Question about Portable AC/Dehumidifier

Why cant you just cut a hole put an AC in like in the windows of houses and take a co2 tank and get a regulator and run it I have always been confused on all these little gadgets and nick knacks makes my head spin

I think you have the right idea by staying small and figuring out all the details to getting your maximum GPW and the highest quality as well. I would not vent vent the hot air into your lung room your going to drive those temps up so fast your concrete walls wont help you much. This winter I heated my entire two story house with only the heat coming off the air cooled lights. We had temps in high teens for a few weeks and I never saw the temp drop below 68 degree Fahrenheit. What your saying about the portable AC sounds like common sense, but surprisingly most portable AC take air out of the room they are cooling and vent it out the window to cool the compressor. I was able to seal my last one pretty good by taking it apart entirely and building a box around the compressor and sealing it. Even with all of that effort I still had smells escaping, your best bet is a mini-split if you can afford it and have a good spot for it outside.

Fnominon said:

I think you have the right idea by staying small and figuring out all the details to getting your maximum GPW and the highest quality as well. I would not vent vent the hot air into your lung room your going to drive those temps up so fast your concrete walls wont help you much. This winter I heated my entire two story house with only the heat coming off the air cooled lights. We had temps in high teens for a few weeks and I never saw the temp drop below 68 degree Fahrenheit. What your saying about the portable AC sounds like common sense, but surprisingly most portable AC take air out of the room they are cooling and vent it out the window to cool the compressor. I was able to seal my last one pretty good by taking it apart entirely and building a box around the compressor and sealing it. Even with all of that effort I still had smells escaping, your best bet is a mini-split if you can afford it and have a good spot for it outside.

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Oh damn, now I see what these mini-splits are. I thought they were a single unit
Ok so you have the mini unit ouside and it cools the coolant, which it sends through a thin pipe to the AC indoors. The AC heats the coolant, compresses it and sends it back to the outdoor unit to cool the heated compressed coolant.
This might be much easier than I thought it was going to be. I have a corner in my backyard where I could put the outdoor unit. And I could probably think up a way to hide it somehow so that I can use it during the winter without anyone noticing(it will still be in plain site to about 3 neihbors I have, so I would want to hide it.
I'll think of something that would block the view of the unit, like a big table or a bunch of building supplies conveniently leaned up against the wall, make it look natural. The people upstairs can see down from their balcony to my backyard, but I'll make it all look normal.
Now this is sounding like an excellent way to go. How long can I run the piping from the outdoor unit to the indoor unit? I would want to run it 15 feet if possible, as it would have to travel through the furnace room to get to my grow room.
I imagine it requires a certain kind of insulated metal piping for this job, is it possible for me to install one of these completely on my own? I'm pretty good at figuring stuff out myself. I really really don't want to have some installer have to do this for me, as I would have to box up all of my equipement and make everything look normal. And having a unit installed for a crummy little room in a basement is going to seem a little strange anyways.

hmmm but those heat pumps can be used for heating as well! so that means I can run it year round without causing any suspision
I still don't want it to be very loud as the upstairs neihbor has a bedroom window only a few feet from where I would put the outdoor unit...
found this video and this comparrison chart showing what 70db sounds like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QAKPvG0P1M
http://www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafety/training/ppetrain/dblevels.htm

it looks like I may be able to keep it pretty stealth using one of these

will these mini heat pumps work when it's -5F outside? I would imagine they would work extremely well, maybe even too well, causing ice formation on the inside unit's coil?

Mini-Splits are the ideal in my opinion. Yes you can get kits to install with precharged line with cord sets greater than 25'. You would want to buy a unit that has a winter package to go down to those temps, most will not on their own. When considering where to place out door unit realize that these things move a lot of air and that you shouldn't obstruct the air path, however, I would imagine putting it under a table or something like that would be find.

Fnominon said:

Mini-Splits are the ideal in my opinion. Yes you can get kits to install with precharged line with cord sets greater than 25'. You would want to buy a unit that has a winter package to go down to those temps, most will not on their own. When considering where to place out door unit realize that these things move a lot of air and that you shouldn't obstruct the air path, however, I would imagine putting it under a table or something like that would be find.

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From the video I linked they seem extremely quiet but also 70db is pretty loud. My comparrison chart shows that being as loud as a vacumm cleaner which is quite noisy if you ask me

I't might seem a little strange in the winter having a unit running, but they can also be used to heat so it's actually not that weird. However I still can't have it making considerable noise especially if it can be heard from inside the house. Hopefully a table or something similar can be used with sound dampening foam to make it even more quiet.

Looks like I have all this pretty well sorted now, thanks for all the help and leading me in the right direction. Now to save up that $1400 so I can actually buy one...

bowlfullofbliss said:

The dual hose ac is perfect.....I have one in my sealed room.....this is the only way to keep the co2 in. The unit does not take out any air, or put any back that wasn't already there. Go with that......I do have a seperate dehumidifier though. Better control, and a big pan because I can't drain into a floor. I just empty daily.

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thats what ive been told aswell,the portable ones that keep the air in keeping the room cool and Co2 in without bringing in air from outside,and only exhaust heat.

mak said:

thats what ive been told aswell,the portable ones that keep the air in keeping the room cool and Co2 in without bringing in air from outside,and only exhaust heat.

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but what about exhausting smell

mak said:

but what about exhausting smell

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We've gone over all of this in the thread

The dual hoses arent usually 100% sealed so unless you pull all apart and manage to seal it up your going to have air/smell leaks to the outside.

The mini-AC units are ideal. Refridgerant is pumped from the outdoor unit inside and cools the air inside, then the refidgerant returns to the outside unit and releases the heat outside. absolutely no smell leak
I'm pretty excited about this...
still in my first grow... maybe I'll see how this one goes before I drop another 1500$ lol

Might have to get one of these http://www.amazon.com/Klimaire-18000-ductless-conditioner-installation/dp/B002C01TVK

I wonder if a landlord is going to ask questions if i offer to put one of these in the garage at my own expense.

If he is paying for the electric bill it would be an expense he did not have before.

You can get mini-split units with under 50db of noise coming from the exterior unit which if you can keep people 5-10 feet away from the actual unit wont be a problem. I bought a new duel hose AC last week and have been running it with out any further sealing and so far it hasn't vented to much smell. The biggest problems I see if you buy a duel hose sealed unit is that you probably wont get more than a years life out of them if your running it hard and the efficiency is about as low as you can get with an AC.
Phishtank if your landlord wont mind you growing at your location then it would probably be cool, but otherwise the outdoor unit will no doubt give you away. Your talking about installing a huge AC unit that runs over $1000 dollars, designed to run sealed, typically installed by professionals, and your doing this on a rental why? There is pretty much only once answer and that is to grow and chances are your landlord knows it and the law most definitely does. The deep South is probably an exception to this rule.
Lokie no grower in his right mind would ever try growing more than a CFL grow when the landlord pays power.

woodsmaneh! said:

AS your not getting this right away here is something to think about also. Chiller's are almost 50% more effective at cooling than AC and you can buy an icebox to fit your lights or just blowing in the room to cool it.

http://www.growlightexpress.com/water-cooled-lights-8/ice-box-heat-exchanger-6-inch-306.html

http://www.growlightexpress.com/water-chillers-60/?zenid=au5h3ccivg28ruho6ftu4g0in7

To cool the water you would need 1/4 hp minimum water chiller per 1000 watt reflector-yes, chillers use energy but not as much energy as a/c! Remember how much more efficient water cooling is than air. If additional cooling is needed for hot environments the Ice Box Heat Exchanger itself can also be easily daisy chained for cooling power that is doubled, tripled, etc.

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I've been using chillers for a long time. I started off using Ice Boxes but now we have a water cooled air handler and we just duct the lights back to the air handler return.

In this case I think it would be too expensive. He said he's not trying to spend a lot of money. He's got 2 600w lights right now. He could get away with 1 Ice Box to cool them both but He would still have to get another one to cool the ambient temperature in the room. You can pick them up for about $200 a piece. You'd have to buy 2 inline fans as well if you don't already have them. Plus you'd need a fan speed controller with a thermostat to control the one free standing Ice Box. Then you'd need a chiller (probably 1/2hp), a reservoir, good pump, and he'd have to build a manifold out of pvc that ran into the room. It would get real expensive. My guess is around $2,000. And with a room that size he may need another Ice Box to help cool the ambient temperature. As a stand alone unit they can produce about 8,000btu of cooling but that's if everything is dialed in perfectly.

The manifolds will drip like crazy even if they are insulated. You would need to use an online Dew Point Calculator or just play with the temps and humidity. Basically the lower your humidity and temp the colder you can keep your water.

I started a thread on this subject a few days ago. Check it out. It's got a lot of info.

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/511767-water-cooled-grow-rooms.html

phishtank said:

Might have to get one of these http://www.amazon.com/Klimaire-18000-ductless-conditioner-installation/dp/B002C01TVK

I wonder if a landlord is going to ask questions if i offer to put one of these in the garage at my own expense.

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Fnominon that's not huge? 18000btu, it's a minisplit

You'll be drawing alot of attention if it appears obvious that it connects to the garage, but you could run the line to a backyard or somewhere that an AC unit would look natural.

"Lokie no grower in his right mind would ever try growing more than a CFL grow when the landlord pays power. "

haha you got that right, I just got my electricity bill to day...

A.Green.Monster said:

Hello. I am a new to rui, and this is my very first post. I happen to work for an appliance company, and happen to know from first hand experience that 8 out of 10 portable air conditioners do not work very well. They do work as a dehumidifier, as any thing that makes the air cold does, although there is usually not a rh% setting, it will function set on the temperature it is set at. Typically most units will either fill up a bucket with water that you will have to empty, or have a drain hose you will need to drain into something(and once the bucket fills, it will shut off if you cannot watch closely). The hoses (either 1 or 2 depending on the brand) are usually not very good quality, and would need some kind of support because they are thick and heavy. I had a basement bedroom once with no Windows, and what I did was to put a regular window a/c in the door frame on the floor, and seal the door frame around the air conditioner with towels, or something similar to keep the cool in. This would probably be the most efficient and least expensive, but not the most convenient. Granted, I only used mine as a bedroom cooling unit not a production cooling unit, but you can get the same or more BTU's of cooling. Another option would be to cut a hole in a wall, and use 2x4's to frame the opening to hold the window/wall air conditioner. The a/c would have to be able to be mounted in a wall, some aren't. I would recommend any other possible option other than a portable air conditioner. I would only use a portable if there was no other option. I hope this helps. Good luck.

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An opinion that's been drilled into everyone looking for one. Now let's say we were dead set and had no other options to cool a 4x4 tent with a 1k hps. Which company and model would you suggest on the understanding that COLD AIR is the most important thing.