease your electricity requirements. Before you start building your indoor hydroponics gardening grow room, figure all this out.

3. Go to your hydroponics store (in person, and/or online) and look at the range of equipment, installation parameters, and costs for your proposed CEA room. Make sure you have the funding to pay for the room, and the time/expertise to build it.

4. Using a mild bleach/anti-fungal solution, sterilize walls, ceiling, floor and any other indoor hydroponics grow room building structure.

5. If you’re using any hydroponics equipment or other materials that require interface with the outside world (such as something that has to be wired to an outside room), install them after the cleaning.

6. Cover hydroponics grow room walls and ceiling in Easy Grow, IR Block or similar materials. I highly recommend that you use an infrared blocking material to manage your ceiling and outside-facing walls so infrared doesn’t escape through them.

7. When you’re building a sealed hydroponics grow room, get rid of the carpets. Don’t have a carpeted floor in a hydroponics grow room. Cover floor with thick waterproof tarpaulin.

8. Install lighting, light stands, light movers, timers, monitors, Cool Flame C02 generator and other equipment. If you want to run a hydroponics Sea of Green or SCROG hydroponics garden, or if you want to save money on air conditioning, consider Solar Genesis plasma or plasma/LED lighting from Chameleon Grow Systems. This new type of lighting provides specialized light wavelengths tuned to create essential oils in your flowers, with far less heat and better electricity conversion and savings when compared to HID. It is ideal for Sea of Green and SCROG applications, as well as any situation in which you need crop-specific light wavelengths and you have dense, bushy plants that are less than 5 feet tall. Another benefit of using this plasma light instead of HID in a sealed grow room: it generates a lot less heat than HID.

9. Install grow system. Consider the Under Current, Easy Feed or Hydro Stacker systems.

10. Install security system. See my security articles here at rosebudmag.com. Security consists of closed-circuit television cameras, motion detectors, and hydroponics monitors that defeat fires, electrical problems, pump problems, water shortages, etc.

11. Install plants.

Select the right irrigation system for your hydroponics plants

These 11 steps are a very basic guide to what you’ll do to install a CEA hydroponics indoor gardening grow room. Building a hydroponics indoor gardening sealed grow room is a major investment of time and money. If you’ve never run CEA before, there will be a learning curve as you get practical hands-on experience running the grow room. If you’ve gotten new types or brands of equipment, familiarize yourself with operating procedures before you install your plants. If you want plug and play, look at a GrowBot (pre-built, transportable, customizable grow rooms, some as big as 52 feet long). A hydroponics CEA room pays for itself in increased yield, ease of growing and prevention of plant pests and diseases. Please share your experiences with CEA, or ask questions, in our comments section.