10000 BTU portable A/C not helping, would a 12000 BTU split unit suffice?

[formfactor]

Ok so I'm really fighting temps here. I'm running about 84 when it's 90 outside, that's with a delorme portable 10000 BTU AC (with a 6" hose for exhaust). Its only going to get hotter, and my baby's are suffering some.

Anyways, my partner is dead set on a 12000 split unit (I'm kind of a n00b so please excuse my terminology). Supposedl these split units are more efficient, the compressor goes out side, then u run 2 holes through a wall I guess. Anyways, the numbers here don't add up. If I can't get this room (running only half the ights) down o 75 with a 10,000 portable when it's 90. Will I be able to with a 12000 split unit? I'm guessing no, and really don't want to do this again later because we were too cheap the first 2 times. Any advice/experience would be so greatly appreciated. Nugs, hugs & luv!


To be clear I would replace the 10000 btu unit with a 12000 btu unit, not run both.

 

[vic420]

are u in flowering or veg?

 

[Little Tommy]

The compressors on those units can generate a bunch of heat. Getting the compressor outside the room may be the help you need to get over the hump. Good luck, 2000 BTU is not going to make much of a difference by itself.

 

[cannabisguru]

Ok so I'm really fighting temps here. I'm running about 84 when it's 90 outside, that's with a delorme portable 10000 BTU AC (with a 6" hose for exhaust). Its only going to get hotter, and my baby's are suffering some.

Anyways, my partner is dead set on a 12000 split unit (I'm kind of a n00b so please excuse my terminology). Supposedl these split units are more efficient, the compressor goes out side, then u run 2 holes through a wall I guess. Anyways, the numbers here don't add up. If I can't get this room (running only half the ights) down o 75 with a 10,000 portable when it's 90. Will I be able to with a 12000 split unit? I'm guessing no, and really don't want to do this again later because we were too cheap the first 2 times. Any advice/experience would be so greatly appreciated. Nugs, hugs & luv!


To be clear I would replace the 10000 btu unit with a 12000 btu unit, not run both.

Bro, I'm also using an electric/portable A/C unit. I've got the 'Commercial Cool' 11,500BTU unit. Mine works perfectly man.. you must be doing something wrong for an air conditioner not to help with your daytime temps. You have to be doing something wrong somewhere along the line.. period.

Also, mine came with this "window kit" - where I can route the exhaust tube that came with the unit.. out any window I want (within reach of exhaust tube). Did yours not come with that? I mean, surely your not just letting the exhaust fill the room... I sure hope your not. But then again, I've seen so many retarded moves around here.. that I really wouldn't be all the surprised if you were.

But anyhow, make sure your exhaust tube is correctly attached to the back of the unit.. and make sure its directed to go either out the window.. or at least, out of the grow area (the plants environment).

good luck..

peace.

 

[VICTORYGARDENSHYDRO]

if your getting a split,make sure you get a ductless, and yes, it will work amazingly better then a portable, I used to use portable's in processer rooms, they always failed and you have to manually remove the water or add a pump. Ductless where made for growrooms

 

[formfactor]

Lol, yea it came with a window kit. Here's part of the problem. I built a room in a garage, I know this is not ideal, but I didn't have a choice. So part of the problem I think is since I have no windows, I had to run a 20' 6" duct to the garage door.

And unfortunately right now I'm in veg, running lIghts 18 hrs a day.

I mean this thing is blasting a ton of cool air, but the room stays in the 80-85 range wen it's 90 outside.

 

[MedicineMaker]

I heard you can fill a few two or three liter containers or gallons jugs with water, then freeze them. Then put a couple of them them in your grow room to melt and cool the surrounding air. Then repeat each day or two. Sounds like work but if you made a schedule to put them into the freezer when you turn off lights for the night and put them back in each time you turn them back on you could probably make a good cooling cycle.

 

[JoeSmokesAlot]

Portable AC units are very inefficient.

Your 20' length of exhaust will be radiating heat back into your garage the whole way out. Add to that, the compressor on the portable will add more heat into the garage.

So your cooled room will be sitting in a hotter garage (than with no AC). A ductless split will get all of that heat outside of the garage.

Ductless split is the way to go if you need better cooling, even though they are expensive and hard to install.

Good luck!

 

[MedicineMaker]

I didn't read through all the posts before my last comment. Might not work in a large garage for my idea or your conditioner. You say that you have a room IN your garage? If you don't have a secure room maybe you should build a secure room in the garage and try to get the small rooms air cooled rather than cool the entire garage off.

 

[watchhowIdoit]

Ok so I'm really fighting temps here. I'm running about 84 when it's 90 outside, that's with a delorme portable 10000 BTU AC (with a 6" hose for exhaust). Its only going to get hotter, and my baby's are suffering some.

Anyways, my partner is dead set on a 12000 split unit (I'm kind of a n00b so please excuse my terminology). Supposedl these split units are more efficient, the compressor goes out side, then u run 2 holes through a wall I guess. Anyways, the numbers here don't add up. If I can't get this room (running only half the ights) down o 75 with a 10,000 portable when it's 90. Will I be able to with a 12000 split unit? I'm guessing no, and really don't want to do this again later because we were too cheap the first 2 times. Any advice/experience would be so greatly appreciated. Nugs, hugs & luv!


To be clear I would replace the 10000 btu unit with a 12000 btu unit, not run both.

Portable units are counter productive. All of the air being exhausted from the hose is just being replaced by more hot air from outside the room. A window unit would probaly be better. A good rule of thumb is 1000 btu per 100 watts of light........

 

[Beansfranklin]

I have a stupid question, does a window unit have to be in a window to work?
cause i found used cheap ones on kijiji (similar to craigs list)

 

[Beansfranklin]

ok so after i asked, i went on-line and found out that it exhausts the heat out the window. so if its not its just heats up more, instead of cooling

 

[formfactor]

Wow guys, thank you for your answers. You guys definitely know your shit! God I love this forum.

Someone suggested frozen gallons of water (Joe) . I'm already doing this, but not in the room, I have to keep frozen gallons in my res so it doesn't go stagnant in this heat, unfortunately the 3 gallons I use to rotate that pretty much fill my freezer. I dig your idea though.

And yea, that 20' exhaust hose is not insulated, so the part of th garage that hose runs through is FOT.

Okay, I think we have a solution. We are going with probably a split ductless 18000 BTU unit. The only problem I see with this one is that its going to need a 220v outlet. I do have a 220v fo our dryer, but it's way on the other side of the house. The grow room however is very close to the breaker box. I hate working with electricity, but does anyone in the know for see any problems wiring up a 220v outlet? How hard could it be?


And yea, the room in the garage is somewhat secure.... Or it would be if I can get it cool. It's just a wall dividing the garage, on which I plan to put a hidden door (probably in the form of a wall locker or something). It's a work in progress. Right mow it has a regular door, and it's obvious whas going on in there, but eventually I'll get it squared up.

 

[VICTORYGARDENSHYDRO]

Wow guys, thank you for your answers. You guys definitely know your shit! God I love this forum.

Someone suggested frozen gallons of water (Joe) . I'm already doing this, but not in the room, I have to keep frozen gallons in my res so it doesn't go stagnant in this heat, unfortunately the 3 gallons I use to rotate that pretty much fill my freezer. I dig your idea though.

And yea, that 20' exhaust hose is not insulated, so the part of th garage that hose runs through is FOT.

Okay, I think we have a solution. We are going with probably a split ductless 18000 BTU unit. The only problem I see with this one is that its going to need a 220v outlet. I do have a 220v fo our dryer, but it's way on the other side of the house. The grow room however is very close to the breaker box. I hate working with electricity, but does anyone in the know for see any problems wiring up a 220v outlet? How hard could it be?


And yea, the room in the garage is somewhat secure.... Or it would be if I can get it cool. It's just a wall dividing the garage, on which I plan to put a hidden door (probably in the form of a wall locker or something). It's a work in progress. Right mow it has a regular door, and it's obvious whas going on in there, but eventually I'll get it squared up.

go to ebay and you can find complete systems that run on 115v, may have to stay with 12,000btu for 115v though.
here
http://cgi.ebay.com/KLIMAIRE-DUCTLESS-MINI-SPLIT-AC-HEAT-PUMP-13-SEER-18000-/330572661167?pt=Air_Conditioner&hash=item4cf7aa81af

 

[Little Tommy]

You just need 2 empty circuits in the breaker box or feed off the 220 breaker for the dryer. You may want to get a pro involved.

 

[pazuzu420]

You could try some green techniques vs. throwing more power at it. If you were to adequately insulate the room inside a room and insulate the outside room from the exterior heat you would reduce the heat dramasticly in your space. Not to mention make it way easier to control the tempature in. Doing it right could enable you to keep your room within a few degrees and allow for a night swing in day time and night time temps resulting in heavier trichrome production...

Just another view...

It is already 110 degrees outside right now and my flowering cabinet is sitting at 77 degrees ofcourse it is lights off period.

 

[Cyunvwyatt]

Hey dude if a AC is not helping then you need to find an alternitive to the heat problem are you running air cooled lights how often are you exhausting the room? Are you exhausting from the top or the bottom?

 

[LonelySmoker]

DON'T BUY ANYTHING YET!!!. Just shorten the hose to around 5 feet, insulate the duct, and vent just outside the box/room into the garage. From the outside of the box, vent elsewhere, but make the hose from the a/c to the outside of the box as short as you can. That itself will probably fix your problem.

 

[formfactor]

Great ideas and questions..

I also want to mention, currently the A/c is right up against the wall, and it's 3' hose goes through the wall. It's on the other side of the wall this 20 foot hose runs.

Pazuzu, and lonely. You guys bring up pretty good points with insulations.. The garage is attached to the house, so only 1 wall I believe is insulated. There's a drywall ceiling with absolutely no insulation, then there's that empty area between the ceiling (just drywall) and the roof.. Well here's another part of the problem... That space between roof and ceiling only has 1 vent on the roof... I think it's an 8" hole, with a cap and a screen. In the drywall ceiling I put a a standard exhaust fan, but have not run any ducting from the fan outside. I also tried exhausting that 10000 BTU AC Out another hole in the ceiling, but unfortunately I don't think there's near enough exhaust to the outside, because all that heat came back in. Nso this damn 20' exhaust hose is plan B. I suppose there is the possible option of adding much more ventilation to the outside from that area above the ceiling.

As tar as lighting, currently I am running 1 1000 watt MH (air cooled, 6" ducting leads from outside the room (the garage) through 2 1000 watt lights (only 1 running now). Then that duct is also exhausted into the space between ceiling and roof.

I am also running a non air cooled metal halide... The ballasts for these lights ar currently housed outside the room.

I have a total of 3 1000s and q 400 in there, but only running 1 1000 (air cooled) and 1 400 not air cooled. So my solution should also be able to support the rest of the lights.

If anyone is reading this and considering growing in a garage, I advise you to explore any other options.

 

[Duder1984]

I'm going to make the obvious suggestion here: switch your lighting cycle so that your lights are on when the sun is down and off when it's up