Need HELP with high heat problems

Having a problem with maintaining ideal room temperature, even with a portable AC unit. The room averages 82-88 degrees (F) during lights on and 85-91 degrees during lights off. There's 5x1000W lights in a 12x14 room which are air cooled with two 8" inline fans and the room itself is being exhausted with a 10" fan.

A portable AC unit (12,000 BTU) was placed inside the room and placed on full blast, yet it's not really cooling the room down at all, maybe a degree or two at most.

I have a feeling the cold air is getting sucked straight out the exhaust fan, money being pissed right out the room. Any ideas or advice?

Do i need to run another AC unit? Should I get a fan speed controller to slow down the exhaust fan during lights out to slow down the volume of outside air coming into the room?

Thanks in advance

..I am no expert in using exhaust etc...but.. i think a duct fan speed controller would be a good idea. I don't know how your AC is set up.. but I would find a way to direct it upwards.. that way the cool air is able to fall. I hope this helps somewhat.

Is your 12,000 btu ac dual duct, or single?

The aircool circuits, are they pulling air from inside your room or another location?

My 3000 watt thing uses 14,000 btu. it gets really hot outside here though.

Speed adjustor would help during both on and off. could probably turn your exhaust down to 60% or so.

Cool, I'm researching a little more into using the fan speed controller. It seems to fix the high temperature during lights out (actual day time heat), yet the room temp during lights on is a little high and will only be getting hotter as summer creeps in.

right now the AC is coming out diagonally, I'll try pointing it up to allow it to fall, good idea

Doing a little research and people are recommending an average of 4,500 BTUs per 1000 watts of light, yet I'm getting the impression that this is for non-air cooled lights, can anyone give a little more input?

HeartlandHank said:

Is your 12,000 btu ac dual duct, or single?

My 3000 watt thing uses 14,000 btu.

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it's a dual duct, the exhaust hose is very warm to the touch, I could try and insulate it, though I feel it will only help marginally.

For your use, does your AC run efficiently? Is it always at full blast and does it maintain a solid room temperature?

dont understand how u got higher temps with lights out wtf

It is always at full blast, never cycles off, my room stays mid-upper 70s in the summer. Creeps into low to mid 80s when it passes 105 outside.

When I turn up my exhaust fan, the temp slowly rises, totally. I have found the sweet spot where exhaust is sufficient but the ac can still be effective. I am guessing yours is around 60%, assuming you have about a 900 cfm fan and 9ft ceiling.

My experience with portables has led me to believe that even when dual duct they do not equal a window unit.

Have had 3, the one that worked the best was the EdgeStar Servercool. $900. 14000btu. I lucked out and got an open box deal for $400, rad, right?

I bet if you added the Servercool, and turned down your fan, in the hottest months you would stay between 75-82.

Since warm air rises. Try pulling heat from the top of the room on the opposite side of the A/C and see if that helps. Make sure that the exhaust from the a/c is put outside the room as well.

5000 Watts is a shit ton of heat for that small of a room so you may need a second one... Anyone else got an opinion on this?

Lastly, I recently heard (from an elder fellow) that to get the high BTU's from the a/c, that you need to have the power coming from 220v rather than 120v. Watts=Volts*Amps so it would make sense that more volts equals more energy equals more BTU's.... Still gotta look into that though and number crunch a bit before I would tell anyone to wire 220 though.

F A B said:

dont understand how u got higher temps with lights out wtf

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The lights turn off at the hottest part of the day.

HeartlandHank said:

It is always at full blast, never cycles off, my room stays upper 70s. Creeps into low to mid 80s when it passes 105 outside.

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WOW! Looking at this weeks forecast of 85-90 degrees, I'm sweating it because I can't stop thinking of how hot the rooms are going to get. haha

So if your AC is at full blast with decent temp ranges, it looks like another AC unit will be needed unless if there is a more efficient method.

carbon14 said:

The lights turn off at the hottest part of the day.


WOW! Looking at this weeks forecast of 85-90 degrees, I'm sweating it because I can't stop thinking of how hot the rooms are going to get. haha

So if your AC is at full blast with decent temp ranges, it looks like another AC unit will be needed unless if there is a more efficient method.

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Yeah, 12,000 btu for 5000 watts is pretty low, imo. Doubling your ac and turning your exhaust down a little would not be a bad thing.

Your air cooled lights... are they pulling air from inside your room? Or another room/outside?

njhate said:

Make sure that the exhaust from the a/c is put outside the room as well.

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Glad this was brought up. Venting anything outside a window in the area of town I live in is not a risk I want to take, too many desperate people breaking into random homes. Originally was going to vent straight into the attic, yet the only spot to cut a hole in the ceiling is right next to the ballasts, I'm not sure if the electrical interference would mess up the AC. Right now the exhaust fan from the AC is hooked into the air cool ducting, I figured the AC should be able to cool off any extra heat being pushed through, but now that I'm thinking about it, I may be adding to the problem.

HeartlandHank said:

Yeah, 12,000 btu for 5000 watts is pretty low, imo. Doubling your ac and turning your exhaust down a little would not be a bad thing.

Your air cooled lights... are they pulling air from inside your room? Or another room/outside?

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The air cooled lights are pulling air from outside the room (the entry door). There's a strong draft of fresh air traveling across the house and down a chimney.

OK, just came across a site for others to see. This seems to break it down fairly well.

http://blog.bghydro.com/2011/06/09/ac-units-and-ventilation-for-indoor-gardens/

looks like another AC unit is needed and to insulate all the hot air ducting. thanks for the help guys