... a nice greenhouse heater,keeps things at whatever temp I want - whats optimal? If lack of light is a problem, I could sort something out, getting power to it is no problem at all, what type of lighting is best or do I just go for the brightest!?... masking smell (surely one exists?)J
Temps = 70-80 degrees F; but if you can use co2 and bright lights, then you can run it up to 85-90; be sure to insulate the soil and roots from the cold ground too; I use wooden boards to lift everything two inches off the ground
Lights = I use a 400w HID and a 600w HID with Hortilux bulbs and 4x10.0 Zoomed lizard lights for supplemental uvb (I am a strong believer in value of uvb; I have had great results with photoperiods, but this season I'm going to try several different strains of autofemms) BUT if I could afford it, I would get rid of the HID's and use high output t5's; HO t5 produce about 100 lumens per watt (nothing, not even LED's are better) and maximum electrical efficiency plus they are the same length as the lizard lights (48") so you can cram maximum lighting into small space; the other great advantage of t5s is that they distribute the light evenly; HID's create a hemispherical illumination pattern - t5 create a nice flat square area of consistent illumination.
the smell = that can be a very serious problem, conventional wisdom suggests a good carbon filter system would probably cost you $100-$150 (I think); whatever it costs, it is worth it because that is likely to make the difference between getting busted or not; IMHO, the #1 cause of getting popped is snitches with the #2 cause = smell a close second; I have never really had to worry about using a carbon filter even when I got the grow room going at maximum; I am not exactly sure why, but I think it might be because the humidity is so incredibly low where I live (southwestern USA in the desert) and because I have the grow room pretty well sealed and it is located out in the woods a bit more than 50 feet from the nearest neighbor; whatever happens, once your plants get going, get a trusted friend (my wife has the nose in the time zone) with a good smeller to walk around near your grow to see if they can smell anything.
I have never heard of anybody being able to "mask" the smell of pot growing - alot of people claim to use carbon filters successfully to "clean" the smell out of the air. It is amazing to me how often I read about pot busts where the poli got suspicious because somebody smelled the growing weed.
Remember: no smell, no tell, no sell.
