home made ac box cooling help

[woody420]

Whats up. Ok here's the deal I made a home made a/c box I took a 12000 BTU window a/c unit and hooked up an 8in homedepot incline duct fan bringing in cooled air from outside my grow room to cool the a/c unit. I took the exhaust end of the a/c and hooked it up to an 4in canfan taking out the hot air made from the unit. Know here's my problem the air coming out the exhaust is at 140deg f is this normall? are my intake and exhaust pulling the air that is needed??

 

[Growops]

throw that 4in fan in the garbage ! naw lol just kidding but i would have atleast 600 cfm for the exhuast (removing the hot air nd for and intake i would just run vent hose as close to utside air as u can i mean removing that hot air is the most important part , what cfm is your 8in fan ?

 

[Growops]

also you might wanna take this to cannabis jon but i posted something similair to him regarding ac box . you want to suck air from box nd remove it outside being you have an 8 inch fan you should be able to

 

[RMCG]

Is your A/C box 2 separate compartments?

Lots of plans/boxes on forums have the ambient/intake (fins on the top/side) in the same compartment as the exhaust, which is wrong. You need to have them separate, with intake coming from outside the grow room and exhaust going outside. Sounds like you are overheating the unit.

 

[gooey]

So one cannot just blow the ac into a box then vent that out...you have to also have an intake somewere else? im a total newb with all this sorry thanks

 

[deacon1503]

U are using a window ac unit without a window correct? If I remember right you need 500 cfm of exhaust per ton of ac. An 8" inline will work for u. I had my HVAC guy build a plenum (attached with their s-clamps) for my 2ton unit exhausted by a 12", 1050 cfm, inline. Works great.

 

[gooey]

Hey amgio thanks for the reply im going with a plenum of sorts, so in your set up you are not running a intake of any sort? I have a seal room with co2, etc...just making sure i am not missing something here....how many lights are you running deacon? peace n puffs

 

[woody420]

ok thanks for the hand. ok i added to more intake duct fans 8in 500cfm for my intake then i addes an 8in duct fan for the outake and one 4in canfan lol my a/c unit exhaust air is at 80-115deg running nice and cold better then 140 thanks for the input

 

[Growops]

post pics im curiosu r u runing c02 ? so are u buildin a box around back of unit nd exhuasting the heat outside cause u dont have a window ?????

 

[gooey]

yeah co2...i have a winow but cant run it in the winter...so im gonna use a vent cover...im just trying to make sure i can use the grow room air to cool the unit...i got the smell taken care of with recirculating scrubber as well as ozone gen in the ac box...cannabis john says it will work as long as my room is not to hot....we will c lol

 

[deacon1503]

This is my 2ton with plenum. At first i wasnt sure if there was going to be enough internal volume in order to prevent any backpressure, but it seems ok. its drawn out through a 12" inline, 1050cfm fan through insulated flex ducting. The box is two pieces, two "L" shapes, the top and left side and the bottom and right side. The end cap is one piece. the plenum is attached with s-clamps tapped on with a hammer to the interior lip of the rear of the ac case, then the tin was tapped into place along the clamp. A 10" take-off adjustable elbow into the flex duct which is hung with nylon straps to prevent pinching. i used two 12" to 10" reducers for the fan. the fan runs 24/7 as does this ac unit. theres another 16 ft of flex ducting after the fan and during lights on it feels like a jet engine exhaust, lol.

 

[gooey]

thank you very much for the pictures amigo...helps alot...what temp is it in that room the back of it sits in? by the way how many lights is that cooling? thanks again

 

[deacon1503]

thank you very much for the pictures amigo...helps alot...what temp is it in that room the back of it sits in? by the way how many lights is that cooling? thanks again

That area stays in the high 70's, the plenum gets pretty hot to the touch when the compressor is on but its no comparison to the temp back there with no plenum at all. This room has 10k of light cooled by this 24k and an additional 18k, both window units.

 

[TrichromeFan]

Here's my little sucka

My unit is in a box where the back is in a room that I hang out in. I used sound deadener to line the box that I made to house my AC. Two chambers. 6" duct in and out. Passive inlet, 6" 450 cfm Vortex fan exhausting. The AC is an 8k btu Sharp I picked up at Costco for $150. I have it set at 72, and my Sentinel controls the on and off. The fan kicks on only when it runs too. The 6x6 veg room keeps in the low 70's. Freeze my nips off, I tell ya.

-TF

 

[CHEVYBOX]

Do these units leak water from the back? If so how do you deal with it being enclosed?

 

[deacon1503]

Do these units leak water from the back? If so how do you deal with it being enclosed?

Mine produces close to 10 gals of condensate during flower per day. Drips down through a drain hole in the chassis. Some window ac units require to be installed with a slight angle for this reason. Some have drain kits and available condensate pumps, like the Kuhl from Freidrich.

 

[TrichromeFan]

Funny thing is, on my unit, I have a drain hole, that I was going to put a PVC pipe into, but it never seems to leak. I am ready to add one if it is ever needed, as I have a 1" hole right below the drain in the bottom of the unit.

-TF

 

[RMCG]

Nice box TF. That is the '2 chamber' design I mentioned earlier.

Deacon, I see why you don't need one, as yours is outside of the room, so your 'room' becomes the ambient intake.

If he had it inside his room and completely closed off (sides and back) and only trying to 'suck' the air out with a tiny little fan, all it does is recirculate hot exhaust back as 'ambient' compounding the issue.

 

[Randyb]

thanks for the idea's

Thanks all for the pictures and descriptions. My mind is working overtime to resolve the up in coming heat issue i'm going to see in a month or so.

 

[THegrowshow]

deacon i fucking love you lol