If you use a Portable Air Conditioner, please step in..

If guys have an entire house to grow in and can use the Central Ac would you just do that and put up Panda film between each of the rooms depending on what is going on?

I'm kinda tired of the window AC's and portable units and have the room.

Nothing better then a house A/C. just make sure you use a good filter in the furnace, cuz it pulls air from the entire house and you wanna make sure your not blowing any kind of molds or dust all over your plants.

I use central AC for my grow room. In AZ summer temps are pretty much 110 degrees so my house AC is usually on 75-78 degrees all summer. I'm basically using a spare bedroom that I converted to a sealed room with co2 works great my 20 lb co2 tank lasts about 10 days @ 1500 ppm during lights on.

BeaverHuntr said:

I use central AC for my grow room. In AZ summer temps are pretty much 110 degrees so my house AC is usually on 75-78 degrees all summer. I'm basically using a spare bedroom that I converted to a sealed room with co2 works great my 20 lb co2 tank lasts about 10 days @ 1500 ppm during lights on.

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did you move your T stat into your grow room? Even when keeping my house at 76 my grow room is 82 without the window AC goin. Id have to keep my house at 70 to keep my grow room at 76 ive found. Hence the reason I had to get portables.

Keep the room closed and put the ac unit on a dresser or cabinet with a 5 gallon bucket under the drain plug. It should cool the room faster and stays cooler the less you let warm air in.

Sheldor said:

I bought this one http://www.air-n-water.com/product/ac-14100e.htm#description

It should be here tomorrow, so I'll let you know how it does, but I'm hopefull. It is "commercial grade", 14000 BTU, and has some technology that recirculates some of the the water. It is a single hose, but I think it is big enough to be ok, and the negative pressure will actually be a good thing. Smell stays in, not leaking out. Of course, I'm totally new to this (but I am an engineer) so we will see.

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I guess by now you have realized it creates the negative pressure by pumping the smell out.

Sencha said:

Why isn't anybody talking about a mini-split AC? Portables are notorious for being shitty and the cost to operate is insane.

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I was wondering why I didn't see this reply either, even a window unit is better than a portable from what I hear.

First of all, if you can, return that portable AC because those things are just useless for growing from what everyone was telling me when I needed an AC. Unless I'm mistaken the portable units usually have two duct hoses, one for the intake and one for the exhaust. Where are you exhausting the heat from your portable unit to? Air conditioners create a lot of heat so if you aren't properly removing that from your grow room that would definitely explain why your temps are so high. And now that we're on the subject of ventilation, what's your ventilation set up for the room like?

And OP could you answer something for me? How sealed is the room you're growing in? 12k BTU should be PLENTY for your grow room. I was experiencing heat issues in my 420sqft grow room because the AC I was using wasn't powerful enough to cool the room efficiently. The result was I was paying TONS to barely cool the room. My 12k BTU window unit is mounted to the side of my completely sealed grow room and it keeps the entire box at a consistent 74-77 during lights on and I have 2 1000 watt bulbs going. Look on Amazon, there's a nice $300 12k BTU and it's been working wonders for me. I live where it gets to 95-105 sometimes and when it was 97 here my grow room was still 77 degrees.

I'd recommend getting yourself a window AC, it's a nice compromise until you're able to afford a mini-split. Just consider that each 1000 watt bulb puts off 3750 BTUs of heat so when you're looking for an air conditioner make sure that you're using at LEAST 4000 if not 5000BTUs per light. Best of luck OP!

Red1966 said:

I guess by now you have realized it creates the negative pressure by pumping the smell out.

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Agreed. A dual hose is a must. And like Senca said mini splits are the real way too go.

http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/FRA296ST2.html?infoview=reviews#tabs


I'm so tempted...

talking from experience...

dual hose ac creates plenty of negitive pressure also... they suck complete ass. waste of money...

mini-split is only way to be happy.. ive learned most important thing with growing and that is time = money. you 'just get by' this grow and buy portable ac that wont work for the next one. spend money now an get a minisplit and a clean working enviroment and the growing part becomes easy.

in your case i would get cooled hood and throw any damn ac in there you can to cool it however you can. when you harvest buy a good ac and never worry again... noone wants to loose there harvest couple weeks before time to chop down from high temps.

So 20 days ago I bought a 14k BTU portable from best buy. I used it for maybe 3 days and returned it. It couldnt cool my sealed room with 2000w at all. Temps rose above 90 and it's not even more than 82 ambient.

I purchased a 18k btu mini split with heat pump. As soon as my hvac guy comes, I'll let you know how it is.

ok, been running the mini split. LOVE IT. it can keep my room at 64 if I want it. Using a CO2 burner and dehumidifier also.