Air Conditioners and Stealth

[jimbojones5678]

Lets start by me declaring that I have very little understanding of how air-conditioners in a grow room work. OK?

 

I'm moving house and the new room has a air conditioner in it. I think you call it a split system (the thin vent on the wall and the big box outside...)

anyway...I presume that I can't run this without CO2 injection? yes/No? - and if I did, would it leak the smell from it's exhaust?

Is there any way to filter an AC?

 

Here's a pic of the AC details anyway incase it helps...it's in a 3x4m room.

 

Jimbo

[Al B. Fuct]

Split system air conditioners have no connection between the airmass they are cooling and the outdoor air aside from the refrigerant running in tubes between the indoor and outdoor units. No filter is required because the indoor airmass isn't being vented to outdoors.

 

You will need to get CO2 into your grow room. The room airmass will become depleted of CO2 if it is relatively well sealed. What you can do is put in an exhaust fan which vents the grow air up into the attic or into another airmass in the house. This will draw fresh CO2 laden air into the op. Failing that, you can always splash out on a CO2 tank and a controller.

[Frazz]

I couldnt answer this Q comprehensively Jimbo but i found a neat explaination here http://www.coralair.com.au/a-guide.asp

 

and its got pictures, always a bonus for me ... aye i see your unit can use up to 3500W .. thats alotta 'tricity

 

[jimbojones5678]

What you can do is put in an exhaust fan which vents the grow air up into the attic or into another airmass in the house. This will draw fresh CO2 laden air into the op.

I get what you mean by having to replace the grow room air with fresh CO2 laden air but I don't quite get what you mean with the above explanation?

The exhaust fan will vent the old air but where does the fresh air come from? A traditional inlet with a blower???

If I did this the air-con would basically be temperature control hey?

So if the exhaust was running non-stop it would effectively neutralize the cooling attributes of the AC wouldn't it?

I would be better off running the exhaust for 5mins every hour to renew the CO2 ten let the AC stabilize the temps???

 

Thanks Frazzle & Al for the fast answers - good link Frazzle btw.

 

Jimbo

aye i see your unit can use up to 3500W .. thats alotta 'tricity

Dude there's one in every room and they run constantly so Im not stressing about electricity....it's already HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Al B. Fuct]

i see your unit can use up to 3500W .. thats alotta 'tricity

 

3500w is the cooling capacity, rated in terms of melting ice, believe it or not, in this case in the SI watt unit. The yanks still rate home a/c units in 'tons' (of ice per 24 hours).

 

The actual power draw for JJ's unit is about 1300W, which is actually a rather small aircon unit.

 

I have a 3kW window unit with rev cycle which requires a 15A ckt- and a big fuckin' window.

[lurch]

hey jimbo i am an aircon mechanic by trade so i might be able to give some advice. like aib said 3.5kw is cooling capacity only and it doesn't use that much power only when compressor outside is running depending on how many lights you are running in your room 3mx4m. what you could do is run the a/c all the time but raise the setpoint to like 26deg or something which will circulate air over the plants all the time instead of using other smaller fans but it will only cool the room down when it gets over 26 so it wont use much power all the time.

[Gazza2001au]

if you dont wanna mess with co2 run the air conditioner when the lights are on and run a exhaust fan once every hour just long enough to replace the air in the room each hour doing this u wont have a problem