24k BtU mini not enough or something else?

So I got 4k de hps and a 24k BtU daikin. When I first got the unit I let it run for 4 days with the lights at full power and it kept up even during the warmer days just fine. We did set it up to run for low ambient cooling for when cold outside also.
So the problem came this morning when I woke up the lights were on auto dim and the log says it happened at 7:02. The room was at 86 degrees. I hit powerful mode on ac and it pulled temp right back down to 78-79 where I had it set. So I mean that's where I'm confused if the unit wasn't powerful enough which was my original thought it wouldn't have been able to pull the temp back down right? Anyways I ordered the cielo breeze thermostat so I can set schedules and keep an on eye on temps from phone but I'm still not sure what happened to make the temp jump up. I mean it wasn't even hot outside last nite infact was quite cool. So now I'm worried dropped all this money on ac and it's not powerful enough especially since I haven't put the dehuey back in the room yet was planning to do that this weekend.

I do have my exhaust fan set to run for 15 mins here and there just to draw in fresh air but fan was not running when I checked room this morning( gonna check and see when get home how close timer was set to temp jump tho).

Any ideas I'm stressing atm.

Probably gonna have to dim your lights or get more cooling. 24k is barely enough for the lights, not to mention the heat from all your equipment and cooling the actual room itself. The AC is only cancelling out the heat of your lights at this point, not actually cooling the room.

The exhaust fan isn't helping matters much either, you're venting out the cool air your AC is producing in exchange for the hotter air from wherever you're exhausting air from.

Have you looked into CO2? Propane generator and CO2 monitor would set you back ~$500, but if you can find the money it'd be perfect for your set up. You can get rid of the exhaust fan and completely seal the room, 4k DE+CO2 would be killer, plus it'd allow you to run your temps at 80-86f.

That being said, I get that not many people have $500 lying around to get CO2 going. If you're unable to do that then you have 2 options as far as I can tell.

1) Get another AC.
2) Dim your lights. 750w DE is still going to outperform a 1000w SE. My DE can be set at 600/750/1000/1100. My DE covers a 4x4 sqft area at 600w, ~5x5 sqft at 750w, and 5x7 sqft at 1000w.


If you can't get CO2 going, I'd go with option 2 and dim the lights if I were in your shoes. Dimming all 4 down to 750w will shave off 1000w of light, or ~5000BTU of heat. That's 5k BTU extra cooling for your room which should allow you to control your temps just fine. Removing one of the lights is theoretically an option, but definitely not the best option. DE's work great when the light footprints are slightly overlapping one another, so it'd be better to dim all 4 lights as opposed to removing one. Dimming all 4 lights down to 750w removes the same BTUs of heat that removing a single fixture would.

Why do you think you'll need a dehumidifier though? Your AC should be able to remove a sufficient amount of humidity from the room. Or are you in a humid ambient environment?

When you put the AC on powerful mode it did cool the room so 2 tons is enough. You just have to have the unit maxed out on high power all the time probably.

Maybe the Cielo breeze is changing the fan speed or setting it to auto cool?

Maybe check if the unit has an "Eco mode". If so make sure its disabled.

Cielo breeze not hooked up yet I ordered it today to see if would help with problem. When I first got the ac with the room empty ran full power on lights for 4 days ac set at 66 degrees and ac kept it at 68. Today I had it set for 65 and it was climbing above 75. I just had it set that low to see if it would hold. It's not I have dimmed the lights for now. Could plants seriously put off that much heat or is the humidity causing it? I called my account guy cause it sounds to me like I lost some charge he gonna come by sometime to check but for now I'm dimmed. The exhaust fan barely runs maybe 45 total mins out of the 12 hour lights are on.

Is the evaporator coil on the AC freezing up and restricting airflow? Could be a low charge from a leak. Or could be the humidity is freezing up the coil and causing it to have to defrost it.

Apalchen said:

Cielo breeze not hooked up yet I ordered it today to see if would help with problem. When I first got the ac with the room empty ran full power on lights for 4 days ac set at 66 degrees and ac kept it at 68. Today I had it set for 65 and it was climbing above 75. I just had it set that low to see if it would hold. It's not I have dimmed the lights for now. Could plants seriously put off that much heat or is the humidity causing it? I called my account guy cause it sounds to me like I lost some charge he gonna come by sometime to check but for now I'm dimmed. The exhaust fan barely runs maybe 45 total mins out of the 12 hour lights are on.

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I may be of help if you have any setup issues with the Breezey unit.

Thing about a mini split, you can't just hook up gauges and charge it. You usually have to pump the unit down and weigh in the correct charge. If a leak is suspected a nitrogen pressure test should be done on the empty unit and then a hard vacuum pulled and a new charge weighed in.

Well I been playing with all diff temp solutions to see what works I added a floor fan and actually turned my exhaust on it's an 8 inch fan turned down to less than 50Percent my intake is from a cooled room tho but for now it's bringing my temps steadily down. I can't remember if was drying before when ran the test with ac set to 66 but if so I might have had fan on then too for filter so not sure but if running the fan will help me til figure it out that's great. Got lights back up to full power and temp is still steadily dropping.

Also don't see anything frozen but where should I be looking I do notice some condensation dripping from cover of indoor unit at times. I think maybe my humidity gauge is off cause I wouldn't think that should happen. I'm not sure, the ac was keeping up fine even at 850 watts until i bumoed it up yestersay to 1000. I can set the watts at about any number with the controller I bought glad I have it tho that auto dim kept me from.baking my plants

Apalchen said:

Also don't see anything frozen but where should I be looking I do notice some condensation dripping from cover of indoor unit at times.

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The evaporator coil is indoors, the air blows thru it and into the room. That condensation drippage could indicate a defrosting coil. Generally the condensation should go into the catch pan and get pumped to the drain but if you are having a freeze up sometimes it gets out of control when defrosting.

A low charge can cause the evap coil to freeze up.

I sure hope it's something simple.
While a low charge is not catastrophic.....it would be a shame if it was not properly setup. Lord knows you've got enough on your grow to do list!!! Hang in there.

And hey....those strip builds are the bomb!

Could be as simple as pumping the unit down and using some nylog on the flare fittings. Usually thats where it leaks and it's a simple fix. A pressure test with nitrogen with some soapy water will find the leaky spot/s. You can also find if the flares are leaking because some compressor oil will often leak out there and make the connection oily and dirt will stick.

Thanks for the suggestion on looking for frozen parts I found that where the small inside line set is was frozen. Now to figure out whether it's low charge or high humidity. I kinda think it might be the humidity I was wondering why it wasn't reading higher need a more accurate way to measure. Anyways got exhaust on for now will put dehuey in tomorrow got to get some brackets

Insulating that part of the line set should stop that but it does sound like a low charge situation. Look for those oil leaks at the inside and outside flare connections.

Dont let them overcharge you for that refrigerant, r-410 a is very cheap. Last cans I bought were like $140 bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/PENGUIN-R410...ywords=r-410a&qid=1560573859&s=gateway&sr=8-3

Shit I just bought another can just to have, my last can is tapped into already.

The dude is cool I don't think he will charge much but I hope he knows what he doing. I guess checking fittings and charging the unit is not that hard but he does other kinda work more often than ac I think. I think like a lot of HVAC guys they understand regular home systems better than mini splits. Too bad you can't braze these lines would be way better system that flare fittings.

Would refrigerant oil somehow end up in the water coming out of the indoor unit. Cause til my condensate pump gets here I've just been running into five gallon bucket. I've noticed the water seems weird almost like mixed with something oily. Figured it was like residue in the bucket or in the hose that I bought to drain water to the bucket. But could that be refrigerant oil or whatever u said to look for.