Cheap Air Condition substitute

Do any of you have ideas for a cheap AC substitute? I have spare deep freezers and mini fridges. Would these help at all and be energy efficient left open?

Allright man, I can tell you from experience the mini fridges/deep freezes won't work the way you're going to want them to. I'm in FL. and even the winters here can get a little warm since we don't have central AC. so what you do is take a cooler you can cut some holes in ( styrofoam cooler works just as good ) cut a vent hole in one end and cut a small 4-6" round hole in another. run a duct fan from one side of the cooler to the box and then just fill the cooler with some frozen 2 liters and you're in business....

i should've asked what type of grow set up you have 1st but this should work.

Theres another similar way but without the ice. Have your vent coming into the room/tent vent into a cooler or a bucket with a rag or sham wow or anything that will wick up water sitting on top the water inside. As the air flows over the rag it will evaporate water which will act as a poor mans air conditioner. I've seen it done but have never tried it personally so I have no idea how well it works!

kind of sounds like a swamp fan type setup. as long as you change the rag often enough so no mildew or mold grows then it could work

Navior said:

with a rag or sham wow

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No paper towel's going to do that.

yeah, if you're gonna go a route like the soaked rag technique you should just go get a swamp fan....plus that might jack your humidity all out of whack too...

all i know is I use the cooler full of frozen 2 liters and it drops the temps about 5 degrees...

thanks for all the tips guys...do co2 generators provide enough cool air for a good sized room? Also, if I bought a small ac unit would that do the trick and be pretty cost efficient? thanks

It will be more efficient at cooling down the area but it'll still cost money to run, obviously....and I don't know about the co2

Though it seems more effiecent and very possibly is, a freezer is going to have to work harder to cool your containers and thus its compressor will kick on and take much the energy a A/C unit would.

I have a swamp cooler.Works well.
I was gonna try this if it didn't. [youtube]PwplxoJSDw[/youtube]

you could also use dry ice in the cooler. it would cool the area and add co2 to your grow room, which allows the plant to survive in higher temps.

Doesn't last too long, though.It is pretty cheap, however.Just make sure you don't sleep on the floor if it seeps out of your grow room.

jokertoker said:

you could also use dry ice in the cooler. it would cool the area and add co2 to your grow room, which allows the plant to survive in higher temps.

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