OK, So... A 4x4 tent with co2 injection needs cooling. SWIM need a portable AC to do this, one with dual hoses to not suck out the Co2. The portable AC is going to be hooked up to a digital environment controller that will tell the Unit when to come on and off. So the unit MUST BE ABLE TO COME BACK ON AFTER POWER IS OFF AUTOMATICALLY. A minisplit or window unit is not going to be an option because there is no place to vent the air, the tent is in a spare bedroom and the houses central air will be used to cool the area around the tent where the AC would be exchanging air from. SWIM has carbon filter and exhaust fans etc. to play around with. Can anyone recommend a reliable dual hose unit? Looking to keep it around 500$ or less and it is very important the unit can turn on automatically via the digital controller throughout the day.
those portable units suck in and blow the smell out just as much as a window unit. i had to buy four of those auto squirtin air freshener things and put em outside to cover the smell that my portable unit put outdoors. window units look normal to neighbors also. if light chilling to get rid of your heat isnt an option, then i would suggest buying a window unit that had a plastic shroud around the blower instead of styrofoam. that way you could seal it up. you might could buy one with styro and then take the styro out, srpay it down really good with that sray rubber stuff and then put it back together. shoundt take more than an hour. what causes the a/c to blow out the smell of the room is the shroud around the blower (cold) isnt sealed. its a completely separate thing from the outside fan. <--kinda sorta. but that seal is usually a couple of pieces of styro surrounding the fan and that keeps it from sucking in the heat from the outside. since pot smell oozes through styro and non vinyl lined plastics... people think a portable ac is the best option. and its not. because even though the shrouds on those are made of plastic... they are not completely sealed. if you venture into this... all u need to do is make sure whatever you use to cover/seal it with... is has vinyl in it. foodsaver bags work because it has a layer of vinyl. if you read this and still must have a portable unit. Woot has a 10k sharp for $250 plus five bucks ship. you have 80 minutes from now to get that deal. thats the best deal you are going to find on a five star rated a/c unit. edit. and the window around has to be sealed also.
it sounds like he's in a tent that has a carbon scrubber, in a room so, smell leaking outside the house through a window unit wouldn't be an issue... but, he doesn't want a window unit, he wants a portable unit, but i'm not sure why...he says there's no place to vent, but window units vent out the back of the unit on the other side of the window/outside the house....perhaps there's no window or something? anyways, if i had central air...i personally would try to hook ducting from a central air output vent directly into the tent...exactly like he was thinking of doing with the portable a/c tube...i do that right now with my swamp cooler but swamp coolers are terrible when it gets really hot outside...wish i had central air hehe
You are pretty much spot on, we are talking about an apartment bedroom btw. Central air is hooked up currently and the entire thermostat is rerouted from the hallway to a digital thermostat inside of the tent, this works, sortof. The problem is that when the central air turns on the tent becomes a balloon, unless the exhaust kicks on and sucks the cool air from the central AC hoses inside of the tent to exchange the air out via the carbon scrubbed ventilation. This sounds feasible beings that SWIM has a digital environment controller, however the central air thermostat and the grow tent controller can NOT be synchronized to always come on together. SWIM has tried numerous different settings on both units. Therefore the central air eventually runs constantly because the backflow created by the ballooning of the tent does not allow the cool air to enter unless the carbonscrubbed ventilation is pulling the cool air into the tent. Also while the tent is ballooned Co2 is wasted fast. Like an entire 30lb? tank gone in 4 days fast. Basically, SWIM need the portable AC and ventilation to come on at the same time via the environment controller box in order to properly cool the tent. That way the tent is not continuously under positive pressure via the central air causing Co2 to be wasted. the environment control box also has a co2 level monitor to keep levels correct. The central air has been working harder than it needs to be. SWIM plans to exhaust the portable AC into the same bedroom and SWIM thinks the central AC will work good enough to cool the bedroom once SWIM moves the thermostat outside of the tent, and removes the 2 6 inch hoses SWIM has coming off of the duct currently. SWIM bought this one last night. Will keep you updated. 12,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner with Dehumidifer and Remote-ARC-12SD at The Home Depot