Temps are high even with a portable AC...please advise.

hehehemann

hehehemann

Well-Known Member
I am growin with a 600w HPS in a DIY cool tube with a 188cfm inline duct fan blowing through it. The temps in the closet are sky high with no cooling and usually hit 100c.
I went out and bought a portable AC from Lowes. It's the DeLonghi 9000BTU. I have drilled a 4 inch hole in the wall to vent the hot air out but even with the AC running the temps are in the high 80's early 90's. I really thought a portable AC would cool down the closet. It's not a big closet either and is 5x5x8.

Do I need a bigger BTU portable AC? I'm at a loss as to dropping the temps. outside temps are around 77. Please advise.

Thanks.
 
stumps

stumps

Well-Known Member
stupid ? where is your cool tube duct exit the closet? do you have any bends in your ducting? do you have in and out air in the closet? where does it come from were does it go? if your cool tube is working it should remove about 80% of the light heat.
 
strangerdude562

strangerdude562

Well-Known Member
If your running an a/c in a confined space like that temps can be brought down o the 50's, i think it's impossible to get to 100c, i think you meant 100f. Show us some pics of your setup.
 
hehehemann

hehehemann

Well-Known Member
I have sketched out the layout of the room now. The holes in the walls are about 4 inches deep before they hit the next wall which I haven't drilled into.

The AC does actually have a bend in it which isnt shown in the picture. It goes up about 2 feet then into the wall.

I don't have any incoming vents except the cool tube vent but that expels through and out into the roof.

This is in my closet and door is kept shut. Do I need an incoming air line? Or , I was under te presumption the AC would cool it down and not require an in air vent.

Thanks for your help so far.
 

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stumps

stumps

Well-Known Member
Sorry still working on your ac. Is that a window type ac? I would say fresh air in and out would help your temps allot. Maybe put a y in your out ct out line and run another inline fan out. personal op on in line fans. They don't have the poop to do the job. I have two going plus a squeral cage type for the tube and 3 other fans moving air.
 
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Busch97

Member
hehehemann said:
I have sketched out the layout of the room now. The holes in the walls are about 4 inches deep before they hit the next wall which I haven't drilled into.

The AC does actually have a bend in it which isnt shown in the picture. It goes up about 2 feet then into the wall.

I don't have any incoming vents except the cool tube vent but that expels through and out into the roof.

This is in my closet and door is kept shut. Do I need an incoming air line? Or , I was under te presumption the AC would cool it down and not require an in air vent.

Thanks for your help so far.
Click to expand...
Dude, when you say, "The holes in the walls are about 4 inches deep before they hit the next wall which I haven't drilled into" does that mean you're venting the A/C into the wall space? An A/C unit creates a lot of heat to make cold air, you really should be venting it outside, or at least into another room. That hot air has to go somewhere...if it's going into the wall space it's going to be severely restricted and all you're doing is heating up the walls surrounding your closet.

Same thing applies to the light...I know you said the light is venting out to the roof, but where is the air coming from...the wall space? Also, I would turn the fan around so that it's sucking air through the bulb, not pushing air through it...
 
Sure Shot

Sure Shot

Well-Known Member
You can't vent into a wall.
Walls are essentially boxes.
You should cut a hole in your ceiling and vent through your attic.
If you have CH/AC then you can use a y-adapter and run ducting to your closet as well.
 
hehehemann

hehehemann

Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the response.

Stumps - The AC unit is a stand up portable.

If I vent the AC so the hot air isn't going to be stuck in the wall space would I then also need to create air holes for the fresh air to come into the room? If so, what type of fan is recommended to suck air from another room and into the closet?

I am now in the process of running the system but with the closet door ajar and the AC hot air vent exiting out of the door and into the bedroom (doing it this way first to get an idea how long the AC runs cold until it starts to throw out warm air). Doing that should cool the closet shouldn't it? (I will report back in a few with the temps)

I will buy a stanley blower from walmart and rig that to hook up to my cool tube. Firstly, will that fan be strong enough? It has three settings :CFM on low 1280, medium 1750, high 2180.
If the fan is powerful enough to use as my cool tube cooler where is the best placement? Near the portable AC so it can use some of the cooler air to push through the cool tube and exit into the attic? or Should I just put the blower where the bend occurs in my ducting and blow it the opposite way over he light and exit air flow into the wall vent?




**Update** The temps in the closet witht he door ajar and the AC hot air vent exiting out the door and into the bedroom stay at a steady 75. The AC Unit is set at 66. No fan over the light. How many CFM's am I looking at needing to put in my cool tube to cool the 600w HPS?
 
B

Busch97

Member
"If I vent the AC so the hot air isn't going to be stuck in the wall space would I then also need to create air holes for the fresh air to come into the room?"

If you're strictly talking cooling efficiency, the answer would be no, you wouldn't want to have holes in your closet any more than you would want your car or house windows open when you were running your car or house A/C. The A/C unit continuously circulates the air in the closed space, removing heat from the air and exhausting the heat through the exhaust vent (usually outside).

As far as getting fresh air inside, your girls will need to get some fresh CO2 from somewhere...

"The temps in the closet witht he door ajar and the AC hot air vent exiting out the door and into the bedroom stay at a steady 75."

This is partly why you're only able to get that small clost down to 75* by exhausting out the closet door...you've got cool air inside the closet, hot air outside the closet, and an open door in between. If you don't vent that A/C outside the house your wallet is really going to feel it.

"I will buy a stanley blower from walmart and rig that to hook up to my cool tube."

Hmmm...I gotta see this :shock:! For starters, I'm telling you, you want to SUCK air through that cool tube, not PUSH (or BLOW) air through it, especially if you're pushing over 1000 cfm through the twists and turns of ducting. The glass in an HID bulb surrounds a VACUUM (very low pressure). A fan creates low pressure on the side it's pulling air from and high pressure on the side it's pushing air to. If the bulb has a very low internal pressure and a very high external pressure (such as would be created if you were PUSHING a high volume of air through a cool tube) then you can guess what might happen. It is much safer to pull the air through the cool tube, so that there is lower pressure in the cool tube.

I don't see any way you can connect the inlet of that Stanley Blower to your cool tube, and I think you would be hard pressed to jury rig something that would connect and stay on to the outlet as well...

Also, where do you have the ballast for your 600 watt light...is it in the closet?
 
hehehemann

hehehemann

Well-Known Member
Busch97 said:
"


"I will buy a stanley blower from walmart and rig that to hook up to my cool tube."

Hmmm...I gotta see this :shock:!
I don't see any way you can connect the inlet of that Stanley Blower to your cool tube, and I think you would be hard pressed to jury rig something that would connect and stay on to the outlet as well...

Also, where do you have the ballast for your 600 watt light...is it in the closet?
Click to expand...
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29341

The above link shows quite a few ways of using the blower.

Thanks so much for that insight. I will definately suck instead of blow..lol. sorry.

The ballast is a 600w digital. Its running very very cool so I didn't feel it would be a problem having it in the closet. I can keep my hand on it for as long as need be. It's not hot to touch at all.

After doing a quick rig of the stanley blower I just purchased and having the air incorrectly pushing through the cool tube and up intothe attic the, temps stayed around 84 in the closet. This was with no AC on either. So I'm quite pleased by the blower alone.

What is the best way to run my venting if I only run the blower and no AC ??

Scrubber > cool tube > Stanley blower > Exhaust into attic
 
LiEBE420

LiEBE420

Well-Known Member
hehehemann said:
I am growin with a 600w HPS in a DIY cool tube with a 188cfm inline duct fan blowing through it. The temps in the closet are sky high with no cooling and usually hit 100c.
I went out and bought a portable AC from Lowes. It's the DeLonghi 9000BTU. I have drilled a 4 inch hole in the wall to vent the hot air out but even with the AC running the temps are in the high 80's early 90's. I really thought a portable AC would cool down the closet. It's not a big closet either and is 5x5x8.

Do I need a bigger BTU portable AC? I'm at a loss as to dropping the temps. outside temps are around 77. Please advise.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
where is the air from your cool tube going? that should be able to cool it down. i have a 600 watt hps in a SMALL closet and it doesn't heat up that much
 
B

Busch97

Member
hehehemann said:
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=29341

The above link shows quite a few ways of using the blower.

Thanks so much for that insight. I will definately suck instead of blow..lol. sorry.

The ballast is a 600w digital. Its running very very cool so I didn't feel it would be a problem having it in the closet. I can keep my hand on it for as long as need be. It's not hot to touch at all.

After doing a quick rig of the stanley blower I just purchased and having the air incorrectly pushing through the cool tube and up intothe attic the, temps stayed around 84 in the closet. This was with no AC on either. So I'm quite pleased by the blower alone.

What is the best way to run my venting if I only run the blower and no AC ??

Scrubber > cool tube > Stanley blower > Exhaust into attic
Click to expand...
Pretty cool link, I remember seeing those Stanley blower's on sale for like $40 but didn't see an easy way to use it for venting. I bookmarked that link for future reference :bigjoint:

According to that link it looks like it actually pushes about 250-300cfm, which I would say would be on the low end for a 600 watt bulb AND venting of the room...but it should work OK in my opinion (which ain't worth all that much).

Scrubber > cool tube > Stanley blower > Exhaust into attic - that's how I'd do it, assuming you can't vent outside. Glad you got a handle on the heat without having to run an A/C unit all the time :clap: Hopefully, you can return it?
 
hehehemann

hehehemann

Well-Known Member
Busch97 said:
According to that link it looks like it actually pushes about 250-300cfm, which I would say would be on the low end for a 600 watt bulb AND venting of the room...but it should work OK in my opinion (which ain't worth all that much).


Scrubber > cool tube > Stanley blower > Exhaust into attic - that's how I'd do it, assuming you can't vent outside. Glad you got a handle on the heat without having to run an A/C unit all the time :clap: Hopefully, you can return it?
Click to expand...
It seems the stanley can cool 2 1k's with 3 being a stretch. Seems a great deal. I have been sold and will be returning the AC I bought. If the summer brings temps up too much I will get an evap (swamp) cooler as I live in a dry climate. The stanley is working very well.
I'm thinking of drilling a 6" hole above the closet door so the airflow would then have only a slight bend and nothing major like when I exhaust into the attic. Just cover up the outer hole with a grill. Good idea or not worth the trouble?

Stumps - I can't hear the blower when I have the closet door closed. Its quiet enough for me so far.

Thanks again.
 
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