Question about Portable AC/Dehumidifier

My portable AC was built basically with two units like a minisplit. The top top part was ran the cooling and the bottom had the condenser and hot air exhaust. I took the unit entirely apart and rebuilt it so that the bottom of the unit was sealed into a box that had a large duct into the main room, while the top unit recirculated the air inside the grow. I go through 20lbs of compressed CO2 in two weeks or a standard tank of propane using the burner. Smell is an issue, I run some really smelly strains and the exhaust still manages to get a hint of it even after all the work sealing the unit. What I do is run the air under the house into the crawl space and then exhaust it out the back of the house under a rabbit hutch. A trained nose could potentially get a whiff, but most people would just confuse the smell with the rabbit poop. In your situation I recommend keeping your neutral room negatively pressurized so that if any smell gets out of your sealed room it will be pulled towards a carbon scrubber.
If you want your AC done right go with a mini-split, for me I am struggling with this since I live in the Pacific NW justifying an outdoor unit is next to impossible. Has anyone heard of someone putting the condenser under their house in a crawl space and then venting that air out through the under house vents?

what is such a big issue with having a little 2nd AC outside? the 12k BTU are tiny, like 2ft by 2ft. Does that really cause suspicion? Especially when it is in your back yard? What if you simply wanted to cool a single room rather than the house?

RawBudzski said:

what is such a big issue with having a little 2nd AC outside? the 12k BTU are tiny, like 2ft by 2ft. Does that really cause suspicion? Especially when it is in your back yard? What if you simply wanted to cool a single room rather than the house?

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I happen to unfortunately live in a high traffic area... with alot of pedestrian traffic walking by, probably 20 people a day and only about 15 feet from my windows. So I need to be extremely carefull

An AC unit running in cold weather no matter how small is going to look suspicious... it's ok if you live in a suburb or somewhere no one will notice. I definately can't get away with anything looking sketchy though, not where I live. I've been in a panick the last couple weeks trying to keep condensation from forming on the windows lol, finally got that sorted I think

I know we have been on the issue before.. but what is wrong with swamp coolers again? I see that it adds humidity but what if you had a good dehumidifier?

http://www.air-n-water.com/product/paccyc02.htm what about this.. says It can lower temps 20-30 degrees.

http://www.portablecoolers.com/dehumidifiers/


Says dehumidifiers work great with swamp coolers. Especially the newer ones, port-a-cool swamp coolers can be used in high himid areas with success they say.

RawBudzski said:

http://www.portablecoolers.com/dehumidifiers/


Says dehumidifiers work great with swamp coolers. Especially the newer ones, port-a-cool swamp coolers can be used in high himid areas with success they say.

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nah I can't see how that would work at all

Basically that thing is just a high powered humidifier

The humidity coming out of that thing would be intense and youd need to run so many dehumidifiers to bring it back down that the heat from the dehumidifiers would cancel out the cooling effects

if running co2 I think this thing would be able to keep temps around 80-85..but as you said would add much humidity, though I am in so cal and it stays pretty dry. My room as of now, needs humidity.. how much does co2 tank add? does it make things humid?

RawBudzski said:

if running co2 I think this thing would be able to keep temps around 80-85..but as you said would add much humidity, though I am in so cal and it stays pretty dry. My room as of now, needs humidity.. how much does co2 tank add? does it make things humid?

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Technically a CO2 tank will lower humidity and lower temperature... but so little that you shouldnt really factor it into anything

a CO2 burner however can significantly increase the humidity and temperature, though if your running a sealed room a CO2 burner will only need to turn on periodically for brief moments and should not effect temp/humidity too much. If the room isn't sealed a CO2 burner can drastically alter the temperature and humidity

RawBudzski said:

if running co2 I think this thing would be able to keep temps around 80-85..but as you said would add much humidity, though I am in so cal and it stays pretty dry. My room as of now, needs humidity.. how much does co2 tank add? does it make things humid?

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So you are not currently running a sealed room? If your needing to add humidity right now and your not condensing moisture anywhere(such as with an AC or dehumidifier) than you must not be running a sealed room. It doesnt matter where on the planet you live, if your doing a 100% sealed room, your going to need to condense the moisture in the air or your humidity will rise too high. That's assuming that the room is sealed and has zero air exchange with the outside air.

Thedillestpickle said:

So you are not currently running a sealed room? If your needing to add humidity right now and your not condensing moisture anywhere(such as with an AC or dehumidifier) than you must not be running a sealed room. It doesnt matter where on the planet you live, if your doing a 100% sealed room, your going to need to condense the moisture in the air or your humidity will rise too high. That's assuming that the room is sealed and has zero air exchange with the outside air.

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No my room is not sealed, it is not even complete.. I have about 900 bucks on hand to throw @ it. I am stuck between buying items for a vent/exhaust room.. or sealing it and buying co2 ..but co2 route would take more than 900 bucks. I would need an AC, Dehumid + co2.. which is more than 900 bucks..

RawBudzski said:

No my room is not sealed, it is not even complete.. I have about 900 bucks on hand to throw @ it. I am stuck between buying items for a vent/exhaust room.. or sealing it and buying co2 ..but co2 route would take more than 900 bucks. I would need an AC, Dehumid + co2.. which is more than 900 bucks..

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Yup lots more. You should get the stuff you need for an exhaust setup. I can't see how any of it would be useless once you upgrade to a sealed room... You will still need the air fan/filter to clean the air inside the room, so it won't be money wasted

Those swamp coolers could come in handy to run along side an AC system in the middle of the summer. My AC will drop the humidity down to 35% during the hottest part of the season, but I would not expect that swamp cooler to do much in cooling. As far as running a dehumidifier while running a swamp cooler I think your going to end up heating your room up not cooling it. I am in the same situation as Thedillestpickle people are walking through my yard all the time, and their is no way to justify such an AC when it never gets much hotter than 90 degrees here. And as far as a sealed room goes, I wouldn't even attempt it with less than $7,000 if your using HID lighting.

Fnominon said:

Those swamp coolers could come in handy to run along side an AC system in the middle of the summer. My AC will drop the humidity down to 35% during the hottest part of the season, but I would not expect that swamp cooler to do much in cooling. As far as running a dehumidifier while running a swamp cooler I think your going to end up heating your room up not cooling it. I am in the same situation as Thedillestpickle people are walking through my yard all the time, and their is no way to justify such an AC when it never gets much hotter than 90 degrees here. And as far as a sealed room goes, I wouldn't even attempt it with less than $7,000 if your using HID lighting.

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WHOA what?! haha 7grand?

I got myself a "semi-sealed" room going right now. for way less money.. Mind you it won't hold up once the weather starts to warm up in a month of two but I plan to get a portable AC unit by then.

Heres all I got going:
a 300squarefoot room in a basement with insultation/panelling on the walls. Concrete floor
a 4x6x6 room with 2k HID(MH) inside
1100ppm CO2 using propane burner.
A draped blanket that is the door between the 300square foot room and the other half of the basement... so there is no way I can claim this is 100% sealed... but the burner only comes on for 5 minutes(roughly) every hour so it's not that bad
I vent out the 4x6 room with a 175cfm 4 inch inline. Pumps it straight into the back end of a dehumidifier running 24/7. That exhaust goes into the 300square foot room which acts as a "lung room"
My lung room climbs to about 80F near the end of the day period and drops to 75F at night

That's what I got going on right now... It is extremely ghetto! cost nowhere near 7000$ lol
now I know I need an AC to keep running like this in the summer heat, but that should be all I need to upgrade

I guess the real advantage is having the basement cool my air for me. Almost considering ripping the panelling off and removing the insulation to really take advantage of the cooling, but this is a rental so that would be pretty severe "damage"(though the walls are shitty anyways so I'd be doing the landlord a favour really)

So I'm getting away with 2k of light with no AC in a 4x6, If things get too hot I can back it down to 1k of lighting and still pull a good yield. If I can get the AC hooked up soon, I might even bump it to 2400watts just for fun. And that's not cool-tubed or vented hoods

Were you thinking cool-tubes/vented hoods when you said 7k? with cooling hoods I can't imagine where you would spend 7K, as the cooling needed in your sealed room would end up being minimal

I guess 7K would be if you were burning like 10 bulbs?

I have a lot of respect for what you have going and I am sure you can produce some good herb. I was talking a professional year round set up, I am in the middle of upgrading myself, but I am running 5k in lights soon to be 6k. The cost curve goes up real fast when you start adding lights, I was able to start off with three 600w lights in a setup like yours, but even then I had dropped a few grand. Prices have come down a lot in the last few years, but still if you want to get quality equipment that will last its spendy for example.
$500 for each light setup ballast, reflector, bulb
$250 for a dehumidifier
$150 for a decent humidifier
$500 for a portable AC $1000 for a mini-split
$150 for a centrifugal fan
$200 for a Charcoal filter
$100 flex ducting
$200 mylar / panda film
$100 PPM Meter

I know some of these things you can buy from China direct and get quite a bit cheaper, but years of experience has showed me they will cost you more in the long run. I didn't even touch pots, tables, trays, reservoir, cloners, medium, construction materials, genetics, nutrients, and on and on and on. You also have construction costs for building the rooms, hangers, electrical equipment, I can go on for a lot longer. Also you have to have a location which most likely costs rent, your going to have huge utility bills, my power is currently $450 a month and you wont have a harvest for probably 4 months if you start from seed maybe a little less from clones. Honestly $7k is how much I could do it for today with my expertise, someone new at this would burn a lot of money on bad advice from arm chair quarter backs online, I know I did. On the other hand you can rig up a ghetto system like you said and pull it off for quite a bit less. I bet however if you actually sat down and tallied how much you spend on growing a month you will find its a lot more than you thought.

Oh yea man, I see what your saying now, I thought you meant just for the climate controlling aspect of the sealed room for example: CO2, Humidity, heat/cooling control

I didn't think you were referring to all the other expenses that add up as well. and you right its fucking expensive... I'm living on Bananas and sardines for the next month so I can afford a new fan and some more nutrients!(hahaha j/k... well kinda)

I'm starting to think "why did I cram all this into the small room?". Now that Ive got a semi-sealed environment happening, I could just as easily pull those plants out of the 4x6 room and start growing right in the 10x30 room! I think I will finish this grow in the small room(though its a tight squeeze with those monsters in there) and next time around I will make life alot easier for myself and expand into the rest of the big room.

Does anyone know the BTU output of a 1000w HPS? I imagine knowing the BTU of your bulb/ballast would help in calculating the BTU needs of your AC. The concrete floor should add some additional cooling, but I won't factor that in, just to be on the safe side

Thedillestpickle said:

Oh yea man, I see what your saying now, I thought you meant just for the climate controlling aspect of the sealed room for example: CO2, Humidity, heat/cooling control


I didn't think you were referring to all the other expenses that add up as well. and you right its fucking expensive... I'm living on Bananas and sardines for the next month so I can afford a new fan and some more nutrients!(hahaha j/k... well kinda)
I'm starting to think "why did I cram all this into the small room?". Now that Ive got a semi-sealed environment happening, I could just as easily pull those plants out of the 4x6 room and start growing right in the 10x30 room! I think I will finish this grow in the small room(though its a tight squeeze with those monsters in there) and next time around I will make life alot easier for myself and expand into the rest of the big room.
Does anyone know the BTU output of a 1000w HPS? I imagine knowing the BTU of your bulb/ballast would help in calculating the BTU needs of your AC. The concrete floor should add some additional cooling, but I won't factor that in, just to be on the safe side

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I have seen it posted on a few hydroponic sites that a 1k light will put out 4500 btus or 3500 btus air cooled. Also those ballast put out a lot of heat so do what ever you can to keep those out of your grow room. I am currently in a transition from a 6x600w flower room to a 4x1000w flower room and I have 12'Wx12'Lx10'H and would not recommend anyone go one inch shorter on the length and width for that size of a room. A 10'x30' room will be awesome if you can keep space at the ends for equipment and have a narrow walk way down the middle.

For your current crammed room what I would recommend doing is lolly poppin your plants and removing all the large fan leaves that you can see the stems outside the buds. In my experience this will increase the size of your buds and maybe even gain a little weight in the end, but it will definately make working in a cramped space easier.

Fnominon said:

I have seen it posted on a few hydroponic sites that a 1k light will put out 4500 btus or 3500 btus air cooled. Also those ballast put out a lot of heat so do what ever you can to keep those out of your grow room. I am currently in a transition from a 6x600w flower room to a 4x1000w flower room and I have 12'Wx12'Lx10'H and would not recommend anyone go one inch shorter on the length and width for that size of a room. A 10'x30' room will be awesome if you can keep space at the ends for equipment and have a narrow walk way down the middle.

For your current crammed room what I would recommend doing is lolly poppin your plants and removing all the large fan leaves that you can see the stems outside the buds. In my experience this will increase the size of your buds and maybe even gain a little weight in the end, but it will definately make working in a cramped space easier.

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Yea I cleaned it up a bit, removed all the scraggly budsites and anything that was touching the walls, pulled out some shaded fanleaves so I could see the coco when I'm watering and retrained all the plants to open them up a bit.
Going into flower now, so I tried to get it all done now rather than later

Ive been having some really fun thoughts about a 5k grow in the basement. Problem is the 30x10 room heats up pretty good right now with just 2000watts burning, and it's really cold outside so I imagine it will get worse. I'm not sure I could actually do 5K without cooking everything, even with the portable AC unit running. But I'm just wondering how loud are these things? If you were standing right outside the window where the hot air is exhausted it grab your attention?
I might be getting a little carried away, because the window that I plan to vent the AC out is only 5 feet away from a staircase that runs up to the upper apartment of the house I'm in. There are three levels and a basement, I have the mainfloor. people live above me and I don't want them to start wondering whats going on down below. lol kinda sketchy I will admit.

If I do put a portable AC in the basement window it will be in plain view and the person upstairs will see the vents everyday and possibly hear it. Are they pretty stealthy? I figure if it doesn't sound too loud it'll just seem like a hot water heater or a dryer, but if it's alarmingly loud I could be fuckin myself over.

Any thoughts on that?

Right now everything is quite stealthy, and I'd like to keep it that way. But I'd like to be able to do a bit more than just 2K

I have had portables go bad on me and the compressor starts making a cranking noise when it kicks on, but a good portable should not make to much noise. You can position your AC away from the window and duct exhaust through insulated flex duct which will dampen the sound. I step my duct up to 6" from the 5" AC hose to reduce back pressure, your biggest problem will be smell. If your running CO2 chances are your going to have some good smelling meds and its very difficult to prevent that smell from going out through your AC.

Depending where you live will limit how many lights you can manage with your AC. You are limited to a peak of 14k btus for portable AC so with air cooled hoods your probably capping out at 4k. Make sure you have your ballast outside of the grow room as they do put off a lot of heat. Also if you do not have metered water my all time favorite cooling method is heat exchangers running water to waste.

Fnominon said:

I have had portables go bad on me and the compressor starts making a cranking noise when it kicks on, but a good portable should not make to much noise. You can position your AC away from the window and duct exhaust through insulated flex duct which will dampen the sound. I step my duct up to 6" from the 5" AC hose to reduce back pressure, your biggest problem will be smell. If your running CO2 chances are your going to have some good smelling meds and its very difficult to prevent that smell from going out through your AC.

Depending where you live will limit how many lights you can manage with your AC. You are limited to a peak of 14k btus for portable AC so with air cooled hoods your probably capping out at 4k. Make sure you have your ballast outside of the grow room as they do put off a lot of heat. Also if you do not have metered water my all time favorite cooling method is heat exchangers running water to waste.

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Can't do the water to waste thing. Sounds awfully wastefull though, but my water is metered anyways.
I'm thinking I might be a little more wise to go with just 3K of light and try to max out on my GPW. My basement is divided into 2 rooms that are somewhat sealed from each other. The one with the grow gets as hot as 80F at the ceiling and the other room is about 60F. I imagine that room will stay pretty cool even in the summer as it is concrete on all 4 walls and uninsulated. If I were to vent the AC through the window I wouldn't really have anywhere to vent the hoods from other than using the second room to bring in cool air. I wonder how that would work out with 3 or 4K of lights pumping super hot air directly into the other room. I'm sure it would get damn hot lol but still work(the cooling cement should save me)
I imagine the impact of using cooled hoods with insulated ducting would be pretty significant, reducing my AC needs down much further than bare bulbs.
I don't think using the cool room to exhaust/intake for my AC would work at all, but maybe it would?

It sounds like the real problem is going to be with smell escaping the AC. That just simply cannot be happening
What makes it so hard to seal up the AC? I would have expected the AC's to already be 100% sealed because any leak is only going to make the machine run less efficiently. Would a caulking gun and some silicone be all I need or does it get pretty tricky?
It sounds like I need to go with a tried and testes portable AC that people have had success with air-sealing, or I may end up with some model of machine that cannot be taken apart without breaking it to pieces. Any recommendations?