Portable Ac Ventilation (electricity, Smell And Room Pressure Questions)

[NOsauce]

Hello fellow farmers!

I have a 5' x 10' x 9.5' room setup with a Haier portable AC unit. I didnt realize the benefit of mini split until I had already bought this unit. Its a 12,000BTU and does the job but I believe I am sacrificing a lot of electricity with this thing. I do have a CAP atmosphere controller with Temp, Humidity, 2 CO2 outlets, and 2 exhaust outlets. Wondering if I should hook the AC into this? Otherwise the AC is ALWAYS ON, at least blowing a fan 24/7, I dont like this.

There is a 6" exhaust on the AC which I have venting directly outside. The smell is becoming an issue at this point as well. Thinking about adding Ona Gel which I have seen at just about every hydroponics shop I have visited. Whatcha guys think about Ona products? Is there any way to hook up some kind of carbon filter? The issue I find with that is the filter would have the AC blowing into it, not sucking the room air through the filter, so it seems pointless.

The thing I am having the hardest time with is exhaust vs. intake. Since the AC is always blowing I have been using that solely as the exhaust and I have an intake (450 CFM vortex fan with adjustable voltage to lower CFM if needed). My current setup leaves me with negative pressure in the room (if the door is cracked I have air sucking into the room. My question is, is it better to have negative pressure or positive pressure?

Thanks in advance. Happy Mothers Day to all the plants out there!

 

[lollipopman]

Can't help you on the controller part but can on the smell. Since your portable ac only has a outlet just hook up a inline carbon filter. if still getting a smell add a ozone gen. to it but only if the air is going outside..

You want negative pressure. Positive pressure will push all the smell out if your room..

 

[DemonTrich]

use a scrubber in the room, and exhaust that outside the room. I run a 8x12x7 sealed room with a 14k btu portable a/c. and I have absolutely NO smell outside my room.

x2 on neg pressure.

 

[Myco]

If your portable a/c has the "auto-restart" function you can plug it into your environment controller and it will work fine. But if it doesn't have the auto-restart function - it won't work with your controller.

You want negative pressure in the room for a variety of reasons.

As for your smell, this is a problem with portable a/c units... especially with the single exhaust, drawing air through the back or sides of the unit and dumping it outside.

If you have the "dual hose" version, you can attach a carbon filter to the intake duct and have that drawing directly from the room - that way any air exhausting through the A/C is filtered.

If your unit is the single exhaust version... You could attach a carbon filter to the end of exhaust duct, and dump the that heat somewhere where it'd be easy to conceal a carbon filter hanging off of the end of the exhaust...

However, if smell is a big concern (which it should always be a concern), I personally would dump the portable on Craigslist to recoup some costs and buy a mini-split.

Far more efficient, and no exchange of air directly from the growspace to the outdoors. Done.

 

[Seed Buyer]

Your AC is exhausting hot, moisture filled air. Any inline carbon filter would probably die prematurely as moisture destroys the effectiveness of carbon to absorb VOC. If money is an issue and a mini split is out of the question, then what about a window mount ac?

 

[NOsauce]

Wow! Thank you everyone for the great advice.

Its a single hose AC so there's not much I can do in the way of filtration. I just picked up some Ona Gel and the exhaust now smells like fresh laundry. Excellent stuff.

The AC DOES support auto restart function so it keeps the previous temp, fan, and humidity settings. I think I will hook this up when I get some air cooled hoods for the lights. As of right now the AC pretty much needs to be on all the time to maintain temperature.

Again thank you all for the advice. To anyone in a smelly situation I would definitely recommend Ona products.

 

[ShroomKing]

Hello fellow farmers!

I have a 5' x 10' x 9.5' room setup with a Haier portable AC unit. I didnt realize the benefit of mini split until I had already bought this unit. Its a 12,000BTU and does the job but I believe I am sacrificing a lot of electricity with this thing. I do have a CAP atmosphere controller with Temp, Humidity, 2 CO2 outlets, and 2 exhaust outlets. Wondering if I should hook the AC into this? Otherwise the AC is ALWAYS ON, at least blowing a fan 24/7, I dont like this.

There is a 6" exhaust on the AC which I have venting directly outside. The smell is becoming an issue at this point as well. Thinking about adding Ona Gel which I have seen at just about every hydroponics shop I have visited. Whatcha guys think about Ona products? Is there any way to hook up some kind of carbon filter? The issue I find with that is the filter would have the AC blowing into it, not sucking the room air through the filter, so it seems pointless.

The thing I am having the hardest time with is exhaust vs. intake. Since the AC is always blowing I have been using that solely as the exhaust and I have an intake (450 CFM vortex fan with adjustable voltage to lower CFM if needed). My current setup leaves me with negative pressure in the room (if the door is cracked I have air sucking into the room. My question is, is it better to have negative pressure or positive pressure?

Thanks in advance. Happy Mothers Day to all the plants out there!

I have ran a single hose ac with a carbon filter hooked to the exhaust. It works.

 

[NOsauce]

I guess I will have to just try it. They are getting so smelly it smells like fresh laundry drenched in weed haha! Thanks again ShroomKing, you are a HUGE help.

 

[lollipopman]

If you wanna keep using ona switch to vaportek4000. Way better

 

[DemonTrich]

for those of you who are putting carbon filters in-line with the ac exhaust, aren't you worried about blocking the exhaust flow and possibly burning out the motor? I run 20-30' of extra exhaust ducting (6") and I also installed a 6" 440 cfm fan (on speed controller) to help push the hot air thru the added ducting.

 

[MoonshineGuy]

I guess I will have to just try it. They are getting so smelly it smells like fresh laundry drenched in weed haha! Thanks again ShroomKing, you are a HUGE help.

This is an old thread, but if I found it, others can.

The exhaust of an A/C is laden with moisture. That's hard on a carbon filter.

I suggest you blow your exhaust air into a container with Ona gel, then on out into the world. Make your own Ona gel - buy Ona liquid off Amazon for about $38 a gallon. Then add soil moist - these are moisture retaining beads that you can get from lowes. I took a 13 gallon barrel, ran my exhaust into it, put the Ona liquid and the soil moist (50:1 mix with water on the Ona) and then cut a hole in the other side of the barrel to continue the air onto the outside.

It withstood the scrutiny of the FBI and the Sheriff's dept when I got raided (they didn't go into the grow building, Thank God).