Keeping room cool without breaking the bank

[djcronos]

Hi all,

Forgive me but this post may be a bit lengthy. It has two, very long parts to it. I apologize in advance :)

I currently use a BC Northern Lights 'Producer' grow box, and I've had an issue with cooling since day one. If you don't know what I'm talking about a quick google with steer you to their web site. Basically, the box houses two 430watt HPS bulbs which are separated from the grow chamber by glass, with large exhaust fans blowing the air directly out the back of the box, into the room. The grow chamber itself has the same large fans, one to suck air in from the room into the chamber and the other to blow air out the back of the box into the room. The exhaust that blows out from the chamber into the room has about 6 feet of 6" ducting that blows into a homemade carbon scrubber before exhausting into the room. In the room I have a 6" duct fan just sitting on top of the box with about 10 feet of 6" ducting piped out to a piece of wood i cut to fit vertically inside the window to exhaust outside. I figured this might help with exhausting all this hot air out the room, and perhaps cooling the room down a bit. The room stays anywhere between 85 and 95 degrees - way too hot. The house has central A/C but I have closed the vent in fear of smell traveling throughout the entire house.

Over the weekend I tried something new - I went to Home Depot and got some ducting that would allow me to fully route the exhaust fans for the lights out another hole I cut in the wood plank for the window. This way, I figured by venting the heat from the lights out its separate duct, and vent the room air through its own separate duct in the wood plank, that I could somehow miraculously cool the room down to that magical range of 75-80 degrees F.

Wrong. And maybe I'm hallucinating, but now it feels like the room is a few degrees hotter. It could also be the time of year. I also bought a tri meter this time around - my res temp is 88 degrees. Ouch. I need to do something bad.

This will probably be my last cycle in this before I get a new system, but I'd like to not only get my immediate issue with cooling down this box, but also to prepare the room in terms of proper cooling (if needed) for my new setup. And I want to do this all while not spiking my electricity bill through the roof.

Am I wrong for thinking that I don't need A/C?

If so, how many BTU's should I get for a room that's no bigger than 8'x10'? I looked online and noticed that the portable A/C's go down to about 7000 BTU. I don't think a window A/C would work because I have tall windows that slide horizontally, not vertically.

And secondly, and more importantly, what's the best way to put all this together? If I use ONA in the room, and have the carbon scrubber attached to the box, should I build another scrubber and attach it to the ducting of the portable A/C before exhausting it out the window?

If I'm thinking about this all wrong, and should be thinking about this in a different way, please steer me down the right path.

Congratulations to anyone who made it this far in my post :)

And thanks in advance for all the advice and help!

:RastaBong:

 

[Silica]

I have thought about a few ways around this myself but i will say AC will be the best bet but if you cant here are a few options.

1) Vent from the aircooled lights directly under you house not out your window?
or intake cool air from under your house(or somewhere else thats cool) into the main room.
Exaust all hot air out the window.

2) make a large esky or purchase one on ebay. buy one at least 1metre long. Using this method you will be going through a few bags of ice every three to four days.
If this seems more doable and less SUSPECT to outsiders than an AC unit it does work.
*Maybe tell the service station attendant you dont have a fridge.

What you do is have ducting or piping going through the esky or custom made large chiller you can use pvc piping.
you have this cooling the new intake air -either- into your grow room, or into your lights air supply, or into the outer room.

*The ice will only last a while if you dont have hot air near the chiller nor going through the ducting. so try to vent as much as you can or at least spead the heat through other places in the house, if possible outside.
Seperate areas in the room if needed to keep the intake through the chiller seperated from the hot exaust air or radient/ambiet temps of the lights etc.

Or- just use better fans to exaust anywhere, maybe a ceiling space?

There are a lot of different ways you can use a chiller, think about it and see what suits you best.

Another option is to- use ac but-
Use less electricity in other areas of your living- switch off the hot water system! this will lower your bill by more than what your lights cost a month.
-Use cold water to shower.
-Dont use a fridge (fridges use between 300w and 2400w but more often around 300w off and on, once running and cool.)
-Less use of oven, stove etc, more use of microwave which uses less electricity.
You get the idea.

I would need to have a better look at your apartment/house whatever to get an idea of ways to cool it.

 

[djcronos]

Thanks for the wonderful information! Using an ice chest sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure if I want to refill it every 3-4 days.

Let me describe the room a bit. First, it's at the end of the hall of a 2 story house. The room has hardwood floor. It has central A/C but I've closed the vent so that the rest of the house does not smell. At 9am in the morning it's 90 degrees in there.

The door to the room is on the opposite wall of the window. There is a walk in closet I use for drying, but there is no entrance to the attic from that closet, or from that room.

I decided to lug my 14000 BTU A/C I have cooling my home office in the garage up to that room last night to cool the room down. Everything was going fine until about 15 seconds into powering on the A/C that I tripped the circuitbreaker of that room. I then find out that the circuit I tripped runs power to 3 rooms upstairs. The bathroom upstairs is on a separate circuit, so I might run power there.

I think the major issue with heating is the box itself. First, it's a huge metal box, and I doubt heat dissipates from it easily. Second, I don't think heat is ventilated properly with it. All signs really point to the box itself.

With that said, I've been looking at a Secret Jardin dark room. I noticed it has 97% thermal protection. if I were to go this route, and vent the dark room outside via the window of that room, would my internal room temperatures go down significantly? If I do this, would I be able to get away with opening the A/C vent, or would there still be a smell factor? I'd be using a carbon sock or something similar, hooked up to the Secret Jardin.

Thanks again.

 

[acubus]

The box is going to run a few C hotter than the air it's sucking in. My buddy has one.....hydro part of it got ditched quick. Need to cool the room air sometimes, whether you vent the box straight outside or not. Why close the AC vent if the air is scrubbed? A one way vent flap should suffice. Need more amps and an AC or maybe depending on your area only run one light during the hot months.

 

[TokenZen]

What if, and it's a big what if, you took the two 430hps out and put in there a 600w hps? I don't have one of these but if there is way to get in there take out the 430's then you can do what ever you choose. Not sure if your running the lights at night but if not then that should help too.

 

[djcronos]

Okay so here's a quick update. Yesterday I went out and bought a 6500BTU Portable A/C for the room off Craigslist. I went to the supermarket and bought 6 1.5L water bottles, putting two of them in the freezer. I have the A/C running when the lights are on (18 hours a day right now). When I started this, it was 92 degrees in the room. Water reservoir was about the same. I put two frozen 1.5L water bottles in the reservoir.

This morning, about 12 hours later, I go in to check the temp of the room. 79 degrees - nice! Water reservoir temp is 77 degrees - even better!

Unfortunately i think as long as I keep this box, I'm doomed to having to use an A/C, as proper ventilation on these things is next to impossible.

Tokenzen - there are two separate light chambers, and the max bulbs you can put in the ballasts that are in there are 430W.

Thanks for all the comments. Now I need to start another post to get comments on my new setup :)