air conditioning debacle

Does anyone use an air conditioning unit to controll temp and humidity?

I am planning to use 4 1000w hps lights hanging and cooling the whole room with this:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SP100A697S41214459P?vName=Appliances&sName=Large+Capacity&cName=Air+Conditioners,+Fans+&+Heaters&sLevel=3

It has 12000BTU and I am not familiar with things like this, does anyone know if this will get the job done?

I have a bunch of ACs for different rooms in my house...don't use it for growing though. 12,000 BTU will cool a nice size area. I have an AC that size that can easily cool a 25 x 25 sq ft room.

Each 1kw light puts out a minimum of ~3k btu's heat, that's at least 12k total and you'd think your portable a/c would be enough, but not likely.

Those portables are highly overrated. The only way it stands a chance is if it's a dual hose unit with dedicated input and output to vent it's heat and even then you'd be at max capacity all the time if it even made it. The single hose ones may put out 12k btu if you are lucky, but they suck out 6k of it trying to cool themselves.

A window a/c 18k btu or so is what you really need, those are better and 18k is a better size for you, or two dual hose portable units 10k+ ea.

I agree with Oregon, I think that it's closer to 3,500 BTU's per 1,000W light. The lights will overpower the A/C unless the lights are air cooled.

the purpose of the portable unit is that I have sealed my room and plan to run co2, should I just buy two? is there some sort of chiller or better type of ac that can cool 4000w in an 11x8 room?

my thought is that since the room is so small the unit will be able to work the same air faster and keep it cool

Do window a/c pull the co2 out the room????They exhaust the heat outside it produces....I was under the impression that a window a/c recirculates the air in the room but I could be mistaken........but if i am correct then a 12,000 btu window a/c should be suffice (not that portable one)........and are you using air cooled hoods or cool tubes for your lights???

jcdws602 said:

Do window a/c pull the co2 out the room????They exhaust the heat outside it produces....I was under the impression that a window a/c recirculates the air in the room but I could be mistaken........but if i am correct then a 12,000 btu window a/c should be suffice (not that portable one)........and are you using air cooled hoods or cool tubes for your lights???

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I think a window ac uses outside air which is cooler to cool the room, I will do some research on window ac units later. I am hanging my bulbs with no hoods or tubes.

Window ac works the same just not portable..............I have a couple in my rooms I run Co2 as well and as far as I can tell the Co2 does not get sucked out....I don't have a co2 controller or anything to monitor the co2 but I am pretty sure it stays in the room because it would smell outside....I would advise investing in cool tubes or air cooled hoods...they reduce the heat drastically produced by the lights.....meaning less effort into cooling the room......don't get me wrong you'll still need a/c but it wont have to work as hard.....

guitargodj32 said:

I think a window ac uses outside air which is cooler to cool the room, I will do some research on window ac units later. I am hanging my bulbs with no hoods or tubes.

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Nope. window units recirculate the inside air (unless you make it exhaust). air is taken in through the filter behind the face of the unit, passes through a freon-cooled coil, then out the supply openings. outside air is only used to cool the condensing coil (the one that gets hot outside). keep in mind...a/c units suck humidity out of the air in a big damn hurry

I will be running a 12000 btu window unit, one air cooled hood, and as many hanging bulbs as my ac can take (maybe just one, maybe 3). After harvest I am going to buy another window unit and I should have things under controll.

thanks for the help you guys, you answered some questions i was having a hard time researching

here's something that might help - http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/a...heet/index.htm - it's an a/c calculator that takes into account wattage of appliances as well as things like regional weather, southern exposure, adjacent air conditioned walls and the like. can't vouch for its accuracy but someone put a lot of work into it.