Mini Fridge As A/C???

stealthygrower

Active Member
Anyone try using a mini or dorm fridge as a supplemental A/C? I have a 11 X 11 room
and was considering a 1.7 cu. foot fridge.Hole in the door with maybe a 4 inch in line booster fan. Anyone ever do this? Comments....
 

jdizzle22

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't know for sure, but I would imagine leaving any kind of fridge open would be a very inefficient way of cooling a room compared to buying say a portable air conditioner.
 

desertrat

Well-Known Member
won't work unless you vent out the hot air coming from the condensers. an a/c produces more heat than the cooling it provides and if you don't vent the heat away you are just running an inefficient heater.
 

Stoney384

Active Member
i agree with desertrat

you would be creating more heat using a fridge then if you where using a portable a/c

now if you where to have the fridge on the outside of your grow area and bring the cool air in, then maybe it would work

but thats just my opinion
 

chevota

Member
A mini fridge wouldn't even be close to being enough, they're not very powerful at all. They can drop the temp inside as much as 50 degrees going full blast, but an 11x11x8 room is over 500 times that size, so you'd get maybe one or two tenths of a degree drop. Even a full size fridge would probably only drop two or so degrees. You need an AC unit, you can get them new at the end of summer for under $100, or used on CL for under $100 now. I have a tiny little 5K BTU unit I got from Home Depot for $80, it draws <500w at full blast. I'm glad I did because it's just about getting hot enough to need it.
Another thing is to run the 12 on cycle at night, I run mine at 8pm to 8am, so even tho it gets 80 degrees in the day, I still haven't needed the AC yet. Plus you don't need a heater at night (if your area gets cold). So far with no heat or cooling, my room is 65-75 during the day (lights off), 75-82 at night (lights on). If I ran 12 on during the day I'd need to heat at night, and cool in the day, if would just be $ down the drain...
Another idea is if you have a basement or crawl space under the house where it's cool during the day, draw that air into the grow room.
Good luck with it!
 

jakeman311

Active Member
truthfully you would be better off putting ice blocks in front of a fan if your trying to go as cheap as possible or whatever your intentions may be for not using a A/C. Not only would the fridge not put out a decent amount of btu it would probably burn itself out in a few weeks.
 
Top