Have you added a new zone from your central AC unit?

I am using a closet to grow. Will turn this into a dedicated grow room and need to get AC to it during the winter. Window units, wall units, and mini splits are not an option. Portables appear to be to un reliable and to many issues. I have a newer house. Central AC with two zones. One for upstairs and one for down stairs. I would like to know about the cost and any other issues to add a third zone. It will be on the second floor and only around 10 feet from the AC unit. Thanks

An issue can be that if the AC is only cooling the new zone, is there enough air flow over the evaporator coil to prevent it from freezing up. So if the unit is say a 3 ton unit and it's asked to cool only a closet through a small duct, chances are it will freeze up.

You can't get enough air movement to run a third zone and I doubt your A/C has low ambient controls depending on your location as well

Oldenred1 said:

I am using a closet to grow. Will turn this into a dedicated grow room and need to get AC to it during the winter. Window units, wall units, and mini splits are not an option. Portables appear to be to un reliable and to many issues. I have a newer house. Central AC with two zones. One for upstairs and one for down stairs. I would like to know about the cost and any other issues to add a third zone. It will be on the second floor and only around 10 feet from the AC unit. Thanks

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Honestly for a portable, I have not found mine to be unreliable. I have used it for years. I just started using it in a 144 sq ft room with a tent in there and it has been completely reliable. A whytner 14k dual hose. Is it as efficient as a mini split...no, but plenty for a closet. I just took it apart and wrapped all the ducting double to make sure no leaks and i have had 0 issues (Ive been running it for over 6 years). If a mini split or window isnt an option a quality portable is your best remaining option.

A lot of times i think people get them and expect no maintenance. Clean the filter regularly or replace, make sure you use a double hose or be prepared to drain water from it.

I use a 14k btu portable to cool my whole basement veg room of 15x22 feet. I have ran 3kW of HPS in there on that AC without a hiccup. It never gets turned off either lol.

Well if you think about what you said it doesn't make much sense unless your somewhere super warm you need to run the AC in winter. If you ducted your central air unit to your closet in winter wouldn't it be heating your grow room? Like I said I could be off base cause I'm sure some places need ac during winter, but if not your unit most likely can't heat the rest of the house then cool the one closet. I think Daikin makes a few real high end commercial units with those capabilities but otherwise most units are either heat or cool.

If your somewhere where winters are cool you could just use a fresh air intake and exhaust set on a thermostat. Won't be able to run c02 this way but for small grows I never bother with C02 anyways.