How to set up air con?

[murphs]

Hello there,

 

Coming into summer here in victoria im needing to run a 1200w portable air con unit, ducting the heat out of my 2.9x1.45x2m grow tent. My question do I have to turn off my extraction filter/fan while the air con runs? If so, will this create an odour problem? Anyone else using air con in summer? Your advice and expertise would be appreciated

 

Murphs

[Ozzy420]

You will need to leave all ya fans on wile running the aircon as u said the stink will go every where with out the odour controll.

 

Word of warning portable air cons need to b ducted as well and can put out some heat through the ducting that needs to be vented out side.

 

What you could do is get some ducting attach it to the outlet of the air con some how and run the ducting strait into the tent pumpin the cool air wile keep the heat out of the tent that those aircons can put...

[murphs]

Thanks for your reply Ozzy,

 

My portable unit sucks air in from its side panel, pumps out cool air from its top and has a 5inch ducting exhaust out the back, that I will position in a way to remove the heat from my grow room/tent.

 

I guess is what im asking is - when i leave the filter/exhaust running and also run the air con at the same time it doesnt appear to lower the tent's temperature at all because this cold air is being ducted away as fast as the air con can produce it. So what now?

Edited December 4, 2014 by murphs

[Biggdogg]

Make sure your AC is blowing the cold air into the bottom of the tent, and the exhaust is sucking from the top of the tent, you might even need to put ducting on the front of the AC to feed the cold air to the ground

[Knarfman]

I have mine setup outside the tent with a cardboard box over the front and ducting running into the tent.

 

When I first did this I placed the vent at the opposite end of the tent to the filter extraction thinking it  would be drawn over the plants by the filter..  BUT this didn't work. 

A smoke test showed what you suspect that the cool air was being exhausted before it had time to cool the room ..   so I placed the vent at the SAME end as the filter and directed it at the floor of the tent and a smoke test showed that the air travelled along the bottom of the tent (from the pressure of the aircon fan), under the plants hit the back wall then flowed up and back over the tops of the plants into the filter.

 

This cools the room nicely on those really hot days.

 

Oh I spose I should mention I don't use smoke as in light a fire   I get some dry ice and place it in a tub of water and use the "smoke" from that.

 

hope this helps.

 

 

[Sixty-Eight]

Murphs the key would be to down grade your ventilation fan maybe put it on a fan speed controller and crank it right down because your running air conditioning u no longer need to suck the guts out of your tent to keep it cool u only ideally need to exchange the air and keep a constant low pressure in side of the growing area to keep the smell away

 

i have forgotten how many times u need to exchange the air per hour but if u just put a fan speed controller in and keep decreasing the fans speed untill u smell the plants outside of the growing area than just bump up the fan speed a tad just enough untill the smell is removed and you'll find your air condtioner will work brilliantly

 

just a suggestion if u can afford to run a 1200w air conditioner have u thought about running a closed off grow room? your most of the way there u would only need to run Co2 in your grow room than you'd have the ultimate in luxery

[tangwena]

Hi I used a/c for a year in my tent and sixty eight is 100% correct just suck enough air out to creat a negative pressure inside the tent to make sure air only goes in not out, that way the filters will do their job and no smell comes out.

Tangwena

[murphs]

Thank you for all your advice and imput guys.

 

When thinking about it I had just turned up my exhaust fan to maxflow to try combat the heat issues (33-35C), before I gave up and wheeled out the portable air con I had lying around from last summer. I'll turn the fan back down and try again. Interesting Knarfman, about the actual airflow from the a/c - you have save me a lot of time working that out, and it makes total sense. As for 'affording' the 1200w a/c - really dont want to have to run this ( i'd rather put it to lights). I am attempting to run 4x600w in the tent, so a lot of heat being generated in such  a small space. And over summer i'm going to be pushing 'sh$t' up hill trying.

[Knarfman]

I used to be into racing (drag) in my youth we were called Bodgie and Rough Racing and we had T-shirts made up with mine stating " I'm Bodgie" and his "I'm Rough" so don't laugh till ya try it.

 

Make a solar powered A/C just for the really hot days..

 

Take 1 large (30litre) plastic eskey.

go to Hardware store and buy a 200mm poly elbow 90 degrees

from ebay get a solar powered fan.

 

Cut 2 holes in the top of the esky lid one for the elbow and glue in facing away from the centre

the other a match for the fan size you got and glue it in place so that it blows into the esky

 

 

now stick the solar cell where it gets sun and place ice inside the esky and turn on

 

the ice should last about 5 hours (if you have spent a little care building) and should maintain an output of about 15 degrrees

 

 

If you look on YouTube there are plenty of designs.....

 

P.S. good for those days vegging with a cone in front of the TV over Christmas too

[brick]

Another way! If your tent is in a reasonably small/medium sized room you could use the AC to cool the room temp down first so the tent fan/fans suck the cool air generated by the ac into the tent through the bottom openings in the tent. It should work well enough to keep the tent temps at a manageable figure.Would save a lot of mucking around and should be able to handle any heat that comes from the tent vents. Keep the room door closed though as the ac will try to cool the whole house otherwise. Assuming the tent is in a house and not an out door shed or garage. Just set the ac on about 20-22 degrees to keep the room cool and it should work ok. It may even start to cycle on and off if you leave it running 24/7