Air conditioner question
- Thread starter Raymont
- Start date
Sure, but make sure the cold air id diffused and not directly hitting the plants. Buy a cheap temp/humidity monitor...plants in veg like higher (50%+) humidity.
Not sure if it gets any cooler in the night where you are growing, but many people run the lights at night to avoid adding heat to the midday temps.
Not sure if it gets any cooler in the night where you are growing, but many people run the lights at night to avoid adding heat to the midday temps.
- Thread starter
- #3
Yes, 16 is very low. Not an a/c guy but could you chill the room that houses the tent vs just the tent? Are you also trying to filter the smell? 90 degrees is not a deal breaker...my plants in my GH are fine between 50-100F...but those are highs and lows. If it is always @ 90F that might affect the yield. If you can get the humidity up they might actually be fine @ 90F now that I think about it. Humidifiers are cheap...maybe try that first?
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- #5
Im good with spending the money. I want to be certain to get it all right. Im running filteration inside with a 6 inch can filter and fan freestanding in corner. Light cooling will be direct air flow thru pushed by 6 inch fan. With a scrog I hope to pull a lb or close. Everything vegging now under LED...Plus my new home has central. Too bad I couldn't just duct the tent with air from the house...lol. Also want to do DYI c02
Why can't you duct direct from house a/c?
- Thread starter
- #7
Southerncough
Well-Known Member
hey there Raymont, I feel your pain.
Also growing in a very hot area here.
A few quick things...are you planning to use a single or dual hose ac?
where are you planning to vent your hot air hose from the AC?
The air coming out the back is HOT. like could really cause some problems hot if not dealt with.
Here's something I learned the hard way...if the exhaust route is significantly longer than the manufacturer's supplied hose your compressor may not cool off and your AC is now a plant toaster! I tied mine into my dryer vent with a 4x4 duct wye and it worked for a little bit until it got really hot here and it stopped blowing cold during peak temps. Then started blowing HOT air into my grow and killed one of my hindu kush plants!
At first I thought the AC was broken, so I took it apart in the driveway, everything seemed fine, fired it up and it blasted me with ice cold air...WTF? then I realized that the exhaust hose run was too long for the AC fan and had to add a 4" inline fan to my tie in point to boost the hot air from the compressor. At first I was playing with a speed controller but found it worked best wide open, so I took out the controller and plugged the fan straight into the wall.
Also, because mine is a single hose (that I got cheap off craigslist) it has to stay outside my tent and I use a 6" duct hooked to a booster fan with an old filter. Had one laying around that doesn't scrub odor anymore but serves as a free dust/bug filter for my intake.
A dual hose AC can stay in the tent as long as the hot air line goes safely out. If doing it over I would use insulated ducting because that silver hose gets HOT. I bumped my elbow on it yesterday and got a real zing LOL.
Only downside really would be losing that floorspace (say 18"x24").
Also, tapping into your home central AC can cause some issues because it's a balanced closed circuit system where the air handler pulls warm air from the house, cools it through the coils and then distributes it back to the house. BUT, when you pull that air into a grow room and then exhaust it out of the house you create negative pressure inside the home, which would then pull hot air from outside the house through window/door cracks, attic doors, etc.
Best luck!
-SC
Also growing in a very hot area here.
A few quick things...are you planning to use a single or dual hose ac?
where are you planning to vent your hot air hose from the AC?
The air coming out the back is HOT. like could really cause some problems hot if not dealt with.
Here's something I learned the hard way...if the exhaust route is significantly longer than the manufacturer's supplied hose your compressor may not cool off and your AC is now a plant toaster! I tied mine into my dryer vent with a 4x4 duct wye and it worked for a little bit until it got really hot here and it stopped blowing cold during peak temps. Then started blowing HOT air into my grow and killed one of my hindu kush plants!
At first I thought the AC was broken, so I took it apart in the driveway, everything seemed fine, fired it up and it blasted me with ice cold air...WTF? then I realized that the exhaust hose run was too long for the AC fan and had to add a 4" inline fan to my tie in point to boost the hot air from the compressor. At first I was playing with a speed controller but found it worked best wide open, so I took out the controller and plugged the fan straight into the wall.
Also, because mine is a single hose (that I got cheap off craigslist) it has to stay outside my tent and I use a 6" duct hooked to a booster fan with an old filter. Had one laying around that doesn't scrub odor anymore but serves as a free dust/bug filter for my intake.
A dual hose AC can stay in the tent as long as the hot air line goes safely out. If doing it over I would use insulated ducting because that silver hose gets HOT. I bumped my elbow on it yesterday and got a real zing LOL.
Only downside really would be losing that floorspace (say 18"x24").
Also, tapping into your home central AC can cause some issues because it's a balanced closed circuit system where the air handler pulls warm air from the house, cools it through the coils and then distributes it back to the house. BUT, when you pull that air into a grow room and then exhaust it out of the house you create negative pressure inside the home, which would then pull hot air from outside the house through window/door cracks, attic doors, etc.
Best luck!
-SC
- Thread starter
- #9
Im using a window style A/C. I will builds a small platform and sit it on the platform. I will cut the tent precisely to insert the front of the A/C unit and seal it with tape. My biggest concern would be cycle time. Coming on too often...as it will be easy to cool a 4x4. Since Im doing it this way I may not even vent the light.
Southerncough
Well-Known Member
where will the window unit be exhausting its hot air? If sitting on a frame will it be near a window? I've seen where folks have built boxes around the back and vented the hot air out nearby, etc. but again you have to be really careful not to create additional fire hazards.
Also, you may be able to create a funnel of sorts using a $6 10x6 ducting register and some cardboard to form an adapter which you can use to pipe in your cool air through one of the premade holes in lieu of slashing up a $300 tent. Unless you already own the window unit I'd recommend looking into an inexpensive freestanding portable AC though. remember you don't have to keep it on full blast all the time or could set the thermostat or have it to medium cool. With the 1000W HPS burning you'll have a lot of heat to combat, but you'll be okay. Or just have it on the same timer as your light.
Also, you may be able to create a funnel of sorts using a $6 10x6 ducting register and some cardboard to form an adapter which you can use to pipe in your cool air through one of the premade holes in lieu of slashing up a $300 tent. Unless you already own the window unit I'd recommend looking into an inexpensive freestanding portable AC though. remember you don't have to keep it on full blast all the time or could set the thermostat or have it to medium cool. With the 1000W HPS burning you'll have a lot of heat to combat, but you'll be okay. Or just have it on the same timer as your light.
HomeGrown007
420 Member
Heres my fix like SouthernCough mentioned
See a bit more about how I solved this problem at this thread Need assistance battling temperatures in my 4x8 grow tent and negative pressure
See a bit more about how I solved this problem at this thread Need assistance battling temperatures in my 4x8 grow tent and negative pressure
- Thread starter
- #12
Herin lies my problem. Air conditioners draw air in the front across the coils and out the top at the vent. If I duct mine like yours im sucking and blowing from the same source possibly just causing disturbed air and not properly moving to cool correctly. I would need to build a box for the lower front and bring outside air in to be cooled and then exhausted into the tent., I cant get a proper airflow to make it function "normally" otherwise...Does that make sense. It does if you can understand my explanation. Although not all ac units are the same.
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- #13
HomeGrown007
420 Member
Yes its a portable, vents hot air out the back and blows cool out the front top, i have another duct running from rear to exhaust hot air out of room
Like others, I'd be concerned about short cycle times, and about sending COLD air directly onto the plants.
Are you running a "twin duct setup" setup? That is, one run entering the tent, going directly into your air-cooled reflector, then leaving the tent via a fan (no filter required - or wanted - on this run, because the air never comes in contact with the grow room's air), along with a second duct run, fan, and a carbon filter for the actual grow space? That'll also extend the life of your carbon filter (because you tend to end up moving far less air through it this way, and the air that you do move through it will be cooler), may allow you to use a "smaller" fan on the filter, and might even allow you to run it sporadically throughout the day-cycle instead of constantly. (That's in comparison to a large enough single setup to actually get the job done, lol.) Using insulated ducting post-reflector will help a little.
There are insulated fabric covers for many air-cooled reflectors; hopefully, the model you use has one available for it, as this would help a little (and without adding to your electrical usage). One assumes that you don't have the ballast in the actual grow space. If you do, get it out of there. By the way, a 1Kw HID will produce 3,412.14 BTU of heat per hour (not counting efficiency losses and ballast, I'm talking about just the running bulb). Make sure to add that heat burden to your calculations when sizing an air conditioner. And if it was me, I'd stick a window unit in the room and rig up a duct/hose from one side of its output vents to one of my passive tent intakes (the fan ought to be able to draw much of this air in, and it won't be quite as cold by the time it reaches your plants (I'm guessing).
- Thread starter
- #16
I am revamping my system now. I use the new Quantum board lights. Very little heat. Dont let anyone fool you they get warm. Ive used it before in a 3x3 tent and believe it or not it didnt overcycle. Worked great. Thats why I plan to trim and opening to put directly into side of tent. I had it on the floor near a smaller hole on the 3x3 and taped around it. Worked great. I dont mind damaging a tent if the end result can be accomplished with reasonable appearance while operating. I do have on 4 inch fan that operates 15 minutes an hour exchanging fresh air. For smell I run a 6 inch charcoal filter with a fan, No exhaust. I stand it in the corner. Continually cleans air in the tent. And a dehumidifier, as I am switching back to hydro.
Well, yeah. Light equals heat inside an enclosure (physics 101
). I think 99% of the LED early-adopters' statements that LEDs don't produce the heat is due to them purchasing (for example) "600w" panels that were actually 160-watt or 220-watt devices, lol. If a person thinks such a panel IS a 600-watt device then, sure, they're not going to experience the heat that they're expecting. Now... a well-designed and -built product that is more efficient can actually be cooler, but it's a question of (pardon the pun) degrees; it's likely not going to be an exponential reduction. Get 1,000 watts' worth of those Samsung LEDs - which are, by all reports, good components - in a confined space, and the heat thing would be roughly in the same neighborhood as a SE 1Kw HID (methinks). In the real world, it could actually be a slightly larger heat burden in the space, because people tend to stick their HID ballast outside of the grow space, while the average LED product user never thinks to extend the wiring so that he/she can place its power supply outside. That'd be a worthy upgrade, I imagine, if someone is having trouble dealing with the heat in their grow space, though. I have no idea how much help it would be, but it seems like the kind of situation where the phrase "every little bit helps" would apply.Speaking of efficiency, a good LED product should produce most (presumably all, but...) of its light output in portions of the spectrum that the plants can actually make use of, and in the same ratios that best serve them. I doubt that anyone has quite figured that out 100% as of yet, but there should definitely be some advantage over HIDs due to the ability to supply the light in discrete frequencies instead of taking the shotgun approach. (Although I'm certainly not intelligent OR experienced enough to be able to say whether there is going to be some sort of benefit in having a more complete spectrum even when certain portions of it do not appear to directly affect the plants.)
I have no problems with believing you
. But, yeah, in this specific instance, too. IMHO, a good air conditioner (or heater, for that matter) shouldn't have the exact same temperature as its on/off temperature. If my furnace is set to turn on at 58°F, and does so when the temperature drops to 57.5°F... I don't want the thing to shut off after having warmed the house only half a degree 
. Too wide a range and people will get uncomfortable, of course - but too narrow is counterproductive, too.Lol. If you've accomplished your goal, you haven't broken a thing - you've just made necessary modifications. Like they say in the military, "If it's stupid, but it works - then it's not stupid." Err... Not that I think your ideas are stupid (I'm just not the best when it comes to social niceties
), and I don't suppose that this is what the originator of the phrase or the many, many people who've had occasion to use it were intending, either.While browsing Secret Jardin's website the other evening I saw that they now sell... IDK if it would be technically correct to refer to them as bulkhead connectors or not, but that's what they seem like to me. They even sell a kit that includes a fancy cutter tool; if you need a 6" circular opening where there isn't one, you stick the one piece on the tent's wall, stick the cutter on it, spin it around and Bob's your uncle, lol, then just remove the cutter and install the piece on the other side. But I think they're only for circular openings.
- Thread starter
- #18
ALL good points. I use the secret jarden 120. Small side for my clones. Large portion is for up to teens, then off to finish. Now it will be a slight change up with hydro due to growth speed.replace 3x3 with 4x4. Gonna have to put my learning cap back on to get hydro timed to a perpetual cycle. Might start 2 plants and and 2. Then replace as cycle permits. That way it wont be 4 down and a restart... And im using a custom build lightfrom China. 800 watts with dimmer It has 3K, 4K infra red and ultraviolet. They say it increases tric production. Has led strips like the Fluence spyder style light. The other tent has 2 260 quantum boards. Hoping to stink up the place.
HomeGrown007
420 Member
I was wondering the same thing, because 620 watts for the quantum is still 600 watts of an HPS. I think the only think is the intensity of the LEDs makes it equivelent to a 1000 watt hid. According to the specs it says less heat but who knows.
Description From the website
PRE-ASSEMBLED OR READY TO ASSEMBLE 620 WATT LED QUANTUM BOARD KIT
NEW - QB-288 V2 (Version 2) Quantum Boards Now Shipping!
This kit will easily replace any 1000 Watt HID using only 620 Watts of power producing a massive 1540 PPF total output! To put this in perspective, a single ended 1000 watt produces around 1250 PPF total. The HLG-600H produces 19% more light than the SE1000 watt with 38% less power! This DIY kit uses 4 ultra high efficiency V2 Quantum Boards driven by a Meanwell HLG-600H-54B and is available pre-assembled and tested (recommended) or a ready to assemble DIY kit. A dimmer knob is available with the predeceased kit making it easy to adjust light intensity from 10% to 100%.
The HLG 600H DIY kit with the new Version 2 Quantum Boards, a total of 1152 Highest Bin Samsung LM301B LED's, is the most efficient grow light kit on the market. Enjoy lower energy cost, less heat and more output, a 7% efficiency gain over the previous model!
I agree the ballast on top should have an extended cord so you can have ballast outside tent, My current HPS the ballast is outside tent.
Im running the AC duct into the lower intake port of the tent with a 6" inline fan with a speed controller on it pushing into the tent at about 200cfm and I have my exhaust fan sucking threw carbon filter at about 400cfm giving negative pressure in the tent. Dont know if theres a more efficent way but so far this has been working and keeping temps and humidity good, only time humidity climbs up a little is when the AC kicks off and the lights are off.... Once AC kicks back on the humidity drops. AC cycles on and off about every 10 minutes for about 5 minutes
Description From the website
PRE-ASSEMBLED OR READY TO ASSEMBLE 620 WATT LED QUANTUM BOARD KIT
NEW - QB-288 V2 (Version 2) Quantum Boards Now Shipping!
This kit will easily replace any 1000 Watt HID using only 620 Watts of power producing a massive 1540 PPF total output! To put this in perspective, a single ended 1000 watt produces around 1250 PPF total. The HLG-600H produces 19% more light than the SE1000 watt with 38% less power! This DIY kit uses 4 ultra high efficiency V2 Quantum Boards driven by a Meanwell HLG-600H-54B and is available pre-assembled and tested (recommended) or a ready to assemble DIY kit. A dimmer knob is available with the predeceased kit making it easy to adjust light intensity from 10% to 100%.
The HLG 600H DIY kit with the new Version 2 Quantum Boards, a total of 1152 Highest Bin Samsung LM301B LED's, is the most efficient grow light kit on the market. Enjoy lower energy cost, less heat and more output, a 7% efficiency gain over the previous model!
I agree the ballast on top should have an extended cord so you can have ballast outside tent, My current HPS the ballast is outside tent.
Im running the AC duct into the lower intake port of the tent with a 6" inline fan with a speed controller on it pushing into the tent at about 200cfm and I have my exhaust fan sucking threw carbon filter at about 400cfm giving negative pressure in the tent. Dont know if theres a more efficent way but so far this has been working and keeping temps and humidity good, only time humidity climbs up a little is when the AC kicks off and the lights are off.... Once AC kicks back on the humidity drops. AC cycles on and off about every 10 minutes for about 5 minutes
Southerncough
Well-Known Member
Remember most important is surface temperature on your plants which is why they say you can run LEDS warmer. A couple of inexpensive devices i use to see where I'm at are a laser thermometer and a kill-a-watt power monitor (you can walk out of home depot with both for less than $50. I check my leaf temps with the thermometer and try to keep them around 85°, which used to mean running my 900w ac 24/7 BUT i started using a few small fans at different positions to move hot air from my light away from my canopy and run my exhaust fan a little harder to evacuate the hot air, now my ac only runs in the summer! I am using a 315 these days, but in a small enclosure with poor ventilation it'll easily shoot up to 110° in there. Plug your Amazon LEDs into the $20 kill-a-watt and see what they're really pulling from the wall. Remember just because there are 100 five watt diodes in there doesn't mean it's a 500 watt light, LEDs are most efficient at 50% power, so at most you're getting 250 watts and in my experience starting out on cheap LEDs is that you're going to have a small hot spot under the light and not much PAR anywhere else.
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