Commercial ac units vs ideal air 5 ton mega split

Ok so im about to start a commercial grow operation. Starting small with only 800 sf flower room with 24 1000 watt slimline gavitas over 3 ucdb32xl systems. I have pretty much everything figured out except i. Down to 2 choices on hvac. Either 2 10 ton commercial downflow ac units or 4 ideal air 5 ton mega split units. The mega splits are on sale for 2750 right now 60% off msrp. My question is do u guys think the mega splits will do the job that the commercial units will in that size flower room?

The splits will run more efficiently, only running as hard as they must to do the job at hand. Also having more, smaller units makes it easier to handle a breakdown. The splits, if you get the right one, can handle cold weather better, some operating down to -27F outside.

I run 4 ton mini's and they can handle about 10k watts. Im in a basement so there is no extra heat from outside (manual J calcs required if you have to cool a building and a grow.) It seems like your estimates are way oversized tho. I would think that 3 x 5 ton units would be good to go.

10 tons would cool the lighting alone, but in the summer you would likely need some added tonnage to cool the building. I would think something between 12 and 15 tons would do the job depending on how well insulated the building is.

Renfro said:

10 tons would cool the lighting alone, but in the summer you would likely need some added tonnage to cool the building. I would think something between 12 and 15 tons would do the job depending on how well insulated the building is.

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yea i have already decided to go with 3 of the 5 ton mega splits by ideal air. Worst case if its not enough easy to install another 5. I found 3 5ton ideal air mega splits with 23ft of refrigerant lines on sale for 7040$. Im like wtf are these units any good?

I have never used an Ideal Air, they seem pricey. If I was going to spend those bucks I would go with Mitsubishi. Most of the time I grab cheaper units from minisplitwarehouse.com lol. They have worked well for me and super cheap. I have a couple of their 4 ton ceiling mount units.

Renfro said:

I have never used an Ideal Air, they seem pricey. If I was going to spend those bucks I would go with Mitsubishi. Most of the time I grab cheaper units from minisplitwarehouse.com lol. They have worked well for me and super cheap. I have a couple of their 4 ton ceiling mount units.

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The ideal air 5 ton mega split with ceiling mount air handler are on sale on bghydro for 2700. Thats the cheapest 5 ton i have found. On another site 3 5 tons and 3 line sets total to 7040. On another site they are 5500 each.

Thats a good deal, I thought you were paying 7k per unit lol

Renfro said:

Thats a good deal, I thought you were paying 7k per unit lol

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Na bghydro not even the best deal on them. Other site was 3 units with line sets for 7040. Thats why im a little concerned about them. Like why so cheap.

Have you read reviews or talked to anyone running the ideal air units? It would scare me to cut corners on AC. I’ve found that I end up buying things twice If try to buy cheap. Also do you have a relationship of some sort with an AC tech because I doubt there are very many ac techs familiar with ideal air parts. And are the parts readily available? Not that it’s rocket science just that some hvac peolple only service certain brands. In my case I opted for a Daikin unit because it’s a well trusted brand and the big reason is because I got a warranty.
I do understand why you want to go that route it does sound like a good price.

Do you not have any ground space at all beside your building? You could go with a package unit I just googled to see and a daikin 12.5 ton unit is 7121.00. If your handy enough or know a carpenter you could possibly install this without an ac tech as since it’s a package unit you won’t have to run any linesets.

Your best bet is to try and find an AC guy that is cool. Almost all of them tell people they don’t know that they double the price of the unit for labor. But it’s a competitive field and they wanna work. A lot of guys at the big hvac companies do installs on the side for cheaper also. Ask you cousin, friend, co worker about who they know that does ac work.

Apalchen said:

Have you read reviews or talked to anyone running the ideal air units? It would scare me to cut corners on AC. I’ve found that I end up buying things twice If try to buy cheap. Also do you have a relationship of some sort with an AC tech because I doubt there are very many ac techs familiar with ideal air parts. And are the parts readily available? Not that it’s rocket science just that some hvac peolple only service certain brands. In my case I opted for a Daikin unit because it’s a well trusted brand and the big reason is because I got a warranty.
I do understand why you want to go that route it does sound like a good price.

Do you not have any ground space at all beside your building? You could go with a package unit I just googled to see and a daikin 12.5 ton unit is 7121.00. If your handy enough or know a carpenter you could possibly install this without an ac tech as since it’s a package unit you won’t have to run any linesets.

Your best bet is to try and find an AC guy that is cool. Almost all of them tell people they don’t know that they double the price of the unit for labor. But it’s a competitive field and they wanna work. A lot of guys at the big hvac companies do installs on the side for cheaper also. Ask you cousin, friend, co worker about who they know that does ac work.

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Knew it was to good to be true. The damn ideal air units have a voluntary recall right now. I emailed them to see what it is for. Really blows. Was a good price. I have about 4x13 outside my building that i can use. So now my search starts again. Lol. Pain in the ass really. So many choices its hard to decide.

Renfro said:

I have never used an Ideal Air, they seem pricey. If I was going to spend those bucks I would go with Mitsubishi. Most of the time I grab cheaper units from minisplitwarehouse.com lol. They have worked well for me and super cheap. I have a couple of their 4 ton ceiling mount units.

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how well do your air handlers dehumidify? Do u still have to run a dehumidifier?

Here in colorado it's pretty dry so I rarely have to run a dehu even when the lights are off. I have to run swamp coolers to add humidity most of the time. Either way you probably want a dehu for when the lights are off and the AC is not doing any work. I have my AC units on a flip with the lights so they don't have power when the lights go off. Running this whole grow and living here also all off a 150 amp main lol.

As far as the 4 ton units dehumidifying I know they do pull a lot of water but it all goes to the floor drain so I don't know how much.

Renfro said:

Here in colorado it's pretty dry so I rarely have to run a dehu even when the lights are off. I have to run swamp coolers to add humidity most of the time. Either way you probably want a dehu for when the lights are off and the AC is not doing any work. I have my AC units on a flip with the lights so they don't have power when the lights go off. Running this whole grow and living here also all off a 150 amp main lol.

As far as the 4 ton units dehumidifying I know they do pull a lot of water but it all goes to the floor drain so I don't know how much.

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Hellz yea. The recall on the ideal air units is for a plastic cover on the outdoor unit. Lady said if i have a palstic one she will send me the metal one for free. Shitty thing is the 5 ton units are sold out. Grrr. So ill go with 3 4 ton units and see how well that works. 6200 for the 3 units and the linesets. Pretty sweet deal. The building is insulated pretty good so hopefully thats enough.

Apalchen said:

big reason is because I got a warranty

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I bet they don't cover crop loss in the warranty tho. lol

Renfro said:

I bet they don't cover crop loss in the warranty tho. lol

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Nope they don’t lol. I got the gavita master controller which shuts off lights if ac fails so hopefully that should help. I dunno it’s all coming together Saturday. Seems like everyday there is another expense or something cost more, I just hope to get ac and wiring done so I can get going my veg plants need repotted ASAP. And funds are depleted.

bdt1981 said:

Hellz yea. The recall on the ideal air units is for a plastic cover on the outdoor unit. Lady said if i have a palstic one she will send me the metal one for free. Shitty thing is the 5 ton units are sold out. Grrr. So ill go with 3 4 ton units and see how well that works. 6200 for the 3 units and the linesets. Pretty sweet deal. The building is insulated pretty good so hopefully thats enough.

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That is a good deal, I’m kicking myself in the ass for not just ordering a cheap unit at the moment. Hopefully the daikin unit is worth it but it’s getting fairly costly.

Apalchen said:

Seems like everyday there is another expense or something cost more

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Isn't that the truth?

Learned a long time ago that you gotta spend money to make money. Never was it more true than when growing weed. The bigger the grow the more shit there is to break and fix. Thats why I always try to buy the best equipment and do everything right the first time.

I would skip the splits, the company I work for had a room with them and was using them to supplement the commercial A/C they had that wasn't doing enough on it's own. One time the splits broke, but the commercial ac was able to carry the extra work. One time the commercial AC broke, the splits were NOT able to carry the extra weight.

Get an HVAC company to work with and have a professional commercial A/C installed. Anything you can get from a website that sells to growers is overpriced and often garbage.

*have multiple commercial A/C installed.

Rasta Roy said:

One time the commercial AC broke, the splits were NOT able to carry the extra weight.

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Thats simply a capacity issue.

Most "commercial" ac units aren't designed to run in the winter. If one does choose this route it is important to get a contractor that understands the need for cooling in the winter and not just install a freeze kit as an afterthought.

A great many computer server rooms are cooled by mini splits due to the inverter tech being particularly suited to running when the ambient air temperatures are cold. I have seen Mitsubishi minis that were speced to run as low as -27 outside. They aren't just on or off like most AC units are. The compressor and both evaporator and condenser fans can run just as fast as required to meet demand given the ambient temperature. If it's cold outside the condenser fan may not run at all and the compressor isn't working very hard. Installing a freeze kit on a standard AC unit is like a bandaid.

I would rather have multiple high quality minisplits in a large grow than one big commercial unit. Better energy efficiency. If you are worried about a unit failure just have one extra unit in the room. So if you need 12 tons, get 4 x 4 ton units. Have one in auto cool mode set at a temperature just a little higher than the room should ever get. The extra unit will just idle circulating air and wait for a cooling demand. If there is a failure the extra unit will start cooling to keep things from getting out of whack, you can then turn it down a few degrees and let it handle the load while the broken unit is repaired or replaced.

To have a second backup commercial unit of 12 tons would cost more than having a spare 4 tonner.