I have a small grow room built in my attic that is about 120-140 cubic ft.(yes, small but good enough for what I'm doin). I'm using a 1000 watt MH light thats air cooled with insulated duct tubing and inline fan. I have a problem with heat even with a intake that blows air directly from outside into the room and a exhaust. I don't have a window and can't put a hole in my outside wall so a window AC is looking improbable. My next option is a portable AC but I'v heard that they don't cool as well and aren't cost efficient. I don't see many other options with my budget though so idk what to do. Do you think a portable AC would be good enough to cool my small grow room? If I were to get one it would be a Soleus® Air 8000 BTU portable AC from Menards. thoughts?
I take it you meant exhaust? If so, the room is set up at the end of the attic and there is a small opening in the top where this will be possible(wish I could put a window AC here but it would be way to obvious what is was for, plus its not really a big enough hole). If you meant plug outlet, which I don't think you did, I had the luxury of a open breaker/fuse in my fuse box so I ran a line up to the room. Thanks for the reply! Any other thoughts?
The only person here that I read up on who was growing in their attic had about $1500 or so into his attic grow set up using a grow tent, portable AC, fans and a air cooled light hood.
My thoughts would be to get the grow as insulated and sealed off as possible, so you're exhausting and cooling just the grow space instead of the whole attic. Maybe 2x4's nailed with reflective sheets with precautions taken to seal off the seams, though that may not be practical in the space for all I know. Do you have a temperature and humidity read on the space yet? SWIM couldn't exhaust a temporary closet and tried putting in a 10,000 btu unit to cool it. Completely pointless without an exhaust, forcing them to move their plants outside till they could get the main room up.
I also have a small attic grow. Just posted pics. Titled: Day 49 flower. I also want to try a portable ac but skeptcal as to how well they work. I have always just shut down after mid june. Would like to run indoors year round though. If you get one let me know how it works. Use 2x4's, insulation and dry wall. That is going to be your best bet I think. That's what i did and I can actually get a few degrees cooler than the attic. But when its 120 in the attic i am just fucked. Good luck.
Before spending the money on one do some research on them, some I heard work pretyt good and some I read were not so good. Epinions is a good place to start or Consumer Reports if you want to pay for a 1 months subscription.
I made a sealed room up there with plywood for the walls and filled all seems with foam from a spray can, then ran plastic through the inside and down the walls to seal it in case I wanted to get CO2. The temp in the attic is 90+ on hot days and I can get the grow room to drop to around 85 with just intake from outside and exhaust, so I'm starting to think a decent portable AC will work for as small of a room that I have.
Ya, I've been doing research and I think that 8000 BTU portable AC with dehumidifier from menards that I mentioned in my first post is my best bet. Has anyone one used this? Here are the specs: R-410A Refrigerant for increased efficiency & reliability Digital thermostat Auto-mode & Sleep-mode 24-hour timer 3-fan speed options 4-way directional louvers Washable & reusable filter Includes remote controller Soleus® Powered by GREE
Thats pretty good but what are the temps gonna be like when summertime comes and its gonna be getting hotter outside. Me I like to think ahead and try to have as much worked out ahead of time. If you have HVAC ducting running through your attic maybe use a Y spliter thingy and a inline booster fan and supplement the portable AC with AC from the HVAC system. Just an idea if it starts to get to hot for the portable AC in the little attic grow room. Right now as it is at 85 degrees I would think a portable AC would work but it doesnt hurt to think ahead just in case.
From experience. I have been building multi million dollar homes now for about 12 years. An attic in summer can easily reach 120 degrees. That is why I just shut down in summer. No portable ac unit could handle those temps. Good luck.
Ic your from the widwest so thats understandable but I live in michigan and with a intake and exhaust I doubt I'll have to deal with those temps cause I'm running my lights at night. I'm thinking of when to run the intake and exhaust and when to run the the portable AC because I think running them at the same time would be a waste of cool air. Any ideas here? Thanks for the replies!
I wish I had the luxury of a HVAC system but I don't unfortunately. I don't think I'll have temps up there over 90-95 with the intake and exhaust unless it was 90-100 outside, which isn't too often in michigan. Still, I wish I had a HVAC for days that are that hot. I'm alot like you, I like to have things worked out well ahead of time, my plants aren't in the grow room yet because I'm not comfortable with this heat problem. I just don't want to spend the 250-300 on the AC and kill it cause of the one 100 degree day.
When we grew in our grow room last summer heat was a problem so we had to install a window AC. The grow room we built was inside of an enclosed patio and we insulated the outside walls but the roof is a metal corogated roof with insulation inbetween the roof and drywall as well but without the window AC and 1k MH/HPS light the heat would easily get up into the 90`s in the summer, difference for us is we live in the Sacramento area and it gets over 100 degrees for so many days in the summer. A 5000 btu window AC kept it cool enough during the day when lights were off but it would run constantly.
I would Build a insulated box inside your attic, don't use a tent. A small grow box with a portable ac unit blowing inside the grow space should be alright. It's more efficient to cool a smaller space then a entire attic. Best of Luck.
Get a 12000 btu portable ac and supply the cold air exhaust into a tent and the two hot exhausts from the tent and ac to the hole that you have. Between the tent and ac your looking at $500. PS make sure you attic has adequate insulation for heat and cold.
Yeah, as long as you have an exhaust for the AC, you're good. 8000 btu should get the room cool enough for you to pic a temperature for the room. Like 76 degrees. Then get a co2 tank and a regulator set up to split the output to different partts of the room.
IMHO Zero is spot on here. The only thing I would add is a thermo switch that you can set the temp to INSIDE the tent so the a/c can shut off when the tent gets to temp otherwise if it is outside the tent it will run continuously. Switch is like $20 at Amazon. If you have the a/c in the tent then you are wasting real estate in the tent. Run your lights at night when its cooler as mentioned earlier.