# The Desert Garage



## Vegas Kid (Feb 7, 2011)

*Welcome to the Eastern Mojave Desert** What kind of heat load could I expect? The ambient in the garage ranges this time of year from 27 F to 71 F but when summer hits and 117 F is ambient, Ill probably be down to a nursery: growing and holding under fluorescents and ½ ton of A/C. If you survive that, the monsoon season in August regularly hosts high humidity and high heat. *


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## vdog (Feb 7, 2011)

Hello, desert vdog here, same round about area you speak of, and exact same environment.  The summers indoors are awful! To be honest, if you can, get a mountain bike, quad, offroad golf cart, or dune buggy.  Get you a couple hardenend clones and go play in the desert.  You know as well as I do that there is plenty of places out there.  Joe Pesci quote from Casino "theres a lot of holes out in that desert"  ofcourse he meant final resting spots.  

As far as indoors, the best I did one summer, was keep the central air down to 72 degrees (in the house), and then overpowered my 400 w with a 440 cfm can fan, ejecting the hot bulb air into the attic.  Doing it in a garage is going to be way hard, I know how it gets, when its 117 outside, the garage can be 128, seriously, and then add a bulb.... forget about it (more mobster slang).   I saw a really really cool article in a skunk magazine, where the guy had framed a 8x8x8 in his garage, sheet rocked it, insulated it, and then hung a 12000 btu window unit thru the side with the exhaust also going out of the garage.  He pulled the whole summer with it in Las Vegas and the temps were 72 -78 degrees inside his constructed garage room.  I know that might be to much to ask, but man, not trying to kick your shins or demotivate you, but a garage grow in our neck of the woods in July, whoa!  Good luck, thats the trade I guess we get, short indoor season for a long outdoor.  I have smoked some of the best outdoor homegrown from bagseed in the desert, no lie.
Monsoon season, can be hard on plants, but not wipe them out, since there are usually only a handful of real bad rains, and mold is never an issue, because even with a front blowing in or out the humidity is still only 20%. Thats whats indicative of monsoons, real explosive and real quick, but then they go away, and things dry out really really quickly. The bigger issue and concern is getting water to your plants on a regular basis when its dry.  I also saw in a magazine, where a guy watered one plant every third day during the hot months and another plant once a week, both came from same mother.  The heavier watered plant yielded 22 ounces while the less watered yielded 8.  Like you said you might have to keep a smaller batch with less lights and a ton of a/c during june july august.  Not saying people dont grow successfully indoors in the southwest, but it takes ALOT of venting and conditioning of air.

P.S. if you play outdoors, look at afghani, I have heard that pure indicas sweat with resin in the high heat summers.


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## Vegas Kid (Feb 7, 2011)

I am in the process of Designing and constructing two grow cabinets. I have: 
2  *EasyCool 6 Reflectors from HGT*
*1  Squirrel cage blower and duct*
*6 37 to 40 W flourescents*

*1 400 W switch-able ballast*
*1 400 W HPS ballast.*
*1 1600 CFM attic vent (the reason the ambient in the garage is only in the teens, like a hundred and teens in the summer)*
*1 Dura-Kool (sic) swamp cooler (even choked back will deliver 800 CFM)*
*1 12,000 BTU A/C*
*1 8 Big Blue Ozone generator (as they say north of town, why use a kiloton when you can use a megaton) 800 CFM*


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## vdog (Feb 7, 2011)

ah yeah.... that might do it!  anything like that, which will put you in the ballpark of a walk in freezer is good for the summer, seriously!  Sounds like you got the ingredients to keep it chill!  Good luck, be sure to journal your construction and grow, this is gonna be kewl!


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## 420_Osborn (Feb 8, 2011)

Man, I used to live in Fort Mohave AZ. I'll be watchin this for sure..Good luck man,


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## Vegas Kid (Mar 2, 2011)

For a change Im going to design all the way to finish, rather than a series of hot sheets while in construction. The comment about the walk in freezer, although delivered in irony, didnt miss the mark by much. I think that the reality will be realized as two reach in/walk in/ walk through coolers, whose max temp is 78 degrees.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Mar 2, 2011)

How low do your temps get at night?  During the summer, I run my flowering room at night, as we often get temps over 100F.  I also have an arid climate and find I like using a swamp cooler.


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## Vegas Kid (Mar 5, 2011)

I will have to flower at night or Ill never see it.
During the summer you need 24/7 cooling and with seasonal high humidity you cant flower from mid July to the end of August with out a/c (indoors.) I would love nothing better than to have my grow cooled by the swamper. I suppose the main drawback, aside from seasonal humidity is the maintenance and constant baby sitting of a swamp cooler (pumps, spiders, floats, bearings, belts and pads) just too many things to go wrong while Im elsewhere. 
(BTW I have two swamp coolers on my home that are backed up by 4 tons of A/C) I will try to use the swamp cooler to buffer the garage against the additional 15,000+ BTU from the (probably 2) A/C units. Ambient, with out the vent fan the garage would be 135 to 150 F. I am sure it will hold 85 on the hottest of days with the cooler. Every year there are plenty of window a/c units on the used market, the result of misconceptions about their capability, or they were emergency use units to keep from having to check in to a local hotel when the A/C fails. Mine is in the garage.


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## Vegas Kid (Jul 28, 2011)

Boy, that sure sounded good in March. Grow cabinet/reach in cooler/Man Cave ran head on into Wife model 1 with a plan of her own. Cruise first, 10 X 40 patio with 16&#8221; on center framing and plywood next, then a 10 X 11 gable shed, and lastly cut out the shower and tile in a new bathroom X 2. AND since no 1 is happy if mommas not happy yada yada yada. The cruise to Mexico was great, and the patio shade is keeping the patio at only 111 degrees. (The garage is the same Temp.) The second bathroom tile is done, it should all wrap up this week. But I digress. 
There is no way I even going to think about going into that garage to build until October. It is so hot that I really, can for the first time appreciate what a Miserable experience a East Coast Heat Wave can be, I totally forgot. (we had lots of humidity lately) 
That&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been up to. And in a week it&#8217;s HEY LA
Design elements to follow.


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## Vegas Kid (Jun 20, 2014)

It is hard to believe it been 3 years since those rosy projections. 
I framed a 10 X 12 room with studs and dry wall. Installed the 1/3 hp attic vent. 
I rebuilt a whole house swamper and replaced the pulleys to reduce the air volume and lower the temperature.At 110 F ambient the swamp cooler can hold this area at about 85 F. @ 45 to 55% Relative Humidity. 
Within this room there is a 94 X 40 flower area. The air exchange in the flower area is handled by an 8 vortex blowing through a Big Blue Ozone Generator, 50 ft. of 8 duct and venting out a wind turbine on the roof. I have 2 - 400W sealed lights fed by a 6 booster fan (this vents below the attic vent). 
A Sentinel HID- 2 Lighting controller runs the lights and features time delay and staged restart that has proved its worth. A tower oscillating fan sit by the passive air intake. 
The chiller is 25 feet of coiled stainless steel tubing inside a Gott cooler with up to 3  1.25 liter soda bottles of frozen water. A digital temp controller (e-bay) controls the pump that circulates the nutrient from a 15 gallon reservoir. This redneck chiller will hold the reservoir at 67 to 70 F. (12 bottle back up) I bought the biggest air pump the Hydro store had and hooked up 4 air stones. I put the grow in hydroponics


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## Locked (Jun 20, 2014)

Thanks for the update....will check out the Hydroponics section.


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