Air cooling suggestions? (thermostats? portable aircons?)

[Pure]

I had and LG refrigerated climate control unit it had temperature range settings that I setup for it when it got out of the range it would heat if needed ( very rarely where i was )and cool when needed it also had an activated carbon filter to clean the air it was sucking in , which helped allot to cut down the smell around the house was about the size of a large tower server case and about one and a half of them wide

 

I used to cool the room the grow room was in and I had good exhaust and intake , provided your sucking in the cool air and of course have proper exhaust it's allot cheaper and more efficient to cool a room that contains your grow room instead of haveing the AC inside of the room

 

 

 

agg I need to go to bed ....

[bufo marinus]

Yes cooling the smaller space 2 x 2mtr will be cheaper than cooler 4 x 4, but I would wonder if the unit would be working too much with the chamber being constantly ventilated and if the temperature swing would be greater? An exhaust fan on a timer to exhaust the main room every 4hrs would have the unit running less I would guess?

[Dave The Nefarious]

One problem with those ice fans is that they increase humidity due to the evaporation, whereas the portable air conditioner dehumidifies while it cools (but at greater $expense obviously, but better and more stable results and with no work involved). Also if youre gonna go the ice fan route then rather than buying one you might as well just use a normal cheap fan and just sit an icecream container of frozen water in front of it. But even with a 2 or 3L iceblock I cant imagine that lasting too long in the warm drafty conditions of a grow chamber.

 

Anyway while I wait for the arrival of my portable air conditioner on Thurs or Fri i'll try the iceblock method tonight just to see how long the bloody thing lasts and how much it affects the temperature. Ive got a 500ml iceblock sitting in the freezer, ill try it tonight when the flower chamber lights come on.

 

I wonder how much of a cooling effect fanning a tray of room-temp water would have (as opposed to ice), youd still have the evaporation->humidity problem but maybe just sitting a bowl of water in front of the fan will help drop temperatures a few C without the extra hassle of having to use ice.

 

Anyway ill have a play around tonight.

[123abc]

now that you put it like that.. maybe room temp water with room temp heats would have little or no effect on the C.. since the temp of the water is dictated by the outside environment

 

I think the ice blocks are placed behind the fan.. so they provided the sucked air instead of the chilled blown air..

 

Not sure- havnt tryned it personally

Edited January 10, 2007 by 123abc

[Dave The Nefarious]

yeah Ive got no idea myself how room temperature water would go, i'll be trying it first though ... i'll hazard a guess that it would still have at least a minor affect on the temperature because water is evaporating and that is being blown by a fan so it should chill a little bit. The additional humidity it creates may cancel it out though. Knew i shouldve paid more attention in school.

 

Hadnt thought of putting the iceblock behind the fan, ill have to try it both ways. The iceblock may even last a little longer if the fan isnt blowing directly onto it

[123abc]

haha i think we all should have paid more attention in school.. but its hard when u have a 80 year old dinosaur talking with a constant stuck up pommy accent and threating to strap your backside if you dont bow down to the foto of the queen every time you enter the room *shrugz*

 

Yeah i think the blowing of hot air onto cold ice bricks will make the blocks melt faster..

i guess it will create alot of extra humidity.. but ive never grown indoors so ..

 

My mate said, they always have a guy guarding the room.. and that it is his choir to replace the ice pack every few hours.. ontop of that- they always keep 1 spare brick pack in the freezer (coz the package comes with 2x2 bricks).. and also they keep some ultra chilled ice water in the fridge (setting near max cold) so when they poor in the new Iced water.. time to ice is very low

[Pure]

Yes cooling the smaller space 2 x 2mtr will be cheaper than cooler 4 x 4, but I would wonder if the unit would be working too much with the chamber being constantly ventilated and if the temperature swing would be greater? An exhaust fan on a timer to exhaust the main room every 4hrs would have the unit running less I would guess?

 

 

I actually said the opposite ,

 

 

cooling the room itself is not a good option , the cool air will be vented out in no time at all , if however you cool the room that contains your grow room then you suck in cold air , constantly which is all you really need to do to keep everythign cool , that room that contains the room is also pretty much always gonna be a few degree's cooler than the actual grow room so bringing the temp down isn't such a tedious task

 

 

simply by a unit that allows you to set a temperature range that thats all you need to do no sense in wasting money and time with timers when you can do it an easier and cheaper way

[bufo marinus]

Yes, my apologies I misread your other post Pure.

[pug1010]

Thanks Pure.

 

I have been trying to find a solution regarding air-cons and odour and you have just provided it (well actually you provided it ages ago, it just took me a long time to find it)...thanks heaps mate.

 

I think I will try the following, based on your posts and see how it goes:

 

Possible Air-con and Odour Solution:

 

Equipment

1. Grow tent with passive vents and carbon filter attached to Fan.

2. An air-conditioned room that houses the grow tent - the Air-con exhausts air outside.

 

Method: Smelly grow tent air gets filtered and exhausted through carbon filter/fan (in grow tent). Newly filtered air (from grow tent) exits the grow tent through a small amount of ducting and goes back into the room with an air-con. Air-con cools, dehumidifies and exhausts hot air outside through window/vent/ducting. Cool, dehumidified air from room is sucked passively into grow tent through passive vents. Cycle continues.

 

Bonus:

1. In dedicated room, a cheap method of carbon dioxide enrichment can be used in the room itself, as air-con will only turn on when temperature goes above set level...thus, co2 will stay in the room for some time and be cycled through grow tent.

2. In a one bedroom apartment/studio, one air-con can be used to cool the main room and the grow room - smell is controlled by a carbon filter in the grow tent. As long as the exhaust fan in the grow tent is on, negative pressure will ensure no smell escapes out of the vents

Edited March 31, 2010 by pug1010

[El_Badass]

Interesting topic. Down here in El Taco Grande it gets stiflingly hot in summer and so I bought a portable A/C late last year hoping to be evergreen all year. But cuz I'm renting I can't just cut a hole in the cieling and vent exhaust gases through the roof. I didn't use the window exhaust kit because I was a little concerned about them pesky pork choppers with their infrared cameras which I've read try to pick up heat signatures coming out of windows. So far I've just had the exhaust blow into the rest of the house which as you'd imagine was marginally successful.

If anyone can enlighten me with some info I'm all ears.

A couple of things I've considered so far are having the warm exhaust air cooled by water in the resevoir or to raise the A/C up.