New ac exhaust problem.

Got an issue that I need some guidance on.

I'm setting up my first sealed room. Just got a new dual hose 12 or 13k btu ac. I got it in the room with both hoses through the wall. The intake hose draws from the veg room and I ran 4" dryer ducting for the exhaust hose to a 4" Y splitter where my dryer vents out.

Here is the issue. That ac is about 40 feet away from the Y splitter and thus about 45 feet from freedom in my backyard. Originaly this track was for venting a cool tube with a 4" Inline vortex close to the splitter. The 4" still managed to draw warm air all that distance. When I use this with my new ac the breaker trips where the ac is plugged in.

The ac exhaust is 5" but I put a 4" decreaser on it so it would connect to that 40 footer hose. Could the back pressure from the added restriction close to the unit cause the breaker to trip? There must be considerable pressure as I was getting blowback in my dryer 45ish feet away from the ac

In an effort to reduce restriction I removed the 4" vortex just to see. It still tripped the breaker within a couple minutes. The ac is the only item on that circuit and it pulls 12 amps. But it's over a heavy duty extension cord until the sealed room gets finished.

So sealed room guys- what am i doing wrong? how do I vent that hot ac exhaust when my only way out is 45 feet away in a 4" dryer exhaust or a basement window just as far?
And what's up with that breaker popping business.

I'm not sure if this will help, but i just cut a hole into my actual wall, and the ac exhaust goes into the wall, where the air will either travel through the walls or up and out through the atic. The only solution i can give you is to stop the 45 feet problem.

I see what your saying but the only wall near the ac is very small and is basically a fake wall as it was added to divide a larger room in half. Giving me my sealed flower room.

Someone must have dealt with this before. It must be a common problem for indoor sealed rooms within basements.

Split the exhaust to go to the dryer vent and the window. Seems the only choice you have.
When the AC unit kicks on, it really hammers the amp meter. A 15 amp circuit is safe at 80% load. You need to hook up to a 20 amp circuit, minimum.
As to why it trips the one it's on, might be an tired old breaker. Who really knows? Hook to a bigger breaker and your troubles should be over and all your dreams will come true!
Fred

I'm going to try the split tonight. I'm fairly convinced my power issue was simply an overload do to the ac not being able to exhaust. I'm going to leave the 4" dedicated to the cool tubes. Even at 45 feet that little vortex draws pretty good. But then again I am quite OCD with my ducting. That ac is mammoth and the flower room is just over 500qf. So I figure the cool tube duct can keep the room from climbing too fast and the ac should only have to kick in for a few minutes at a time anyway.
I'll let you know if we have sealed room success.

Thanks fellas.

ok dude listen to me this is so important................. you can not create static pressure in either vent tube on that ac unit or it will over heat. static pressure is created by exstending the vent, by reducing the vent diameter or having bends in vent. if you need to exstend venting you must increase the diameter of venting tubes. i had same problems. i solved it by using only enough of the 5in tube to attach a 8in tubing. if unit gets hot it will trip breaker. it sounds nuts but my solair unit came with a insalation video that touches on this. if you have any questions hit me up i would love to help you. i have 3 rooms and 3 portables.

read your paper work that came with ac it will tell you not to do what your doing. my 2 everstars and 1 solair do have warnings on that. this is not a guess this is a fact. but do as i say and you will get around this

the head pressure in the a/c unit gets too high which makes the amp draw go up allot more than its rated for.I would say that 1mikej has the right idea, or you might be able to install an inline booster fan to help with getting the heat out faster. as far as size of duct you dont ever want to reduce the size.

kenflow said:

the head pressure in the a/c unit gets too high which makes the amp draw go up allot more than its rated for.I would say that 1mikej has the right idea, or you might be able to install an inline booster fan to help with getting the heat out faster. as far as size of duct you dont ever want to reduce the size.

Click to expand...

yes, a booster fan will work. i tried it myself, but it uses more electric so i went with larger vents. i like using all availabe power on lights lol.

Better listen to Mike on this. He knows his shit.
Never considered the static pressure angle.
Good info.
Fred

1mikej said:

ok dude listen to me this is so important................. you can not create static pressure in either vent tube on that ac unit or it will over heat. static pressure is created by exstending the vent, by reducing the vent diameter or having bends in vent. if you need to exstend venting you must increase the diameter of venting tubes. i had same problems. i solved it by using only enough of the 5in tube to attach a 8in tubing. if unit gets hot it will trip breaker. it sounds nuts but my solair unit came with a insalation video that touches on this. if you have any questions hit me up i would love to help you. i have 3 rooms and 3 portables.

Click to expand...

Yup you were right Mike!
I used only enough of the original 5" to get me through the wall. Then I put on a spare 5-6" adapter and then 8 feet of 6" flex duct.
It fixed the problem of the breaker and I have the room door shut now!

The ac runs for about 5 minutes at a time. The temp drops quickly but humidity jumps into the high 60's. If it doesn't settle down I'll add a dedicated dehumidifier. I just don't have enough spare amps at the moment for one.

Now all that's left is to figure out the co2 regulator thingy

ok listen to this set your ac to the dehumidifier mode and see if that keeps the room cool enough, now this sounds nuts but a dehumidfier is nothing more or less than a cheap portable ac. so... with the portable ac set to dehumidifier mode its realy the lower setting of ac mode...basically its low gear the lowest possible setting for the ac unit.. let me know if it works for you

Sounds genius to me. I'm changing it right now.

ok let me know. make sure you set it up so you can empty water out easy. mine produce 5gallons of perfect ph 6 of water each everyday. i have mine on 2.5 ft stands and run hoses into 5gal pails that i empty in morning when i get up and right before bed. if i dont i will have a floods lol.

1mikej said:

ok let me know. make sure you set it up so you can empty water out easy. mine produce 5gallons of perfect ph 6 of water each everyday. i have mine on 2.5 ft stands and run hoses into 5gal pails that i empty in morning when i get up and right before bed. if i dont i will have a floods lol.

Click to expand...

Wow that's a lot of water. You must be using hydro? I'm soilless in an 8x8ish room.
The manual for the ac says in dehumidifier mode it runs non stop regardless of rh. I wonder if I'll take too much out? Already at 49% rh

yes i use pea gravel medium and i flood and drain. my ac keeps my res full. so when growing i dont need to add water. the ph of water is 6 so no need to worry about it throwing things off. i have a over flow hose that drains down septic.

I dunno if this helps, probably not, but I ran a cold air intake using 4" ducting from my home AC vent in the floor, to the grow spot.. Which is pretty awesome and convenient..

that would increase positive pressure in a sealed room until the room leaks or until the pressure makes it easier for home ac to push air out another vent.

just put a bucket with water in it or even better a pan

So far so good but could use some tweaking.

Temp is holding around 20c and thats a bit cool for lights on. Rh seems to bounce between 48% and 60% within a given hour. The ac is so big for that 8x8x8 space that it keeps it quite cool in there just running the dehumidifier as you indicated it might.

Sounds like its time for another light!