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Sealed Room: To Aircool, or not to Aircool... That, is the question.
- Thread starter FLoJo
- Start date
Have someone who doesnt live there take a wiff. I bet they smell it.
A carbon scrubber is not going to keep the room 100% odor free
superultramega
Member
100% agreed. Typically you want your carbon scrubber to exhaust outside so the little smell remaining gets dispersed.
Even if you put a scrubber on your air return, how do you control the temperature?
Sorry dude, but it doesn't sound much like you've grown before. These are strange scenarios that really don't work involving your house AC.
No one is suggesting anything complicated as a solution for you. In fact, everyone has suggested simple, common solutions. If you want to grow, you're going to need an AC 95% of the time. It's not much work to install. A couple hours max with the gear you have.
superultramega
Member
A carbon scrubber in the room? No, no the smell will not be gone. Not a chance.
And how do you control the temperature of your grow hooked up to the central AC on your house? Where's the thermostat?
a properly sized carbon filter, and more importantly a properly sized fan will eradicate the odor.. especially in a closed environment. This is assuming your RH is not too high. That is actually how they are designed to work, is to scrub an actual room. people use them to vent lights and scrub the air, but then there is only contact one time with the scrubber. they work much better when air comes in contact with carbon multiple times.i have people over all the time who cant tell a thing.. the only time it smells is at harvest time, when the plants are in another room and excreting their fine odors.
and i dont know if you are slow or dense, but please explain how having the knowledge of an hvac technician has anything to do with my ability to grow? and obviously i know i need an ac because i already use an a/c, i also have another portable a/c, and i just bought a new industrial a/c.
if you run a central a/c at 70 degrees, and air cool the lights, you get a nice 75 degree day temp, 70 degree night temp.. thats how you control a grow temp with a central ac. 90 percent of people dont even have a dedicated a/c for their grow.. when i used to live by the beach i didnt even need one, just an air intake with a hepa filter. and that was for 10 lights.
I know that nobody is giving complicated solutions. everyone else has been discussing the topic, air cooling, water cooling, separate ac etc.. you seem to be the only one confused.
thank you for everyones solutions.. ill be framing out everything this weekend, and hanging up the lights.. ill let you guys know how it all works out and post up some pics of the new room..
FLo
and i dont know if you are slow or dense, but please explain how having the knowledge of an hvac technician has anything to do with my ability to grow? and obviously i know i need an ac because i already use an a/c, i also have another portable a/c, and i just bought a new industrial a/c.
if you run a central a/c at 70 degrees, and air cool the lights, you get a nice 75 degree day temp, 70 degree night temp.. thats how you control a grow temp with a central ac. 90 percent of people dont even have a dedicated a/c for their grow.. when i used to live by the beach i didnt even need one, just an air intake with a hepa filter. and that was for 10 lights.
I know that nobody is giving complicated solutions. everyone else has been discussing the topic, air cooling, water cooling, separate ac etc.. you seem to be the only one confused.
thank you for everyones solutions.. ill be framing out everything this weekend, and hanging up the lights.. ill let you guys know how it all works out and post up some pics of the new room..
FLo
superultramega
Member
Yes, I'm the slow one.
Understanding how to control the climate of your grow is pretty important IMO.
You still haven't explained how you control the temp with your central AC. This, combined with how these systems work, leads me to believe you haven't tried it. You can't even answer where your thermostat is located. Do you have any idea how an air conditioner works? And I'm an engineer not an HVAC tech.
Also, your claim that scrubbing the air within your room and exhausting it into the house is an odor solution that works goes against my personal experience and the experience of everyone I have ever heard. Also when you calculate the efficiencies of the scrubbers and air flow it becomes quite obvious the odor concentration would remain high in a continually circulating setup without many scrubbers. It doesn't work. I know math is hard but it helps you to not look like a dumbass.
Understanding how to control the climate of your grow is pretty important IMO.
You still haven't explained how you control the temp with your central AC. This, combined with how these systems work, leads me to believe you haven't tried it. You can't even answer where your thermostat is located. Do you have any idea how an air conditioner works? And I'm an engineer not an HVAC tech.
Also, your claim that scrubbing the air within your room and exhausting it into the house is an odor solution that works goes against my personal experience and the experience of everyone I have ever heard. Also when you calculate the efficiencies of the scrubbers and air flow it becomes quite obvious the odor concentration would remain high in a continually circulating setup without many scrubbers. It doesn't work. I know math is hard but it helps you to not look like a dumbass.
extreegrowerrr
Member
an official sealed room is completely sealed and cooled with a residential ac needed to cool the room depending on your lights. i have used 3800 btu's per 1k and kept my temps in the 72-75 degree range easy while running co2. i love huge ac's and sealed rooms...air cooled is noisy and theres always a damn leak somewhere sucking out your co2 or smell!
Legaldroman
Member
Exactly...Show me someone aircooling lights and not losing co2 and odor...not gonna happen, now I'm not saying someone hasn't got really nice ppm in their room air cooling but it's just not as effective. I prefer a bigger A/C and no air cooling but I can see where many don't want to spend that kind of money on a system.
I feel like most people disagreed with me about not aircooling the lights. A few made it seem like I didn't understand the principle of a sealed room when I said that the entire point was not to have any leaks. Kinda funny you can tell from the posts whose run sealed rooms and who hasn't. Extreegrower knows what he's talking about just from the two sentence post I read of his...he gets it. Superultramega isn't trying to be a dick I don't think, he's actually is quite correct about his assessment of the A/C and thermostat. I don't think he's trying to be negative, (well shit maybe he is), but regardless, don't totally disregard his info he knows what he's talking about, just my 2 cents. Right now I'm, running two completely sealed rooms, one with 12k and the other with 14k, I couldn't imagine running rooms this big and not sealing them, just piece of mind for me. Lastly to play devils advocate the MAJOR downside of a sealed room is the possibility for your system to fail and for you to lose the entire crop. To remedy this I use the Sentinel HID 2 and connect it to my MLC 16 set the kill temp at 90 and that way if the AC ever fails the lighting controller will shut the lights off at the desired temp. Hope this helps, good luck with the grow, I'm sure your gonna have a nice op no matter what bro...sending you the positive vibes
umm... anyone with positive pressure on their aircooled lights is not loosing co2 and odor; if anything were gaining oxygen to keep co2 buildup from giving nasty headaches when one enters the room... i like to think the oxygen is a good thing and don't even foil tape my reflectors anymore; just slapped a 6" hepa filter on the intake to keep any spores and bugs out
my scrubber runs 24/7 in the corner of the room
it seems like aircooling becomes more optional if you're running vertical bulbs; cooltube or bare is the real question
my scrubber runs 24/7 in the corner of the room
it seems like aircooling becomes more optional if you're running vertical bulbs; cooltube or bare is the real question
I ran this Aircooled 10Kw room with clear PBT collars I heat swaged on to each tube. it ran off a 10k btu recirculating window AC at 100F outdoor temps and kept my room 78-85F & 50-60% RH. My 20lb tank lasted 35 days at a constant 1500ppm day enviro. It was a room inside a stucco warehouse, and NOBODY had a clue.. Until we trimmed outside that room. I think my Air cooled room was pretty sealed...
Attachments
CAN I GET AN AMEN???? oh thank you opt1c!!!
superultramega
Member
I wasn't trying to be a dick, but a little slipped out.
its pretty simple really, the thermostat is right outside the growroom.. i set it at 70 degrees, and in reaches about 75 during lights on and 70 during lights off with an air cooled setup.
this will be a different animal.. im not going to aircool, simply control every aspect of the environment and only run 3600w this go round, and add up from there.. if i need another a/c so be it ill get one.. but i know 3600 should run with zero problems this go round... again, ill be building out the room this weekend, so once i get it done ill post up the goods
this will be a different animal.. im not going to aircool, simply control every aspect of the environment and only run 3600w this go round, and add up from there.. if i need another a/c so be it ill get one.. but i know 3600 should run with zero problems this go round... again, ill be building out the room this weekend, so once i get it done ill post up the goods
technically speaking it does not know what temp it is inside the room, but how it is set up, the air cooled lights are pulling air from inside the room, and the rest of the house for that matter, and the lights only add about 5 degrees in the room with lights on.. since the air cooled lights are actively pulling air from the rest of the house to cool the lights, the a/c constantly cycles. so i set it at 70, it stays at 75 during the day, 70 at night, but is not sealed.. this is why i added the dual hose portable a/c.. so i can run a sealed environment, not lose any ac, while keeping 1500ppm of co2 in the room at all times, while not having to cycle the central a/c all day long.. in theory this should save electricity, while making my grow more efficient all at the same time.. im hoping to pull 6 lbs with this setup... i know i can do it with 3 3x6 tables, 50 plants per table.. 22 grams a plant no sweat... after the first run, i can add lights, and add a/c as required..
superultramega
Member
And your house smells like what?
Seriously I'm not trying to be a dick, but planning your grow goes a long way. You don't need to guess at things like climate control. You know all the variables. You can set it up to work on the first try.
Seriously I'm not trying to be a dick, but planning your grow goes a long way. You don't need to guess at things like climate control. You know all the variables. You can set it up to work on the first try.
extreegrowerrr
Member
when i run sealed rooms i run sealed rooms...sealed is the only way i grow...every nook and cranny is sealed to the highest extent. i run co2 and one tank on a burner will last me the whole grow cause my shit is sealed so good. always run a huge ac i use 5 tons cause i run alot of lights. keep the ac thermostat on "on" postion not auto. i dont even need carbon filters in my rooms cause there so sealed. think im crazy or not but i dont need em. love sealed rooms wouldnt change them for anything. aircooled is like buying a honda...sealed is like buying a bugatti. lol also as far as a downside on the high temp thing all my panels have high temp shut off. if the temp goes above 90 my whole panel will cut off. cause ac's do break! shit i think with out a high temp shutoff your looking for a fire loosing your crop is the least of your worry! lol it will hit 200 degrees fast in a sealed room with no ac! high temp shut off is a must for sealed!
Maybe you need to learn how to build your rooms better if you are loosing odor and CO2?
For the record, I have run some good sized sealed rooms, and aircooled the lights. Doesnt have to do with saving money, since the money spent on ducting, labor, fans etc and just the general PITA (try sealing 50 hoods LOL) probably wouldnt offset the cost to run a bigger A/C.
I aircooled for 2 reasons. One is I had to use the existing A/C, didnt want anyone there installing a bigger A/C. Second is electric, I was trying to keep the bill down. Considering the op was close to 40k just in lights, I was trying to keep the bill down for security reasons.
I had 2 police officers standing under the buildings exhaust, and walk around the building w/o issue. I say its safe to assume I wasnt loosing odor, considering I was aircooling 30k of flowering lights, and the whole building got exhasuted out that vent.
I did have to reverse the fans and push, instead of pull
