sealed room, positive pressure and heat issues

sammyg118

Member
First grow, plants are coming along nicely. However its freaking hot in my room, 98-100 and that is with 2 portable ac units blowing in. the ac units are not pulling air from inside the grow room, they are in the other room. I think the ac units are creating a positive pressure issue due to excess air and no exhaust. I am using a scrubber for c02. but the positive pressure is making the c02 leave the room pretty quickly plus smell. I am building another room for veg and dry. I was thinking, If I vent into my flower room, and vice versa, vent from my flower room to my veg room, would that solve the pressure problem and spread around the c02 between the rooms? plus may help with heat? Attached is my current floorplan, and an idea. Thank you.
 

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Herb & Suds

Well-Known Member
I've never tried this with portable a/c's it looks like you are risking running co'2 thru your entire house?
Multi-split systems are the shizz
 

sammyg118

Member
I've never tried this with portable a/c's it looks like you are risking running co'2 thru your entire house?
Multi-split systems are the shizz
How am I risking running c02 thru the whole house? This is in the basement, the grow room is sealed and the portable ac units are pulling air in from the other room, and exhausting heat to the outside. They are only putting cold air into grow room. Yeah I realized these kinda suck, Might return and upgrade to a multi split
 
sealed rooms ive always had a problem with portable air conditioner when it came to heat never really cooled anything since the unit itself creates heat its just no to effective when it comes to cooling a spilt or window unit is the way to go.
 

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
I'm confused how your room is "sealed" if your losing co2 and its positively pressured.
You must not have dual hose portable ACs, and be using a single hose which is pointless. And your room is no longer "sealed". My best advice, get rid of both your ACs, buy one high quality, dual hose AC unit. actually SEAL the room (zero air flow in or out) and buy a nice LED light. My guess is that you are running HID and thats where your heat issue is stemming from.
Don't forget, with co2 enrichment your plants actually like being around 81° in veg
 

sammyg118

Member
and yes ur geting hella postive air pressure how much BTU r ur units
But I have the hot air from the unit exhausting to outside? Unsure why it isnt working very well. Going to look into a split unit. The units are 8,000 btu and 6,000 btu. So what im not understanding is why I am getting positive pressure. The cold air coming from the front of the ac is just recirculating the air inside my grow room right?
Would my idea of creating a closed loop intake/exhaust between the flower and veg room negate the pressure?
I was thinking of doing the closed loop, while also having an intake/exhaust to the outside from the veg room (bigger room in back) to the window that is on for just 15 min per hour to control the heat. then the veg room will recirculate to the flower room bringing down the heat and reciculating the cooler air between two rooms. But need to figure out the pressure issue before doing that as im just wasting c02. Would that work?
 

sammyg118

Member
I'm confused how your room is "sealed" if your losing co2 and its positively pressured.
You must not have dual hose portable ACs, and be using a single hose which is pointless. And your room is no longer "sealed". My best advice, get rid of both your ACs, buy one high quality, dual hose AC unit. actually SEAL the room (zero air flow in or out) and buy a nice LED light. My guess is that you are running HID and thats where your heat issue is stemming from.
Don't forget, with co2 enrichment your plants actually like being around 81° in veg
Well thats the issue, it is supposed to be sealed but due to the positive pressure issue it is not working as planned. the ac units are single hose but their is a intake fan from outside blowing fresh air to the back of the ac units, while the exhausts are ducted to outside. Shouldnt that make them semi duel hose and more efficient?
I am running 3 leds, 2 cmh and 4 hps. the hps give off the most heat. 81 degrees would be amazing. I am currently at 97 degreees.
 
I feel for the amount of lights u are using 14000 BTU isn't enough to really cool the room u have in the room efficiently. I think a spilt unit would do wonders for each of your rooms.
 

sammyg118

Member
I feel for the amount of lights u are using 14000 BTU isn't enough to really cool the room u have in the room efficiently. I think a spilt unit would do wonders for each of your rooms.
you are probably correct. Going to try some things out. I just put the carbon filter as an exhaust instead of scrubber as a test and it completely removed the positive pressure issue. So might just need to have ac and exhaust on timers for 15-30 min every hour and run c02 when they are off. thank you guys for the help
 

ChrispyCritter

Well-Known Member
The positive pressure is from adding air from the portable a/cs that a re pushing co2 and smell out of every crack and seem in the "sealed" room. Ac works by cooling /absorbing/exchanging the heat. You are just adding cool air not removing heat. Sorry if that's been said. I skipped ahead a few posts. Good luck!
I wanted a sealed room but diy mini splits weren't as available as now so I made a water cooled sealed room. Still works.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
Window air conditioners bring in some fresh air. You may have a damper to recirculate the inside air but it might not be making a tight enough seal. You may need to take off the cover and look at the internal ducting to get a better seal. It is not a hard thing to figure out, you have a fan that blows (or pulls through) over the cooling coil and sends the cold air out the unit. It can not pressurize the room unless it is drawing from outside the room. The only place it will draw from is the other side of the unit. If it is too hard to figure out get a split like the guys say.
 

ChrispyCritter

Well-Known Member
if you read what op said he has two portable a/c outside of is room just blowing cool air in. Not in the room. Portable with ducts, not that it matters but it's Not window bangers.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
if you read what op said he has two portable a/c outside of is room just blowing cool air in. Not in the room. Portable with ducts, not that it matters but it's Not window bangers.
Either way, you can not pressurize a room without extra air. So everything I said is valid. Without air from outside the room getting sent into a sealed room it will not get pressurized. Especially if it is taking warm room air into the units and sending back cooler more dense air.
 

ChrispyCritter

Well-Known Member
But he is adding air. Air from outside is being added through the two portable a/cs . The air conditioners are not in the room. They are outside with the vents blowing in pushing what's in the room (co2 and odors) out.
 

printer

Well-Known Member
But he is adding air. Air from outside is being added through the two portable a/cs . The air conditioners are not in the room. They are outside with the vents blowing in pushing what's in the room (co2 and odors) out.
Well that is (being as diplomatic as possible, heck forget that) dumb. Then the only airflow is from the leakage out of the room. The AC units will not operate properly as there is little warm air flowing over the cooling coils. No wonder the air is leaking out and there is no cooling.
 

sammyg118

Member
Well that is (being as diplomatic as possible, heck forget that) dumb. Then the only airflow is from the leakage out of the room. The AC units will not operate properly as there is little warm air flowing over the cooling coils. No wonder the air is leaking out and there is no cooling.
The logic was if the ac unit was in the room, it simply exhausts all my c02 and fully not sealed. If it’s outside the room at least it’s recirculating the other room air and only giving my grow room cold air. The problem with that is the positive pressure. The ac units are blowing cold air, the cold air must be escaping quick due to the pressure plus units aren’t very efficient.
What I’m going to do to solve the issue is run ducts directly from my lights hoods into a ice box that will stay in the grow room. Will have to fill up with ice every day or two but seems like best solution for the price. Should bring my room cold enough where I might not need ac at all and can keep the room fully sealed besides when I exhaust a few minutes every couple hours for bad gasses
 

printer

Well-Known Member
The logic was if the ac unit was in the room, it simply exhausts all my c02 and fully not sealed. If it’s outside the room at least it’s recirculating the other room air and only giving my grow room cold air. The problem with that is the positive pressure. The ac units are blowing cold air, the cold air must be escaping quick due to the pressure plus units aren’t very efficient.
What I’m going to do to solve the issue is run ducts directly from my lights hoods into a ice box that will stay in the grow room. Will have to fill up with ice every day or two but seems like best solution for the price. Should bring my room cold enough where I might not need ac at all and can keep the room fully sealed besides when I exhaust a few minutes every couple hours for bad gasses
You can not blow in cold air without air leaving. So you have to duct the co2 rich air from the room into the AC units and back.
 
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