Air conditioners, multiple small cheap ones, or one very large expencive one?

Here is the problem, my 1000 watt and my like 800 in cfl's make some crazy ass heat, i have a new 5,000 btu in there that seems to do jack shit, and i want to add another 1000 watts, and know I can't begin to think about doing that, until I get this fuckin heat under control. Florida is straight up bullshit in the summer. FML. Anyway's, it would be cheaper to get 3 more 5k btu's for about 300 bucks, than spend 5-6 hundred on an 1800 btu. So the question, which is more effective? Many small units or One large one? Anyone with knowledge of the science behind this extra kudo's to you, but I need to get this problem solved ASAP.

My ideal situation is to make like a 10x4x8 grow room with 2 (1000 watters covering it all) , If heat is HELLISH, how many total btu's would you recommend, I was thinking 3 more additional 5,000 btu units would do the trick if i can somehow insulate the shit well, to avoid cold air leaking out. So the total would be 2000 watts, and 20,000 btu's between 4 units, and 2 lights. Go, or no go?



Thanks for any help, Im racking my brain trying to kill this heat problem.

Do you have cooltubes for your 1k light?? that and a good 400+ cfm fan would knock the heat down a lot. Other than that you should not need more than 1 ac for a room that size.

budbro18 said:

Do you have cooltubes for your 1k light?? that and a good 400+ cfm fan would knock the heat down a lot. Other than that you should not need more than 1 ac for a room that size.

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I do, and I do... problem, is garage is very hot, w/ dryer n shit in there too. and i have everything built half ass onto a half ass existing half bath structure in there. so there is air leaks, and no insulation what so fuckin ever...

Eventually going to construct an insulated drywall stand alone structure within garage about 10x4x8 I'm sure that will hold the cool a fuck load better, but for now its going to be roughing it till i can bang some bags out the door, and finance more for constructing materials. Cause my real job is going no where fast, and i sure as fuck cant pass a piss test for a good 3 weeks, this is what im forced into, fuck this economy, its garbage... and fuck drug prohibition, stupid racist mother fucker from the 20's got people by the balls, I don't even know why black and Latino cops even make drug arrests, they were born from racism, fucking morons.

Well with two lights vented, a 15,000 btu will work fine if you actually construct the room you mention but for that garage...not a chance. Get building because either way you go, that garage...uninsulated...in Florida will not control heat on one lamp let aloan two. Good Luck hoping for cold weather for ya.

Well I got a 2000 watt room 10x10 room with a portable 8000btu ac unit and a 12",6", and 4" inline fans for exhaust and temps still run high in summer so u take the info and go from there I'm am currently lookin for a 14,000 btus to take over for the other one I also have another 1000watter waiting to turn on once I get the new ac

A portable ac, the kind with wheels and 2 hoses. One of my rooms is a 10x5x8 and it has 2 1000w and a 14000 btu portable ac. works great. I did have to hook up an inline fan to the ac exhaust because the units fan wasnt able to push through the extra ducting i hooked up to it, maybe 7 feet or so extra. The ac was getting too warm and blowing hot humid air into the room before the inline fan was installed. Some duct tape and cardboard might help to seal the room for now until you can build the one you want. Good luck!

I ran a 2000 watt room with a 10000 BTU window shaker in 100+ degree temps without any problems. (Air cooled hoods)

My experience in AZ is that without insulation, yer screwed. Completely.

as far as multiple ac's.. don't do it if you can get away with it. One unit would be best. A/C is a fine line when you are selecting a unit. In order to keep from either wasting power or burning out the compressor, it must be sized appropriately. Too big of a unit will cycle on/off more often, burning out the compressor much faster. Too small and it runs constantly, burning out the compressor much faster.

The biggest problem I'd have with having multiple compressors is the start up power required to kick those compressors on. If 2 of them try to kick on at the same time, you could very well blow a circuit breaker and not realize it until it's too late. When you start a compressor motor using single phase electricity, it's like your power meter is getting punched in the face. That times how ever many A/C's you have would really suck.

BossHoggins said:

My experience in AZ is that without insulation, yer screwed. Completely.

as far as multiple ac's.. don't do it if you can get away with it. One unit would be best. A/C is a fine line when you are selecting a unit. In order to keep from either wasting power or burning out the compressor, it must be sized appropriately. Too big of a unit will cycle on/off more often, burning out the compressor much faster. Too small and it runs constantly, burning out the compressor much faster.

The biggest problem I'd have with having multiple compressors is the start up power required to kick those compressors on. If 2 of them try to kick on at the same time, you could very well blow a circuit breaker and not realize it until it's too late. When you start a compressor motor using single phase electricity, it's like your power meter is getting punched in the face. That times how ever many A/C's you have would really suck.

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What you want is an invertor AC unit then. Saves helluva lot of power and keeps temps real stable, adjusts itself as temps require instead of kickin the compressor on and off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioner_inverter

Whichever solution the OP goes with either replacing the smaller a/c unit with a bigger one, or adding an extra a/c unit, one thing that will help out a lot and I do not know why it isn't done more- Keep your 12/12 cycle so that lights come on late in the evening and go off early in the morning. I only run 1 HPS , it comes on at 8pm and goes off at 8am.

I live in Colorado now, and even though I do not use a/c at all for growing, I used to grow in Georgia living in a double-wide trailer with central a/c. When I first started growing from the very beginning, I flowered with light on from either 7pm to 7am, or 8pm to 8am. In the very beginning I also learned that fluoros ran WAY cooler for vegging than trying to run my switchable MH / HPS 400 ballast to veg plants and battle the heat by jacking down the central a/c temp making it keep the temps cooler. This is why I'm anti-metal halide and pro-fluoro for vegging and cloning.

Referring back to the 12 on during the night and 12 off during the day, this works whether you are running a single light or many multiple lights. Many power companies charge on a tier rating system where you end up paying a higher rate for using the bulk of your power consumption in daylight business hours and could actually save money by pulling the same amount of juice during the night instead of the day. Also, the a/c unit would have WAAAY more cooling ability during the night hours compared to the day.

Big difference in running lights-on when the temps drop down into the mid-upper 70's at night compared to running lights-on all day when temps are hovering well into the 90's. Even if it's 95 degree day time highs and 75 degree night time lows, THIS will make a massive difference in cooling effectiveness by flowering at NIGHT.

Also, if you're vegging with metal halide , consider switching to fluoros for vegging, they run A LOT cooler. No one mentioned about lighting schedule in this thread so I thought I'd mention it. I've seen SO MANY threads about heat issues and many times the grower will be running lights on with a 9 AM to 9 PM schedule and all I can think of is ...why ???

Mad Hamish said:

What you want is an invertor AC unit then. Saves helluva lot of power and keeps temps real stable, adjusts itself as temps require instead of kickin the compressor on and off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioner_inverter

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yes, ideally I need a good 1500 btu, quality insulation, etc. I need to sell a pound or a little less to one of my dudes and ill have everything i need. Just got to wait on these babies. The six i'm about to chop look to be (well 3 of them, look fantastic, and will probably net hopefully at least 2 ounces off each), the other three are not as promising looking, shorter, smaller, and with more issues say's the leaves, its brutal on these ladies in the heat. Once I get my shit together $ wise, I'll be able to crank this crap out like nothing. But until then they fight for every gram they make it seems. Plus it does not help the flow that im sort of in the free sample stage to my flippers, They said the last sample (some crappy ass one that hermie'd actually, gave my mom the good stuff) that it was leaps and bounds above the stuff i gave them to try before, which was CFL crap weed. haha, So in due time my fellow green thumbs. Actually bought some pumpkin seeds the other day, and want to grow everyone pumpkins for Halloween coming up. It will be my first time growing anything legal, and all my knowledge of growing is about cannabis, hahaha.

No i use cfl's for veg/clone. I have to do a bit more light sealing, and double checking and triple checking everything before i switch the schedule to lights on at night instead. But I'm def going to try it once my flower room is clear. Problem is im more active at night anyways, so it will be much easier to work on the plants at night, but the whole garage would need light sealing, and that would be a MAJOR project in this dump of a house, place is falling down as is, and were in foreclosure lmfao. So when the sheriff shows up to serve paper(s) if need be, I'll have yet another project on my hands (whenever that day comes), but I'm sure when i buy a house of my own (will be first time buyer), IT WILL BE EPIC. Because I'll pick everything based on production, concealment, area, etc.

I also will need to buy two houses, so i need to make this work for now, and build an account up decently to allow me to do so. One for everything that's shady and goes bump in the night, and one for me, and the chick, kid's etc. (ideally i would love to get to be able to have one of my closest friends, live at my second house, for free to keep up on security etc., but i know how badly things like that can blow up in your face) But without it, I will have to fake a double life towards any pending neighbors of the second house, which im not a good liar, and befriend and trust people way too easily for me to really do that. Being outgoing and in general and honest and nice person in this biz makes things pretty damn rough... :/

I have a 14,000btu dual hose a/c not in my grow but in my apt. It sucks 1090watts on high all day. Cools the master room well but not the whole apt. example a/c set to 66, its 95 outside, 72 in mast room with the a/c, 80 in rest of apt. If you have a lower humidity where you live you could also use an evaporative cooler. I thought about upgrading to one, for now I use an ultrasonic humidifier (fog) at the opening to my tent doing so drops my temps at canopy level about 4 degrees! BUT F.Y.I. using tap water and the humidifier inside the tent can cause damage to foliage if the "fog" hits the plants directly.

split unit ac's RULE imo.