ISO grow room guru.... Filter fan and window ac placement

Ok I've done my research and maybe what I'm looking for is just an opinion, and there is no true correct answer.
youtube and forums show you hang your filter inside with inline fan, wouldn't it make more sense to just run ducting inside then put filter and fan outside of tent to reduce heat? 2nd.... I'm putting my 5x5 tent next to a window and I wanted to cut a slit in my tent and have half the ac in and other half outside the window. Multiple people have said just use a split ac, can someone please explain why my idea isn't better, Last ?.... Do I need to supply more air than what the window ac supplies?
thanks

I don't see why you'd need more air, and I agree with having the filter outside as opposed to in, been think about it a bit lately as I wanted to finish indoors to control the smell a bit. Can't comment on the whole split ac business, interested to see what everyone has to say.

Small warning, unless you're either not concerned with generating smells or it's not a standard type of a/c unit do not put the window air conditioner in the tent like that as while it blows cold air into the tent, it also sucks warm (unfiltered) air out of the tent and exhausts a portion of it even hotter (which increases smells in theory). A split unit (if I remember correctly) works by drawing existing room air over a cooled coil that is fed from an outside compressor. The room unit doesn't exhaust any air from within the room so it would not create any tell tale smell outside of your house. If you're sold on the window unit as it's so much cheaper than split: A better choice is to have that window unit blow into the room with the intake of the tent close to where it blows (but not RIGHT on it to avoid temp shocks) and to exhaust (filtered) air out of the tent either into the room (harder on the a/c unit) or out of the room.

At least that's my 2cents.

Stsin, did you read my orig. post? The back half of the ac will be outside so blowing that hot air out and away from the room is a good thing. My tent is inside my garage backed up against a wall with a window that leads outside.

Um, Yes, I did. However if the front of the window a/c is in the tent, then the a/c's air intake is in the tent along with your (usually) smelly plants. So all of the hot air the a/c exhausts outside will have a (presumably quite strong as it has also been heated up) tell tale odor that serves to alert anyone nearby what you're doing in the garage. If the air the a/c breathes in is filtered, then there will be no tell tale smell to give you away. However you will sacrifice a good bit of efficiency as you'll be cooling the whole garage and not just the tent.

But like I said if you don't mind having the neighbors smell your hobby (say, it's legal where you live and you're not running the risk of prison.) it will work *much* more efficiently for cooling to have the window unit physically in the tent (via the hole you cut) as opposed to cooling the whole garage...

I understand your post now but I thought ac units take the air from outside then blow in cold air while also exhausting out the back, like it has 2 sides an intake and exhaust. I didn't know the unit takes air from inside the tent. If this is the case couldn't I just run ducting to the intake with a carbon filter?
It's legal where I live with appropriate paper work which I have.

Plus not sure how far smell travels but where I live we all live on 1 acre lots and are spread out.

Ahhhhh, if you're legal (I'd be torn even with out on those sort of lots honestly as an acre is a fair chunk of space for the smell to dissipate and I'm paranoid!) then you would definitely have no problem running a/c into the tent directly.The only other concern I would raise is to make sure that the ice cold air isn't blowing directly on the plants divert it a bit to the sides of the tent so when it hits the plants it is closer to 60 deg.

Also: Yup, you could run ducting to the intake with a carbon filter as well but you'd have to seal off the intake completely and guess on how much air to blow down the ducting and you'll still need to balance the air rushing into the room from the a/c unit with the air leaving the room from the front intake of the a/c unit else you'll be leaking smell at every hole as you'd have positive air pressure in the tent as opposed to the desired negative air pressure. It just becomes a monster pain in the ass that way.

Bit of unrequested legal advice: If you're in a state such as california where the paperwork is from the doctor directly (as opposed to registering with the state) be warned that smell can attract the police (and even after seeing your paperwork, they'll likely nose around a bit), so it's best to make sure you are following the letter of the law (no more than X plants, no other drugs, not more than X amount... etc). If you're in a state where the patient registers with the state's government the police will routinely run an address to see if it's registered when they receive a tip on smell and more often than not, not follow up on the tip (though of course, always live by the letter of the law, mmmm kay?)

I'm not growing many and I have a care givers script so I'm allowed 99 plants and 3lbs dried. And yes I'm in nor cal.