Co2 with portable ac

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Cousinbob

Active Member
Running a CO2 system in my 4 x 8 when the tent is closed it gets too hot so I set up a portable AC inside but it’s pulling too much air out of the tent including the CO2 and my CO2 machine keeps on cutting on and raising CO2 levels at 2000 when the tent is closed with the Ac on Any suggestions like maybe set the AC outside of the room and direct it into the room
 
OldMedUser

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I have been looking into building a sealed room using portable AC myself and what I discovered in my research is you want a dual hose portable so it gets its cooling air from either outside or a different room. Other than the cost of one I'd be golden as my room was built as a cold storage room under my house and has 2 - 4" inlet/outlet pipes already in there. I used to use them for my exhaust and intakes but 4" wasn't enough so I cut a 6" hole in the stub wall on top of the concrete for the exhaust and draw my air thru filters from the larger area of the basement. It's always cool in there so have never needed AC even in the summer running 1200W of HID.

In the summer the intake air was too warm and in the winter it could be too f'n cold when it's -20 to -35c out there. The basement temp varies from about 40F - 63F so much less difference in the intake temp.

Without the AC do you run your exhaust all the time or have it on a temp/rh controller to kick in only when it's needed to reduce either of those? I have that and a speed controller on my exhaust. When it's winter the air is really dry and with say a 600W going the temp/rh may not get high enough so my exhaust may only run 5min every hour or so. I burn an alcohol lamp in there to add the CO2 the plants aren't getting from fresh air being brought in and the plants like it.

Dual hose unit or a mini-split is the way to go to save the CO2 for the plants.

:peace:
 
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tilopa

Well-Known Member
Most dual hose portables do not exhaust much air from the inside to outside, but some do and you need to talk to the company to be sure. I had a 14k Whynter dual hose and the company tech support clearly told me that their product still sucks out inside air through the exhaust hose.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
tilopa said:
Most dual hose portables do not exhaust much air from the inside to outside, but some do and you need to talk to the company to be sure. I had a 14k Whynter dual hose and the company tech support clearly told me that their product still sucks out inside air through the exhaust hose.
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I think there is a thread on here somewhere, whytner dual hose or similar and it gets opened up and the leak points sealed.
 
dbz

dbz

Well-Known Member
Sorry If I say something stupid, but I put motorized in-line duct dampners in my house to fully turn off rooms that I didn't want climate controlled. If you have ducted passive intake into the room, you could run a duct into your passive intake from a unit outside (you would have to make sure your intake from the air conditioner didn't create positive pressure too much, so the dampner could turn off the passive intake and then you would essentially have an active intake from a portable unit that is not inside the room.
 
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sf_frankie

Well-Known Member
I’m currently running a portable AC with CO2 and for me it’s all about finding a balance. I had to sit in the room for hours to figure out temps and CO2 levels. If I run 1050ppm of CO2 at 84 degrees my AC doesn’t kick on very often to suck all the CO2 out. Any cooler and it’s constantly running which means constant CO2 burns which raises room temp and keeps the AC on. Negative feedback loop. If you’re running a generator it’s not a huge deal cause natural gas is usually cheap but if you’re using a tank it’s a complete waste of money.

you said you have a tent. Any chance you can put the AC outside of the tent and cool the room it’s in?
 
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Cousinbob

Active Member
I just ended up setting it up to where it’s pulling the air out the tent but I’m not venting it outside just outside the tent into the basement room the tent is in. That way I don’t loose no co2 just gets released into the basement room.But it still helps cool the tent as long as to top flaps on the tent are open. But my co2 will sky rocket for some reason if I close it completely
 
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Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
I use a portable ac but i have the ac out of the tent and i put a vent like you would find in your floor for air and heat then i put duct work on that and ran the duct into my room. Hooked up to a inkbird thermostat so it kicks on and off when it needs cooled. I do this because the portable units pull air from whatever room its in and exhuasts unfiltered air to wherever its being exhuasted to which will stink. Now it just pulls air from the room my tent is sealed up in which dont stink plus i still got all the floor space i need without having the portable ac unit in the tent. If it sounds confusing let me know ill post a picture of what i did.
 
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teddy bonkers

Well-Known Member
sf_frankie said:
I’m currently running a portable AC with CO2 and for me it’s all about finding a balance. I had to sit in the room for hours to figure out temps and CO2 levels. If I run 1050ppm of CO2 at 84 degrees my AC doesn’t kick on very often to suck all the CO2 out. Any cooler and it’s constantly running which means constant CO2 burns which raises room temp and keeps the AC on. Negative feedback loop. If you’re running a generator it’s not a huge deal cause natural gas is usually cheap but if you’re using a tank it’s a complete waste of money.

you said you have a tent. Any chance you can put the AC outside of the tent and cool the room it’s in?
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Just wanted to point out that you sat in your room exhaling c02 while trying to calculate c02 levels. My rooms c02 climbs quite quickly when i'm in there. did you consider that when doing your calcs?
 
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Cousinbob

Active Member
Gorillaglue4u said:
I use a portable ac but i have the ac out of the tent and i put a vent like you would find in your floor for air and heat then i put duct work on that and ran the duct into my room. Hooked up to a inkbird thermostat so it kicks on and off when it needs cooled. I do this because the portable units pull air from whatever room its in and exhuasts unfiltered air to wherever its being exhuasted to which will stink. Now it just pulls air from the room my tent is sealed up in which dont stink plus i still got all the floor space i need without having the portable ac unit in the tent. If it sounds confusing let me know ill post a picture of what i did.
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Sounds like what I was thinking of doing after this grow with a 10x10 tent I would like to see a pic thanks
 
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Cousinbob

Active Member
So that thermostat and probe hooks up to the ac how? You just plug into like a little extension cord with a thermostat on it and run the probe inside the tent
 
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Gorillaglue4u

Well-Known Member
Yea its called a inkbird it has 3 wires coming off of it. One to plug into the wall the other is to plug in your ac and heat (i only use for ac) then the other is a probe that is a small wire that i ran into the tent. You set the inkbird for when you want the ac to turn on and off. Mine turns on when it gets over 85 in the tent and turns off when it falls 85 degrees.
 
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Toploader

Member
Cousinbob said:
Running a CO2 system in my 4 x 8 when the tent is closed it gets too hot so I set up a portable AC inside but it’s pulling too much air out of the tent including the CO2 and my CO2 machine keeps on cutting on and raising CO2 levels at 2000 when the tent is closed with the Ac on Any suggestions like maybe set the AC outside of the room and direct it into the room
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I've got my AC outside the tent and I'm running ducting from the rear on the intake fan to the exhaust fan of the AC.
 
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