Portable air condition or inline fans?

[ilikeweed21]

Hello, i posted this question in my journal, would like to post it here as well to get more opinions on the subject:

I am planning on buying a portable air condition 9.000 btu (my growing space is 9x8x7). In the description it says: 2.6 kw Olympia Splendid Friddo air condition energy class A, inverter. And in the cooling consupmtion it says:760 watts. How many watts would it use, 760 watts or 2.6 kw?

Now i am using 6 exhaust fans. I have 1 inline fan that i am not using. And planning on buying 1 more, to use the 2 of them for active intake and the other 6 for exhaust. Or i could give some more money and buy the portable air condition unit. If i use 8 inline fans, electrical consumption will be 680 watts. I suppose i would not need so many exhaust fans if i used a portable air condition unit. What do you think, should i buy the air condition or 1 more inline fan and advance with this plan?


The 6'' exhaust fan i am planning on buying costs 150$, the portable air con costs 250$ (slightly used). I will be using 6x600w HPS in flowering, those are lots of watts for an apartment of 55 m2. Thanks for any inputs.

Link for the portable air con:

http://www.aircon247.com/p/4275555/o...ditioner-.html

 

[ilikeweed21]

At least could you tell me if it would use 2,6 kw or 760 watts? Cooling capacity says 2,6 kw,electrical c
onsumption for cooling says 760 watts

 

[Granger2]

ilikeweed,
This unit has EER: 3.06. This is startlingly inefficient. I wouldn't consider any unit that isn't at least close to EER 10. Many people have posted about how unsatisfied they are with portable AC's. Keep in mind that you will have to exhaust the heat produced by the AC out of the room.

If your room is air conditioned you won't want to be exhausting room air out, because the AC'd air will be going out and constantly be replaced by outside hot air. Best to cool your lamps with closed loop air cooling [outside air never entering room, intake-thru lamps, exhausted out of room] and cool the room separately. Or just try to air condition the room including the lamp heat with a big enough unit to handle it all.

You need to do some serious research before buying an AC.

Can't you use a simple window unit or thru wall unit? Good luck. -granger

 

[ilikeweed21]

Thanks for your helpful answer bro, you seem to know your stuff! I did not buy the air-con, i checked some tutorials for converting a window unit to a portable one, it seemed much better in terms of efficiency. For now the solution of a/c seems distant again because of the excessive electrical use in my house. In total i have 7 inline fans, for now i am using the 6 of them. All of them are being used as exhaust.

The dude at the growshop suggested that i use the 3 smaller inline fans for active intake and the bigger 3 for exhaust. That would suit me, but i don't know, i haven't tested it yet. He said the 3x6" would be able to keep heat at bay, even with the 6x600w burning. Intake ambient temp is usually ~60 F. What do you think, is he right or i should do it in another way?

 

[Granger2]

I guess you'll need to experiment. I prefer passive intake and high flow exhaust. You should check out the Ventilation 101 sticky in this sub-forum. -granger

 

[RM - aquagrower]

How big is the room you're attempting to cool?

Quite a few of the old heads here recomend all room air be exchanged 2x per min and lighting to be 50 wpf.

How ya go about achieving the 2x per min air exchange can be from all active exhaust (w/ passive intakes) or active exhaust with active intakes (making sure to maintain neg air preasure).

With ambient temps of 60, you couldn't force me to use AC. Just shove that cooler air thru the room, and be done. Now if ambient were 75....

 

[TribalSeeds]

Are we talking about 6 spaces that are 9x8x7, or 1 space with 6 fans? Each light has its own fan?

 

[ilikeweed21]

How big is the room you're attempting to cool?

Quite a few of the old heads here recomend all room air be exchanged 2x per min and lighting to be 50 wpf.

How ya go about achieving the 2x per min air exchange can be from all active exhaust (w/ passive intakes) or active exhaust with active intakes (making sure to maintain neg air preasure).

With ambient temps of 60, you couldn't force me to use AC. Just shove that cooler air thru the room, and be done. Now if ambient were 75....

I have chosen the option of active exhaust+active intake holes. Ambient temps are around 60-65 usually. They will start getting worse in a month from now, so i had better hurry and flower them at last. I am gonna finish the setup today. The problem is i am using lots of inline fans, 7 for now. I bought them gradually, i know i should have gotten a 10" fan and be done, but did have all the sum.

 

[ilikeweed21]

Are we talking about 6 spaces that are 9x8x7, or 1 space with 6 fans? Each light has its own fan?

We are talking about 1 place 9x8x7 with 3 plants inside. Its is a space of 6 inline fans, they were all being used for exhaust (1650 cfm of ventilation in total. I had done many small passive holes and had pretty much of negative pressure.

And imagine that i had not made the door of the front right. I still haven't found something like tarp zipper up and the door is just a big hole in the front for now. Gonna try and stick together a metal zipper and mylar i have. I am also gonna change in a while the ventilation setup, i am gonna use 3 fans (3x4")for active intakes and 3x6" rvk fans for exhaust. Its a work in progress you see. I had better hurry because my plants are a bit big, each about 3"x4" and 25 inches to 3.5 feet in height.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

Cheap tarp zipper http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/tarp-zipup-peel-and-stick-zipper-p-1713.html

 

[ilikeweed21]

Unfortunately i don't live in America, and tarp zip-up is not available in Europe. I am gonna try and get the metal zipper i have pinned to a piece of mylar and then i am gonna connect in the door. I still havent figured for sure how. I am thinking about cable ties to stick them together. If you have any other ideas i would like to listen to them!

 

[RM - aquagrower]

Gorilla tape?

I'm assuming you're fighting the door/zipper for lightproofing reasons? How 'bout just making sure that the room your tent is in is lightproof.

 

[Granger2]

Velcro

 

[ilikeweed21]

Yeah, i thought about that too! Once again thanks for the suggestion bro! I tried with other ways such as cable ties and foam tape but the zipper did not attach well. Velcro seems like a valid option . I tried the setup with active intake, it was a disappointment to say the least.

With ambient temp room at 72 F it got at 84 F at the middle of the growtent. 5x600 were lit at that time.Outside the growtent ambient temp is better at 68 F. And i believe active intakes worsened the odor coming out of the tent.

Just to let you fully know what i am talking about active intake was 450 CFM and exhaust was 1250 CFM. I think i am gonna try with all the seven fans as exhaust (totalling 1700 CFM). How big should intake be with active exhaust consisting of 4 fans at 12 cm (4") diameter and 3(") at 20 cm diameter?

I also have 2 swamp coolers pushing 600 CFM of air in total. They work with cold water or ice cubes. Do you think it would be worthy to put them inside the growtent and connect them with a timer to operate only with lights on? The big downside is that they need refilling with water or ice every 4 hours or less.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I also have 2 swamp coolers pushing 600 CFM of air in total. They work with cold water or ice cubes. Do you think it would be worthy to put them inside the growtent and connect them with a timer to operate only with lights on? The big downside is that they need refilling with water or ice every 4 hours or less.

As long as they're in the 'flow' of air before the plants, it'll definitely increase the humidity in the room. (That's where the water is going)

Stay Safe!

 

[ilikeweed21]

Problem was solved using 3 cooltubes in the horizontal bulbs, each one ventilated with a 200 CFM exhaust fan.Intake is passive, 3x400 CFM fans are being used for exhaust (one running at 50% speed using a dimmer)+1x175 CFM fans. Now temps are in the 75-80 F range with lights on using 4x600w HPS. The vertical bulbs are ok by putting an oscilating fan under each one.