[00420]

Originally Posted by G33k Speak

But we seem to agree that the ballasts should go outside the room.

Ambient temp makes a HUUUGE difference... in winter, If the house got to around 65Fish , the (10K BTU portable) would do just fine, but that same set up with the house in the 80's and the AC would struggle.
I'd rather have too much AC, then not enough. But I guess it makes a difference wether you live in minnesota, or in arizona.

An undersized AC unit is teh suxxor.

i agree to disagree....

ballast should never go in a grow room if it can be helped..... BUT it should be "cooled" none the less........ heat is the reason caps go bad 75-80% of the time

the formula i have posted is to work with outside temps from 50-100 deg's if it gets cooler then 50 you dont need AC you need a pimp as fan :P how ever it will cool a room to 78-80 on them 115 days when i refer to ambient temp im talking about the room temp befor light. even if you live in minnesota im sure your house is 50-100 deg's not -35 like out side

[slipperysamus]

No air cooled hoods here, That would only require further heat and power consumption from the Dehu.

Digital Ballasts are WAY COOLER than the noisy old powerhouses... Mine dont have fans in them, and are in the room.

interior rooms with minimal ducting and insulation. Wall mount ACs are ducted from the outside of the room with a 1000cfm fan to aid cooling,

Ambient temps, anywhere from 50-105C ACs work more or less accordingly

[imnotcrazy]

105C ????? you live on Mercury??? lol

[DIGITALHIPPY]

Originally Posted by slipperysamus

No air cooled hoods here, That would only require further heat and power consumption from the Dehu.

Digital Ballasts are WAY COOLER than the noisy old powerhouses... Mine dont have fans in them, and are in the room.

interior rooms with minimal ducting and insulation. Wall mount ACs are ducted from the outside of the room with a 1000cfm fan to aid cooling,

Ambient temps, anywhere from 50-105C ACs work more or less accordingly

dude.... WHAT?????
how is it air-cooled hoods require more power??? i think you might have boinked you head on some sharp edge somewhere, maybe in that 122-221F heatwave u got.

[00420]

[mikecar312]

thanks for this post. great thread for people trying to get guidelines. seems like a lot of times beginners search for some sort of set of instructions or formula or just finding where to start when it comes to things like this. i know i was looking for something this when i first started.

IMO, experienced growers know that growing is not so much about formulas than it is about trial and error - you can read about it all you want but you don't know til you actually do it. everyone has different variables, not everything will work for everyone. Again, this is a great GUIDELINE.

Originally Posted by slipperysamus

No air cooled hoods here, That would only require further heat and power consumption from the Dehu.

this doesn't sound right to me. anyone else want to tell him he's wrong?

for all the beginners who don't want to do the math, my general guidelines are - air-cool all hoods, place the ballasts in another room (if possible), and buy the biggest a/c you can afford or a good intake/exhaust.

[seebobski]

bigger is not always better!!!


in a 300sq ft total volume of room (veg,flower and lung)
(hps ballast in lung room floro-ballasts in veg)
12000 btu ac 10.7 eer window shaker
400w floro's and
400w hps air cooled input air separated form grow - outside (filtered) then scrubbed and output - outside
room sealed with reflectic bubble insulation on inside walls,roof.

the ac will cycle on and off too much and lose of eer factor and it will not help dehumidify the grow or pg&e. from what I have found I am moving to a 6000 btu for my room. there is a point where you lose out if too big. there is a happy medium! we will see.

[OgreSeeker]

Awesome post 00420! I was getting really tired of seeing those "how big" questions!


seebobski,
Correct.
Bigger is usually better but not always. Like using a 24,000btu unit in a minicab

[00420]

Originally Posted by mikecar312

this doesn't sound right to me. anyone else want to tell him he's wrong?

i wont say it's wrong but it dont sound right....
at the same time this dont either

Originally Posted by mikecar312

experienced growers know that growing is not so much about formulas than it is about trial and error

or this

Originally Posted by mikecar312

for all the beginners who don't want to do the math, my general guidelines are - air-cool all hoods, place the ballasts in another room (if possible), and buy the biggest a/c you can afford or a good intake/exhaust.

if the ballast is not cooled you will have caps going bad on you
here is my 2nd line on the thread.....

Originally Posted by 00420

with this formula a room would be able to get in the 70-72 deg range even when it's 100+ but yet still maintain humidity at night time with proper air movement

SEEBOBSKI is 100% on this....

Originally Posted by seebobski

bigger is not always better!!!

in a 300sq ft total volume of room (veg,flower and lung)
(hps ballast in lung room floro-ballasts in veg)
12000 btu ac 10.7 eer window shaker
400w floro's and
400w hps air cooled input air separated form grow - outside (filtered) then scrubbed and output - outside
room sealed with reflectic bubble insulation on inside walls,roof.

the ac will cycle on and off too much and lose of eer factor and it will not help dehumidify the grow or pg&e. from what I have found I am moving to a 6000 btu for my room. there is a point where you lose out if too big. there is a happy medium! we will see.

btw thx for bringing intake/exhaust into this.... i added some things about it to the top post mikecar312, we all agree to disagree on everything except that this is a guideline

Originally Posted by OgreSeeker

Awesome post 00420! I was getting really tired of seeing those "how big" questions!


seebobski,
Correct.
Bigger is usually better but not always. Like using a 24,000btu unit in a minicab

my 2nd grow room was 8 x 10 x 9..... i put a 25,000 btu in there (2k) let me tell you......BIG BUD'S everywhere...... so much mold even with a 65 pint dehu it was sad....... thats when i learned bigger is not better....

[samba]

Originally Posted by 00420

the reason i dont put my ballasts out of the room ( btw i run 8 ballast on flip flop's 4 in each room) is theres no other place to put them i have a huge room with 4 rooms built in that.... any place i put them there in a growroom...

What if you had the ballast in the other flipflop room? That way the ballast would be heating the room with no light on thats cooler anyway... Might not work with you ventilation setup, just an idea...

And THANKS a MILLION for a GREAT thread