Cheap ways to cool grow room or grow tent

[Alec420]

Hello, I live in desert like area and been having heat issues since summer just started.
I was wondering if people would share their methods in keeping a place cool besides using a huge A/C or powerful inline fans...People have other financial responsibilities or are just plain broke (this should go without saying)
Found this DIY "A/C" that you can make on youtube, i have no idea if this is common knowledge but here you go.

im going to make this soon !


Thank you !

 

[HydroRed]

Sounds good on paper, but are only effective for approx 1 degree cooling- and for a very short period of time. It will feel good if you are hot and want something cool blowing on your face while trying to beat the heat, but for room conditioning, it just wont be effective at all. Plus the energy consumed to have ice constantly and the fan blowing just wouldnt be cost effective since it seems your budget may be limited judging by your post. You might just have to bite the bullet and get an A/C unit, or try to figure out ways to reduce the heat in your room like keeping ballasts out of the room,adequate ventilation,run your lights on at night when its cooler,exhausting heat from your light hoods etc. Dont mean to take the wind out of your sails, but Im just being realistic with you. If there were a cheap & easy replacement for A/C or powerful inline fans -everyone would be doing it.

 

[Bubblin]

Cooltube or cooled hood + tiny ac unit.

 

[Alec420]

Cooltube or cooled hood + tiny ac unit.

using LED and CFLs,

 

[Alec420]

Sounds good on paper, but are only effective for approx 1 degree cooling- and for a very short period of time. It will feel good if you are hot and want something cool blowing on your face while trying to beat the heat, but for room conditioning, it just wont be effective at all. Plus the energy consumed to have ice constantly and the fan blowing just wouldnt be cost effective since it seems your budget may be limited judging by your post. You might just have to bite the bullet and get an A/C unit, or try to figure out ways to reduce the heat in your room like keeping ballasts out of the room,adequate ventilation,run your lights on at night when its cooler,exhausting heat from your light hoods etc. Dont mean to take the wind out of your sails, but Im just being realistic with you. If there were a cheap & easy replacement for A/C or powerful inline fans -everyone would be doing it.

fair enough, then probably will run lights at night 10pm-10am.
Can i change my lights today and not have a chance of getting hermies?

 

[bottletoke]

Lec/cmh lamps are a big help. Air chillers are great but that depends on your water cost and availability. Take a look, might be perfect for you. I have a buddy that feeds his from a mountain stream via pump then drains it back. I used to use them a while back but we don't pay for water here so it worked out.

 

[HydroRed]

fair enough, then probably will run lights at night 10pm-10am.
Can i change my lights today and not have a chance of getting hermies?

You'll be ok to change your light cycle over.

 

[SoOLED]

using LED and CFLs,

even then, just being in southwest: the ambient temps in a closed tent is like +10 degrees. too things: 1. take a break in the summer, and clean and rebuild update/modify though the hottest months. or buy mulit-head split A/C (for more then one room) if you just have one, you will need to get a dual hose, and get the hot hose outside in the shortest route you can. you will need a dedicated line the 12000 dual hose its 12 amps!! and its pretty big in your tent.

I'm running cobs, and CMH w/external ballast and still running the A/C none stop as we speak, we barely broke low 90's. if I turned off that a/c for 30 minutes its would be over 110 in the tent. we are in for record temps as well.

they might do a flex alert. a flex alert is when tell all the poor people to turn everything off or loose power. so the rich people can run their HUGE home a/c's

needless to say, prepping the genny tonight JIC.

I personally will take a break for July, August and September. as in San Diego we can see ambient temps over 100, which mean grow room temps well in the 115 range.

 

[SPLFreak808]

Light's at night is how i get by near the equator however when summer is in full gear, i cant leave the plants in the dark at 80f lmao so sometimes you NEED an a/c to atleast bring lights off temps down

 

[HydroRed]

Im on my first "summer run" under 8 led cobs and my 12K btu A/C runs often as well. I also have a dehu in the room adding to the heat. This is lights on at night in the Midwest. We'll see how it goes when we start hitting those 98*F+ days

 

[ButchyBoy]

My rooms have already hit the mid 90's and summer hasn't started yet. Was running two 600 cool tubes at night. I just switched to LED's everywhere and the temps dropped into the mid 70's. I have a 15,000 Btu A/C that I keep raising the set temp on trying to get into the mid to upper 80's.

Not impressed with the Led's so far but time will tell. I think I got used to the entire room being lit up instead of just the plants and they mess with my vision real bad lol. Plants still look great!

 

[HydroRed]

My rooms have already hit the mid 90's and summer hasn't started yet. Was running two 600 cool tubes at night. I just switched to LED's everywhere and the temps dropped into the mid 70's. I have a 15,000 Btu A/C that I keep raising the set temp on trying to get into the mid to upper 80's.

Not impressed with the Led's so far but time will tell. I think I got used to the entire room being lit up instead of just the plants and they mess with my vision real bad lol. Plants still look great!

You might want to look into angelina reflectors or something of the sorts if you are wanting "spread" to mimic what you had with your hid's. I'm digging the very direct light onto my canopy, but it is a small canopy.
Edit: my bad, I just assumed you were running cobs.

 

[ButchyBoy]

You might want to look into angelina reflectors or something of the sorts if you are wanting "spread" to mimic what you had with your hid's. I'm digging the very direct light onto my canopy, but it is a small canopy.
Edit: my bad, I just assumed you were running cobs.

Not Cobs lol. The light is direct to the canopy that is for sure! I used to run my cool tubes with no reflectors since my entire room is reflective. I got used to it being bright as hell in there. I still get the same amount of growth per day so they must be working. The plants used to spread out collecting light from the walls and floor. We will see if they stand up more now.

 

[Alec420]

My rooms have already hit the mid 90's and summer hasn't started yet. Was running two 600 cool tubes at night. I just switched to LED's everywhere and the temps dropped into the mid 70's. I have a 15,000 Btu A/C that I keep raising the set temp on trying to get into the mid to upper 80's.

Not impressed with the Led's so far but time will tell. I think I got used to the entire room being lit up instead of just the plants and they mess with my vision real bad lol. Plants still look great!

Is that why you choose the photo for your avatar? lol
The price you pay for indoor weed

 

[b4ds33d]

Hello, I live in desert like area and been having heat issues since summer just started.
I was wondering if people would share their methods in keeping a place cool besides using a huge A/C or powerful inline fans...People have other financial responsibilities or are just plain broke (this should go without saying)
Found this DIY "A/C" that you can make on youtube, i have no idea if this is common knowledge but here you go.

im going to make this soon !


Thank you !

the only thing those cooling solutions are effective at are getting you to waste your time and money only to find out it's completely bullshit. i mean, think about the amount of energy it took to get all that water to turn to ice. then add in the fact you'll be changing out ice every 6 hours. in fact, they are a tremendous waste of energy.

 

[Alec420]

even then, just being in southwest: the ambient temps in a closed tent is like +10 degrees. too things: 1. take a break in the summer, and clean and rebuild update/modify though the hottest months. or buy mulit-head split A/C (for more then one room) if you just have one, you will need to get a dual hose, and get the hot hose outside in the shortest route you can. you will need a dedicated line the 12000 dual hose its 12 amps!! and its pretty big in your tent.

I'm running cobs, and CMH w/external ballast and still running the A/C none stop as we speak, we barely broke low 90's. if I turned off that a/c for 30 minutes its would be over 110 in the tent. we are in for record temps as well.

they might do a flex alert. a flex alert is when tell all the poor people to turn everything off or loose power. so the rich people can run their HUGE home a/c's

needless to say, prepping the genny tonight JIC.

I personally will take a break for July, August and September. as in San Diego we can see ambient temps over 100, which mean grow room temps well in the 115 range.

Yeah, i might take a break next summer, but right now I gotta power through this heat and try make everything cool.
Need these grows to be successful or im in deep shit... Wow thats crazy!! low 90s with A/C 24/7.. how is your air exchange?

 

[Alec420]

the only thing those cooling solutions are effective at are getting you to waste your time and money only to find out it's completely bullshit. i mean, think about the amount of energy it took to get all that water to turn to ice. then add in the fact you'll be changing out ice every 6 hours. in fact, they are a tremendous waste of energy.

water is free for me. My Freezer is always on. so how am I wasting energy?
Hmmmm i can see that in the long run, but for short term wouldn't it be good to save your crops from heat stress and help you invest in a real A/C and/or powerful inline fan

 

[ButchyBoy]

Is that why you choose the photo for your avatar? lol
The price you pay for indoor weed

Lol.

I chose my avatar due to the abundance of bad info given on the grow forums.

The plants do just fine in the 90's. I however cannot stand to be in there for very long so I shoot for the 80's. Depending on day time temps my flower room fluctuates as low as 50 degrees ( lights out ) in order for my veg room to not go above 82 degrees ( lights on ). It's a crazy world lol. I'm in there for two hours a day then off to the greenhouse for another hour. It is cooler in the greenhouse with the sun shining on it

 

[b4ds33d]

water is free for you ok. and no, your freezer isn't always on. it turns on when the ambient temp inside the freezer increases, thereby using a fair amount of electricity to turn the water. you'd use less energy via other means to cool the room. i'm speaking in terms of energy used.

 

[Alec420]

water is free for you ok. and no, your freezer isn't always on. it turns on when the ambient temp inside the freezer increases, thereby using a fair amount of electricity to turn the water. you'd use less energy via other means to cool the room. i'm speaking in terms of energy used.

Ahhh, I didn't think of that. Thank you