Air Conditioner unit advice

[atnupacas]

Hi growers. hope everyone is doing great.

Im looking for advice about using an Air Conditioner unit. any input on this would be greatly apreciated.

Im running a 4 x 4 grow tent that is inside a huge warehouse, so cooling down the whole warehouse is not really an option. i have been using a portable AC unit inside the tent, but in my short experience this creates 2 big problems: Negative pressure and it also takes a lot of space which i need for the plants.

So to solve this, im thinking about buying a mini -split AC unit, and install it inside the tent at the top, and the second part of the unit outside the tent (but still inside the warehouse, because of the building regulations i cant install it outside the warehouse)

So, do anyone of you have done this before?, is there something im not considering? and advice would be golden

Thank you!

 

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[mrgrowit]

I don’t have have experience using a mini-split but which one are you looking to get? They are typically thousands of dollars and if you’re just getting one for a 4×4 grow tent then many would said it’s just simply not worth it.

Have you tried placing the portable AC unit outside of the grow tent and building some sort of ducting for the cool air to go from the unit into the tent? I’ve seen people do that with as little as cardboard and duct tape.

[CamZ]

I bought a 12000 btu mini split for around 400 a few years back for my garage/gym. Mini splits work great and are highly efficient. The only issue I forsee is that they don’t make units small enough for your space. You might end up making it too cold. If you are hard set on a mini split you would need it to control a lung room that your tent is inside. For your setup the easiest thing to do would be to get a 10×10 and put your 4×4 inside of that. The mini split would go inside that, while the exterior unit dumps heat into the warehouse. You’d then duct your grow tent into the 10×10 and recirculate that air.

If you tried to put it directly in the tent it wouldn’t work, since you’d be exhausting air faster than the unit could cool it. The system would never turn off and the efficiency would be pointless.

What you need is a rolling unit with ducting. Duct cold air to one side of the tent, then hook the other side to your exhaust fan and have it forcing air through the unit. A/c needs to be in a closed loop system to work correctly. Bonus of this setup is that it will help scrub humidity too. Hope that helps!

In both these setups you will need another fan on a timer to periodically suck out all the air and exchange it with new co2-laden air.

 

[mrgrowit]

Good insight @camz .. Wow only $400 you got one for? That sounds like a great deal!

[CamZ]

Yeah. You have to be pretty handy though. The unit comes without r410 so you have to vacuum pump the system and then fill it after install. You can’t buy r410 without a license so you either have to know someone or hire someone to fill it after install. It’s cooling only, but that’s all I use it for. It has a Mitsubishi compressor though, which is one of the best. You also have to cut a hole in your house, seal it, run electrical, put in an external kill switch and, connect it to your panel. Not recommended for anyone who isn’t handy or willing to do things the right way.

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