Ok guys, I have a question. Last week when the temp hit the mid to upper 90's for a couple days, I had a major issue. I almost lost 2 plants in my room due to heat. Temps hit 131 in there. My grow room is in an attic of a barn. The downstairs and my room are insulated. The rest of attic is not. I currently draw air from downstairs. Will be purchasing a 10000 btu portable a/c. Do you think that I should have the unit, downstairs, from where I currently draw air from? In the room itself? Or the uninsulated part of attic and draw air from there? I currently don't have funds to insulate the balance of the attic. The air exchange is so quick when the exhaust fan is on that I don't think the room will ever cool when i switch to hps. The downstairs is 12'x25' with 9' ceilings. If I go this route, I'll be installing a squirrel cage fan to help exhaust some heat from the attic. I'm pretty sure that this is how I should go about it since the downstairs will be the largest reservoir of cool air. It's just that the air exchanges so quick that I'm not sure if the a/c until can keep up.
man that sounds like a rough environment. I would try to insulate a sectioned area of the attic asap. That 1" foam board is pretty cheap and easy to work with. I've seen growers make whole rooms out of just foam board and foiltape. It would probably be best to run the ac in the cooler area and pipe the cold air into the grow. That way the ac works more efficiently. The cooler the air going into the AC, the cooler it will be coming out/the less work it has to do. You could also put the ac directly into the grow but you would have to make sure to exhaust the heat from the AC separately. Are you running lights at night to help with temps? Can you insulate a small attic section to make it easier to cool? Can you put the exhaust fan on a thermometer so that it won't sweep out all the AC air immediately?
It sounds like a Plan! I would put the unit downstairs only because heat rises and it should not have to work as hard downstairs. Drawn in air will be a lot cooler downstairs, should affect the output less, 12x25 is a good sized room to cool..is 10k BTU enough?
are you using the attic as the grow room? or do you have a tent set up in there? if you didnt have a tent i would switch to that and put it downstairs with the ac unit and just set the fan to pull air from that same room. hell with a big enough tent you can put an ac unit inside it if needed. idk just an idea. Good luck!
I built a room in the attic. I don't have the height do a tent. Cannot be downstairs. This is a joint venture and my partner is supplying the grow site, paying for the equipment and electricity for half the yield. I'm responsible for construction and the growing. it's almost free for me. So, I'm at the mercy of what he has given me to use for room.