New 13K build, some questions

[Rocky Mtn Squid]

PureKnowledge.....do yourself a HUGE favor, and stay away from products from Hydro Innovations. I had a bad experience with them, and wouldn't recommend them at all. Everything they sell is grossly overpriced and poorly engineered. Morover, their quality control and customer service sucks.

The chiller that you're talking about that utilizes cold ambient air cost's close to $5 K, and only works when it's 50 F or lower. I still wouldnt trust them with their claim's. $5K will go a long way to paying for better cost effective alternative's

Caveat Emptor......you've been warned.

RMS

 

[vaped]

Pk...This is Poop's friend, from farther north in the mit...I grow in a 28x48 pole barn. 20x28 of it is insulated w/6in walls and blown insulation. I run 4k's in flower and 1.4k plus T-5's and other fluro's in veg. My flower room is 9.5x20 becuz I like to b able to walk around my tables. To keep my flowering room sealed I run a portable 11000btu portable A/C sucking and venting into the non-insulated part of the garage. I run a 8000btu port. in the veg side. Not worrying about a veg room, I can fit alot of plants under 1000w in veg, walls around my veg don't seem to help. During the summer, I air cool my lights from outside to the non-insul. side of the garage. In the winter, I suck air from one side of the veg area, thru my lites, blow hot air out the other side of the veg room. This keeps the lights cool enough to b close the the plants, flower room sealed and warm enough, even when the lights r out...low 60's in coldest, when lights r out. Even w/0 temps. Highest temps in flower durin winter r low 80's, w/no A/C just dehumidif. no prob.when Co2 is added. My big struggle is w/heatin issues during the summer months...I love this time of year!

 

[vaped]

Sorry I sounded like a myspace freek my old lady was typing

 

[donny darko]

I would just go with a low ambient kit. Some are better than others some are variable and have a motor master controller and some are just a pressure switch and heater for the oil. I was looking at a 5 ton for my 16 light vert room it is like 2200 bucks on ebay. I figure if it last 2 – 3 years it’s money well spent but some can go lower than others on ambient temps but most go pretty low. I was going to look into a heat pump style but they are more expensive and I am being cheap right now( elec is cheap hear and I am leagle med provider so whatever), but these ones will heat too and go very low in low temps.

 

[donny darko]

Ps talk about being cheap on ac. I have my other 12 k room that I am about to harvest now is being cooled by two 100 dollar 1 ton widow shakers framed into a door way and exhaust into a larger space in the basement. The 12 lights are 6 inch air cooled lights in a 3 strings of 4 with one 8 inch fan at each end, one pushing in and one pulling out. Co2 enriched and temps easily hold at 82deg hehe. But that is going to be upgraded to the one ac running both rooms in different 12 hour cycles so not to let the ac cool down and I am cheap again, so I will be running 30 or so lights off one ac.

 

[Cannabean]

Hm, I don't see why co2 is out of the question with a sealed room in a cold environment...can someone explain that to me?

If you wanted to go co2 and sealed couldn't you get a window ac and build a box for it so it can sit inside your room and exhaust the hot air out via ducting?

 

[grow nerd]

I haven't read all the responses in this thread (in fact read only the original post), but already I'm confused: you're talking about exchanging air in a sealed room? I think you have the concept of a sealed room mistaken. If it hasn't already been covered, look into a split A/C. There are many units that can start in low ambient temperatures, although I don't have first-hand experience there as I've never grown anywhere that cold.

 

[Str8Dank]

what about using a good old window ac unit? run like 2 or 3 of the 220v 24k btu ones and build boxes on the back of them and then duct it outside. that way you dont have ANYTHING sticking out the side of the pole barn and compressor outside running in the middle of winter just hot air being blown out silently

this is my plan as i am also looking to move into a pole barn. also this is WAY cheaper to setup then a minisplit. it may not be as efficient but it does not cause the same security concerns, need professional installation and the setup cost is a fraction of a home/commercial or minisplit. there may be some flaws to this idea i'm not positive yet but i've ran a window unit on my 3k setup that's 12k and everything is working great.

 

[Str8Dank]

also there is a GREAT tutorial on building a box on the back of a window AC and how they work here on IC.

 

[grow nerd]

The last thing I would do is use a window-mount. Not only would it not be good for such cold environments, it also exchanges air. Even models with "circulate" and "no recirculate" options, every model out of the box will exchange air from the inside.

I always thought the Excel Air systems were excessively expensive for such low efficiency units, and although I do like a larger "real" air handler, if the difficulty of installation on a full-size split unit (sweating pipes mainly) is an issue, consider multiple mini-split units.

If concealing the outdoor unit is a concern, consider building a separate room to house it. I wrote a thread on it a while back, titled something like "taking A/C boxes to the next level". I have a good amount of experience with this on both full-size splits and multiple mini-split's in the same room. Ask me about my Variac experience!

 

[Treetroit City]

Just a heads up PK, the LG minisplit at work was humming all day today. I believe this is about as cold as it gets here in MI. It was like 5 degrees at six this morning.

 

[OnTheWater]

New 13K build, some questions

Supposedly the Lg's and a few other mini splits can handle the cold temps.

Pk you mention having a well.. Not sure on your location but if you have a good well that doesn't go dry you can use that to run the water cooled units. I've used the trane water cooled heat pumps..

http://www.trane.com/COMMERCIAL/DNA/View.aspx?i=1116

You don't get charged for water being pulled from a well.. If it's a big job I have 1 well with a pump on it and another well across the building which I use as a discharge well to let the water flow back down.

If your waste water isn't metered you can send it down a drain but that will be throwing it out instead of dumping it back into the water table.

The plus on the water cooled heat pumps is no outside equipment and it's just one piece. Looks like a air handler with a inlet and outlet that's it.

Good luck with the build