Anybody have any suggestions for keeping a 3x3 cooled? I have a 4” 190 Cfm exhaust fan in there at the moment, connected to a carbon filter, I don’t think it’s cutting it. Currently I’m running the apt AC when it gets TOO hot, which does help a little bit, but I can’t have that running 24/7 Any and all suggestions would be a great help folks, and thank you in advance. Temps are fluctuations between high 70°’s to mid 80’s and the ac is killing the humidity.
ambient air is the key, carbon fans are not reliable for bringing in colder ambient air. You need to open the lower vents and blow cold air in from the bottom. Any cheap fan will work. Dimming lights is also an option. When turing down lights consider watts per square foot as a guideline. Opening the tent wide open when possible is an option on scorchers. But I tried everything, cold ambient air is the only hope. Nothing worked till I hit the down button on the central a/c thermostat.
Run your lights at night open up windows at night so room cools down that’s what I do in summer. Doing one huge grow in the winter to get enough to last ya the year saves ya headache
My 3x3 is in a closet - I had to actually fabricate a fan against the A/C vent for the air intake because it was getting WAY too hot in there. Not sure if it is an option for you. I have an AC Infinity 6" setup (so it will regulate air/speed based on certain criteria) with a fan zip-tied to the grate, connected to a printed plastic 6" vent to my tubing... So, this fan. See attached images. Then I have an Ecobee thermostat with a sensor in that room to help regulate when the A/C fires. And the whole thing is controlled by the 6" version (can't find the link) of this....
Thanks guys for the info, @Talkative-I have my fan currently sucking air out of the tent, and have had the lower meshed flaps open sucking air in from the bottom, I’ll have to try to rig one of the lower duct vents to one of the fans to blow IN air @GorillaGherkin- I would try that, but unfortunately, this summer so far it’s been getting almost just as hot during the evenings as it has during the days here in SoCal and specifically in the SFV. I’d also have to switch my cycle, but that’s the easy part lol at night it’s still 80°+ sometimes. @ivegotkandygetinthevan I just got into looking at the t6, they ran out on amazon, but looks to be cheaper from their website direct also. Considering my setup of using the fan to suck hot air out, would they be advised for this? I could use my existing fan to bring air in and the t6 to push it out?
This is my primary use. Between it and the fan / setup I showed you in the pics.... The fan on the vent FEEDS the intake of the T6. It is the intake and exhaust fan, connected to a carbon filter inside my tent. I have been very pleased with it. You can set thresholds that say for example that once you are at or above 80 degrees the fan fires up, or certain humidity, on a timer, and of course anything constantly on from a setting of 1-10. It's fairly quiet and pretty sturdy. If it were to fail, there would be ZERO hesitation on my replacing it with the same thing. It's stellar at helping control temps in difficult to control areas, but, as mentioned above you are ultimately at the mercy of and do need to control ambiet temps as much as you can!
plants are fine in the mid 80s lol. whats your humidity at? ambient air is key, but only if you have the negative pressure and air circulation to get it in the tent. Blowing cool air toward a tent may create cooler ambient temps around then tent, but its the negative pressure that pulls in fresh air and gets out the old hot air. get a better duct fan, preferable one thats adjustable. I have a 7x5 closet grow, a 4x2 tent, and an 8x8 tent with a combined 2500 watts of LEDs in the same house all being cooled by negative pressure created by carbon filters. I keep my house AC on 74 degrees auto as I always do, I leave the bottom vents open and scrub from the top out. As long as you have enough air exchange you should be fine. I pay less in electricity running my grows a little warmer and using house AC/negative pressure. I used to run a portable AC in my closet and one in my 8x8, all to get the "ideal" mid 70s. I soon learned thats a hunk of shit plus AC's are giant dehumidifiers so I was constantly struggling to try and get a consistent environment. You should look into VPDs (vapor pressure deficit). I use VPD for dialing in my environment. I just checked my pulse, and my closet is 80 degrees with 68% humidity giving me a 1.1 VPD which is damn near perfect for vegetative growth. I run my closet up to 86 degrees in the summer and I have no issues. The dew point is 71 at that VPD so mold isnt an issue as some may think with running higher humidity. Air circulation and air exchange are vital in my opinion in regards to this.
I think I get how you have your setup? Can I have more pics please? Fan on vent-> tent Carbon filter inside tent-> t6 -> outside of tent? Not sure if I’m able to do that, but if it’s about ambient room temp, I should look for a sativa strain. @GorillaGherkin- I just started growing ( if you can call it that, friends call me a seedling killer) otherwise I’d have done that last winter
Give me a few - I think I have some somewhere. It's in 'nighttime' mode right now, so I can't get any. I will look shortly and see what I have.
That’s a very interesting way to do it. Unfortunately I don’t have an attic space or anything similar and the tent is open in the room. Dont think the lady would like me having a fan zip tied to the vent and ducted either. Would it help if I cooled the water I give them, keep it in the fridge to get 65°+/- before giving to them?
Mine stays cool enough with a 440 cfm 6 inch system but I still turn the air conditioning on time to time but mostly to cool myself lol Sent from my XT1030 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Do you live in lowish humidity? If so, an evaporative cooler would help. Less costly than a/c. I've owned quite a few over the years. Not just for growing.
Not particularly. I’m in SoCal in the San Fernando valley. But the rh in the tent can fluctuate pretty dramatically so I’ll look into it! Thanks for the suggestion!