Summers Coming, Need Expert Advice (pics)

Ok so I live in a very hot very dry climate. Winter has been serving my sealed room very well. But now as the weather changes, my room is getting warmer every day. I run co2 but I still like to stay at 84 or below. Today temps have climbed to 88. Ill show pics of my setup and tell you my dilema.

I've framed a wall across my room and sheeted it with 6 mill black plastic, the door is a zipper door and works great. I'm happy with the setup, my air cooled lights ducting pulls air from outside the plastic wall rheough the lights and into the attic. There was a window I framed over and put a vent in because if the lights are on and the bedroom door is shut the plastic wall inflates a bit due to the negative pressure. With the vent the inflation is minimal and doesn't bother me. When I'm home I leeave the bedroom door open to cool the lights with air from inside which is cooler than the air coming through the window vent. Until now I've had the ac vent closed but I opened it and turned ac on to lower the rooms temp and itworked great accept now the plastic wall is super inflated due to the ac blowing all the air in with no escape. If I make another hole to vent the incoming air, my co2 will be lost.

This pic is the plastic wall, the white thing in the wall is the register for my air cooled lights ducting, and the window with the vent in the background



The vented window


My air cooled lights, the ac register is right above the lights on the wall pictured



Another pic with the ac register



Sry pics r big I have to use photobucket to upload. Any ideas how to cool room with or without the ac and without pressure building or without venting co2?

well your goin to have to do what you need to do to correct it IMO possibly stopping C02 and getting more air in your temps are getting in the danger zone
you need more exhaust power all i can say

One way to upgrade is to buy a 6" axial duct booster. and installing it at the exhaust point.
Also you could a 4" inline fan on your intake to get air cooiling your area not just your lights, and put a 4" axial fan on your exhaust for your area. Im not saying its the cheapest but it would solve your temperature issue. Then buy a co2 Controller that has the function of turning off your ventilation equipment when the co2 is being released so you wouldnt exhaust your valuable co2

I have a environmental controler, I don't have an exhaust fan as of right now. Basically my ac is serving as my intake but its too powerful and without an exhaust is building pressure. I think your right about installing an exhaust and I have the environmental controller to colaborate exhaust and co2. My problem is the hotter it gets, and pretty soon, all the air I cool my lights and room with will be too hot to actually cool anything to the point I like it. I think a duct booster might help, as of now I have a 6" 430 cfm fan cooling the 2 400 watters.

As of now, I exhaust my room by opening the zipper door in the plastic wall, shutting the bedroom door so the fan for the lights pulls air out of the grow room in through the lights into the attic.

Here's my controller,





Basically I don't want to cut anymore holes in my walls, but maybe if I hook up an exhaust fan and use my ac register as my intake it will work. I'm worried my ambient temps will be too warm to cool anything as it gets up to 110 here in the summers.

I would do that a 4" should be fine siince Ac's dont have a powerful fan output. Then you would be able to plug the 4" into your exhaust port on your Co2-4e and be able to keep your co2 in your room while your co2 cycle goin and provide residual cooling for your area when your not using co2

Right on, thanks man. I don't even kno if ill use the ac, but instead just leave the ac vent open for a passive intake. Since the thermostat for my ac is in my living room I don't kno how I could coordinate the ac with my grow room.

Shut off the AC vent.
get this for $114 bucks

SPT SF-608R Portable Evaporative Air Cooler

Or you could get this for summer and winter:


Soleus Air LX-140 14,000 BTU Evaporative Portable Air Conditioner, 12,000 BTU Heater, Dehumidifier and Fan, Grey with Black Cover
It's a bit more pricey tho @ around $500 usd.

I bought a small heater/ac unit at walmart last spring for like $30. It kept the temps at around 80 w/ the temps outside above 100f





*EDIT
But I was trying to heat/cool a really small room so........


*EDIT 2
Actually it was just a big closet. lol

I was thinking something like that too, a small ac would be all I need. Obviously one that desnt need to draw air from outside the room tho. Lol but for me a heater would be useless as it never snows here and my lights keep it warm enough. But thanks for the post I will def. Look into that as I could mantain my "sealed environment". Does the evap cooler boost humidity at all because my rh is hardly ever above 30% so I wouldn't mind a little humidity

Edit: guess evap cooler sounds like it would lower humidity by the name, I know swamp coolers use water to cool. Ill do a little research on it but if someone wants to answer much appreciated

Just a tip about your fire extinguisher:

In the event of a fire, being aqianst the wall where the window is wont do you much good when the room goes up.

Put the extinguisher in a certral area of the house where it will be accessable from more parts of the house. Typically a room with multiple entrances/exit ways. Also a second in another location is always a good idea too.

That way if the room goes up you can battle it from outside of the room and not have your extinguisher explode!

Only you can prevent Marijuana fires!

Maybe you could put something like this on your vent:


So that way it angles the force of the blowing ac away from your plastic toward the floor, or maybe put it would work if ya put it on "upside down" and angled the vent toward the "ceiling"? (cause ya prolly don't want the ac blowing directly toward your plants) Cold air settles to the floor and cools the lights/room on it's way down?(I'm just brainstorming here)

TheLastWood said:

Ok so I live in a very hot very dry climate. Winter has been serving my sealed room very well. But now as the weather changes, my room is getting warmer every day. I run co2 but I still like to stay at 84 or below. Today temps have climbed to 88. Ill show pics of my setup and tell you my dilema.

I've framed a wall across my room and sheeted it with 6 mill black plastic, the door is a zipper door and works great. I'm happy with the setup, my air cooled lights ducting pulls air from outside the plastic wall rheough the lights and into the attic. There was a window I framed over and put a vent in because if the lights are on and the bedroom door is shut the plastic wall inflates a bit due to the negative pressure. With the vent the inflation is minimal and doesn't bother me. When I'm home I leeave the bedroom door open to cool the lights with air from inside which is cooler than the air coming through the window vent. Until now I've had the ac vent closed but I opened it and turned ac on to lower the rooms temp and itworked great accept now the plastic wall is super inflated due to the ac blowing all the air in with no escape. If I make another hole to vent the incoming air, my co2 will be lost.

This pic is the plastic wall, the white thing in the wall is the register for my air cooled lights ducting, and the window with the vent in the background
My air cooled lights, the ac register is right above the lights on the wall pictured

Any ideas how to cool room with or without the ac and without pressure building or without venting co2?

Click to expand...

Maybe you could somehow find a way to attach the intake from the light's to the a/c vent?

That's a co2 tank I think you saw, don't have a fire extinguisher in there.

Also the ac inflates the plastic just because there is no exhaust and the ac is blowing air into the room with no exit. Kinda like filling up a ballon. Lol

I don't rly use the ac, only recently when my temps get to high I open the zipper door so it doesn't inflate then turn on the ac. It cools it fast but pushes all my co2 out. And unfortunately the ac runs the whole house, not just that room so when I turn it on it cools the whole house and uses a lot of power.

Some things I thought of, installing some kind of exhaust with a damper so that it only let's air out when I turn the ac on? But I don't know if pressure will be enough to open the damper or if it actually has to have air blowing it open. Also I would either have to turn the ac on and off manualy or cool the whole house which is inefficient.

I'm thinking either getting a portable ac unit, or installing an exhaust fan and leaving the ac vent open as my passive intake. Either of those will cost about the same and each has its pros and cons.. if I get the ac unit I can control my temps more precisely but if I do the exhaust then I can hook up a carbon filter and I been needing to do that anyways. I'm worried if I do the exhaust that my ambient air temps might be too high to cool the room, it gets hot here in the summer.