Legaldroman
Member
not at all, trust me the air will not be sucked back in
that air handler has to be moving 400cfms per ton to transfer the cold into the air, or the refrigerant will start to freeze the coils...
so your air hander is running at least 2000cfms..place a couple fans on the wall and you will be able to cool your room down no problem...
that hood will work, but the air will lose so much speed just swirling around in there and then making a harsh 90 turn to exit a smaller hole.....ducting will just start to have condensate form and drip everywhere and its slows down the air...
not needed is just what I am trying to say
I'd like to chime in with my experience, currently I'm running a 5 ton Topaz and the blower didn't have a plenum attached to it, it just blew the air straight up. I found that without ducting down my room with 14" duct the t-stat on the device got confused from sucking the cold air back into the intake. One side of my room would be 90 and the other would be 76. Once I attached a plenum and ran the ducting all the way to the end of my room and capped it, I cut slits over every hood and immediately the temp of the room was in line.
Now the only difference with the excel and the topaz that might change the situation I'm thinking is the t-stat and where it's located. RedRain said "mount your thermostat in an opposite corner where there is no air flow to maintain an even temp " This is really smart, the one problem I see with this stand alone Topaz is that the T-Stat is mounted to the unit right above the intake and below the exhaust, a very easy place for it to get confused imo. I'm really liking the idea that you could take the t-stat for the excel and mount it pretty much anywhere in the room, that alone makes the excel a better device! I ordered the plenum from excel and I've spoke with Austin several times, he recommends to attach the plenum add 14" ducting as well. I plan on doing so, but RedRain has a totally valid point, if you're feeling lucky play around with it and let us know how it works out.
Sorry for rambling, but my excel comes in today and I'm so excited...I only have a little but left on this run, as soon as I harvest I'm installing the excel the same day!