DIY Window AC Box Build For a Tent

If you where doing a 76x76x76 ( 250 Cubic Sq FT). 6.3ft x 6.3ft x 6.3 ft

You have 4 x 600 Sealed Hoods to exhaust the heat out of the tent. ( Fan outside of tent pushing air from outside of room through lights and back out of the tent)

A few questions.

Would a 5,000 - 6000 Btu AC work.

If you're using a scrubber do you scrub right into the room so your not pulling the cold air out?

Should there be any exhaust for this room?
Will the excess air escape or make the tent blow up like a balloon ?

If anyone could help me out here, Would love some input.
On Fans and CFMs and what not.

Centrum said:

If you where doing a 76x76x76 ( 250 Cubic Sq FT). 6.3ft x 6.3ft x 6.3 ft

You have 4 x 600 Sealed Hoods to exhaust the heat out of the tent. ( Fan outside of tent pushing air from outside of room through lights and back out of the tent)

A few questions.

Would a 5,000 - 6000 Btu AC work.

If you're using a scrubber do you scrub right into the room so your not pulling the cold air out?

Should there be any exhaust for this room?
Will the excess air escape or make the tent blow up like a balloon ?

If anyone could help me out here, Would love some input.
On Fans and CFMs and what not.

Click to expand...

hi Centrum. I'm confused - you have four 600w hoods in a 6x6x6 space? that doesn't seem right but if that's the case, a 5-6k btu AC might be a bit too small. It depends on the ambient temp of the room that your tent is in. Are you trying to keep a tent at 75deg in a room that's 95deg? or 75deg in a room that's 85 deg?

for comparison, i was using a 10k btu AC to keep a 5x5x7 tent with one 1000w hps at 85deg in a room that was up to 95deg in the summer with 50% humidity. since this setup is sealed, it requires a dehumidifier which creates more heat in the tent. my 10k btu AC ran for about 5 minutes every 25 minutes to maintain 85deg.

A sealed room allows you to supplement CO2 which in turn allows you to run the room at slightly higher temps than you would at normal CO2 levels. Without adding CO2 in a non-sealed space, i kept my tents at 77deg; with co2 in a sealed room, I kept it at 85deg. this is a win win as it lets the AC work less hard and has the benefits of added co2.

To your other questions - scrubbing by definition is using a carbon filter set up to recycle the air in a closed space instead of filtering the air out of your space. so yes, you're scrubbing right into the room and not pulling any cold air out. This is considered a sealed room - unlike a portable AC, a window AC works the same way, it cools only the air inside the tent without letting any tent air outside. Portable ACs, as convenient as they are, exhaust some of that tent air. this will leak your co2 and can cause smell issues - window ACs (and mini-splits) are always recommended for sealing an environment.

with a dedicated fan and duct line for your lights as you described, a carbon filter setup to scrub, a window AC to cool, a dehumidifier, and supplemental CO2, you have created a sealed environment. None of the air inside the tent should escape and no outside air should be entering the room. If done properly, this creates no negative or positive pressure between the tent air and the outside - your tent won't turn into a balloon and explode.

Thanks for sharing this. It's given me some ideas to use in my situation.

I had an ac tent problem when i was in Dubai. I called the ac maintenance in dubai to fix my problem. Then they fixed the problem with perfection.

Hello there , that’s a nice post! I like the build , I have a question , will this work if I’ll put portable ac outside of the grow tent and will cover the side with intake will do it from the inside of the tent.. the thing is is the grow tent is on the balcony .. and it’s short cycling .. but when it’s inside it works like it should do .. right now I have like 5000 but window ac “build” and the temps gets to 29- 30 And when I did put my portable one inside it works few days and than started to short cycling .. so I’ve took out and bought window ac but not powerfull enough .. so the question with the portable ac is , if I’m gonna build the box for ambient air with intake from grow tent , and ac by itself outside , with ducting for cooling inside .. won’t it short cycle ?