Tell me....did I create a problem?

[Bousky]

My AC #1 was working great until I turned on AC#2. They were both ducted at the same time. AC#2 was not needed until I turned the lights from 600 to 1000 watts. I have provided a diagram of what I did. When AC#2 was not being used it was in the closet because hot air was coming out of it.

So, my question is the ducting of the 2 ACs together causing a back up. One of the ACs is working intermittently

EDIT: I was just told that I remembered this wrong....the Y-duct is not directly off the T. It has some ducting, reducers then the Y.

 

[Bousky]

Would a more powerful fan, in place of the duct fan, move the air more efficiently?

Both of my ACs need to work to keep the heat down if lights are on 100 0watts. As it is, if I run AC2 (older unit) on fan and AC1 on cool mode it cools well enough for the 2 600watt lights and AC1 (the newer unit) continues to cool rather than defaults to fan, like it does when I run both on cool.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/reading.html

 

[SmokesToMuch]

From my experience those duct fans (the kind you can buy at home depot) do not work all that well on their own, they are more of a booster. A more powerful inline fan will move the air much better. Are your lights in cool tubes?

 

[Bousky]

I did purchase the duct fan at the Hydro store. I just return from purchasing two inline fans. One will be replacing the duct fan to see if more pull will resolve the issue.
My lights do not have an air conditioner cooling them, but do have an 8" fan intaking ducted, fresh air from outside and pushing air through and will now be boosted by one of the inline fans I just purchased, rather than the duct fan. It has been suggested that I take one of the ACs and use it just for the lights. I do live in So Cal and the recent heat has been a problem. We never have this much ongoing heat! It could be that most of the year cooling the lights would be all that I need.

 

[Bousky]

By the way smokesToMuch......I want to thank you and tell you that I appreciate your input. The inline fan is now installed and worth it since it seems quieter than the duct fan. This fan is a booster. There is an 8" fan on the other side of the lights. I won't know until tonight if it solved my problem or not. The sound was worth the price of the fan. Having it solve the problem will be an extra bonus!

 

[whitewidowweed]

i bet hot air is being pushed from the lights back in the room by the off ac tube cuz theres nothing going down it so just cap it

 

[Bousky]

No, the lights have intake from outside and vent outside. The diagram above is just what is in the attic. It is the Exhaust from both lights and ACs. Although, Whitewidowweed your comment reminded me that while I was resting the plants from heat stress. I kept the lights at 600 watts and added the second AC, in anticipation of turning the lights up to 1000 watts. I ended up putting the AC that was hooked up, but not turned on in the closet. I closeted the AC because heat was backing up and coming through it. The new fan seems to have stopped it. That AC is off at this time and no hot air is coming out of it.

But.....my problem has not been resolved. The first and more efficient AC1 kicks off to fan mode if I turn AC2 on.

Does anyone have any ideas? Both ACs are ones that stand in the room and normally vent out a window. One is an LG and one is labeled HydroFarm. The HydroFram one has more generic controls, not digital. I have built platforms with a little tilt to them that allows them to drain into buckets. I have ruled out the tilt being the problem.

 

[SmokesToMuch]

glad the new fan is at least helping in one way. I am fortunate enough to not have to use air conditioners (my central air keeps my room cool and my lights are vented into attic) but is one ac blowing onto the other? This is just a guess not seeing the set up but could one ACs cold air trigger the other to just run on fan believing that the temps in the room are correct? it being more efficient may have more sensitive controls in order to save power?

Another thing is you mentioned you had heat backing down when one ac was off. A great investment anytime you have wyes and t's in your ducting is a back draft damper. Ideal Air has them in most hydro stores. its a butterfly that will prevent air from blowing down the ducting when any one input isn't blowing. for the 20 bucks for a 6" damper it is worth it.

 

[GR33NL3AF]

Not sure how many lights youre running but it's been 90+ where I am and I run 8000watts with NO A/C. I can pull my room down to the low 70s with a 10" fan.

- Stronger inline fan, if noise is an issue look into the Sun Court line...Plastic housing makes them hardly noticeable
- 'Y' the A/C into its own fan, before it feeds into the main duct
- Link your A/C duct into the lights directly
- Get more wall fans, I run 1 fan for every 2k watts

-GR33N

 

[Bousky]

You may be right SmokesToMuch.....It does make sense why the more sensitive of the two units is turning off. The units are side by side.

I am exploring GR33NL3AF's idea of linking the AC into the lights duct. This could also help solve the noise factor. Now, I have a duct to intake air for the 2 100 watt lights in a window box, drawing air from outside (probably the loudest aspect of the noise outside my house). The fan drawing the air in is an 8" inline, inside of the tent. If I take that duct out of the window and use it to direct the AC directly to the lights, not only will that cool the lights more effectively but it will also eliminate some of the noise outside the house. The lights heat is without a doubt the biggest cause of my heat issues. I am perfectly fine if I run them at 600 watts. All my problems happen when I increase the wattage to 1000.

Redirecting the AC to the lights would also separate the two ACs, as GR33NL3AF has indicated, I think I should be able to control the rest of the room temp with fans. Yesterday I upgraded the intake air to the room from outside and it helped. Although it is when my lights come back on at 5pm that my system gets tested. I will know tonight if the air intake for the room was actually helpful.

I live close to the beach and generally it is not all that hot. Normally if we have a heat wave it doesn't last too long. The last month or so has been unusual!

BIG QUESTION: Will I ever get to the point of being able to relax some and not always be monitoring and adjusting? Haha....I am wondering what I have gotten myself into. Don't get me wrong, I love the physical labor, as well as nurturing the plants, but, I do have other activities in my life (Artist) and I was hoping to have time for these!

 

[SmokesToMuch]

Don't worry you will get things dialed in, but a good grow will always evolve. As for directing the ACs directly into the light this may not be the best idea. My understanding is you do not want to pull to cold of air through the lights because the bulbs have a certain operating temperature and also you can build up condensation on the glass.

I believe greenleaf was saying to put the AC exhaust on a fan of its own in order to draw the air.

I'm still having some trouble picturing how you have this set up. If you have AC going to cool down the room, could you just suck the air from that room (not directly from ac but the room air) and blow that through your light? It will cut down on window noise because you will no longer have a fan pulling from outside and you will be sucking in air that is slightly cooler. this is how I have mine. filter ===> fan===>lights==>ducting==> attic. my 2 600s in a row are fine with this. If you ran 1 ac in the room and had your light heat sucked out at a good rate you should be fine. You will keep seeing the term KISS on here, keep it simple.

Also you can put your fan so it is pulling (sucking) through the lights instead of pushing. filter=>lights=> duct=> fan=> that whatever your ac needs are. I have read that this is a good way to go, will decrease temps slightly through lights because compressing air heats it up, as well as having the fan further from the duct opening it will also be quieter.

 

[Bousky]

Maybe this will help you understand. This diagram is of the room. The sloppy stuff is what has recently changed and I didn't bother to draw it to scale. The ac shown closest to the wall, the Can Filter and Dehumidifier are not being used right now. The little ovals with "RF" in them is the Rotating fans. The rectangle with the dashed line is the closet and leads to the diagram at the top of this thread.

Currrently one AC is at the end of the tent blowing directly in. I have a partial flap open. It is working and keeping the temps between 75 and 85. Outside the tent is staying pretty cool since I added a fan to the window box to just draw in outside air. I have plenty of air movement inside the tent, (2) rotating fans just to move air and (2) 4" inline fans, one intake from the room and one exhausting to the room. I did fail to add the CO2 to the diagram. Other than that I think it is mostly accurate.....except for the little fan pushing air out of the tent. It is actually more centered, but under the fan for the lights.

There is an 8" inline fan for in-taking air from outside at the beginning of the lights which in now helped by the 8" fan that is boosting the exhausting in the attic.

It does seem like the intake air fan (at window box)I added the day before yesterday has helped and I may just leave well enough alone for the remainder of this cycle. It's working and my intention is to dump the tent and use the entire room next cycle. This will increase from (1) 4x8 to (4) 4x4s. The room across the hall has opened up. So I can start planning and take what I have learned and have it all ready to go! If I move everything to the other room the window faces our backyard rather than our neighbors house. Currently the intake fans echo between the two houses. There is no reason to draw attention!

 

[SmokesToMuch]

what would happen if you cut out all of that window fan stuff. if you ducted from outside of your tent, to fan through lights and out. You would not get the fan noise. I do not know if this is possible seems you have a lot of fans and with the ac still have to worry about heat.... How many CFMs are the fans that blow through your lights?
Also you say your running Co2 so this may affect what you can and cant do. if the tent has the Co2 directly in it how often is your intake and exhaust running?

 

[Bousky]

I tried removing the intake air, for the Lights, from the window and just let it take it from the room and yesterday the temp make it to 100 degrees. The noise is going to have to return. Although my ducting is not insulated. I am going to replace the uninsulated ducting with insulated and hopefully it will help the noise.

The fan moving the air through the lights is an 8" fan. I am not sure what the CFM rating is. But there is another 8" fan boosting on the other end. I am pretty sure I have sufficient push/pull happening.

I need to figure out today is the how much wattage I am using and do the actual calculations to make sure I do have enough air. I am also going to see if I can figure a way to get the ballasts out of the room. Maybe a couple of heavy duty extention cords and I could put them in the closet.