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It would seem to me that if you were using a small dedicated room it is smarter to put a portable AC unit in a semi-sealed room then to bother with venting.
The AC recycles, cools and (most) cleans the air.
All have a temp gauge.
Most will also pull out humidity, if needed.
Sounds good on paper...as least I think.
Anyone?
Ive searched the threads but couldn't find anyone that is actually using it.
I think the reason they aren't really that awesome is that you have to have venting ANYWAY to prevent your plants suffocating.
It may cool and clean the air, but it doesn;'t replace the precious CO2 that the plants need to live.
sealed rooms need CO2 to thrive, if you can add this to the room your good to go
Yea...then sealed rooms tend to thrive better in a warmer climate (higher temperature) to properly use the co2, so your A/C unit would simply have to keep it under 35C but not too low. I wonder if Tranoble uses them...probably not a portable one, but a window a/c or something. (just kinda thinking out loud) Dammit, now I have to go ready Tranobles whole thread again...hehe :p
Good topic, man. RastafarI
The Fog :rastasmoke:
Portables are usually a pore choice in a grow room because they are really under rated and they need to be exhausted via an tube so you can send the hot air out that is generated in the unit and they often have problems leaking. I have read numerous threads on other boards and if not all thought that the portable was a bad choice. If your in a low humidity area then a Swamp/Evaporative cooler will work and if you can vent a window AC unit then it will be the best bet, but perhaps you will find a person who can naysay my info. Also, the portables will suck out the CO2 from your room the majority of the time.
Adieu
I use a portable ac but only in the summer to keep the temp correct cause in my old grow area the temp went sky high in the summer and mobay has used one for a while .if anything my grows are better with the ac than without it but that may not be down to the ac as other elements are differant when the ac is used .i think its a case of preferance. be safe the postman.
PM, what brand and BTU do you have? What do your temps get to in and out doors in the summer? Also, how many lights are you running and in what kind of space?
If I can find more positive experiences with them then I may test one out myself, but for now you are one of the few good feedbacks I have gotten on them.
Adieu
We use a portable A/C. It is 8000 BTU, so it is a small unit and is rated to cool a 10x10x10 room 20-25 degrees or something, so in reality its good for lowering it about 10-15 degrees... Because we supplement with CO2, this allows us to get rid of all ventillation. It doesnt neccessarily lower cost because your running an A/C and dehumidifier and CO2 but the results are well worth it because it allows you to finitely adjust the environment your plants are in. Because we use CO2, temps of 80-90 degrees are actually not bad for us, so we do not need a terribly large A/C. The dehumidifier puts out considerable heat sometimes, so the A/C is pretty much there to counter that.
The portable A/C unit does produce considerable heat, which is easily vented outside or into an attic or for us (just into the house for warmth, granted the CO2 is off). Now if I had a choice to have a window mounted A/C...well of course I would do it, but its absolutely out of the question for us. Marijuana does like high temps, especially if its a tropical strain, but there needs to be ample air circulation and supplementation with CO2, etc. When the lights go off, we run the A/C to cool the room for the night otherwise it can stay pretty warm in there. But pretty much for us, the water chiller is the #1 priority because the plants can handle plenty of high temps...its the roots that cannot.
PS. Remember, the A/C cannot be run while CO2 is present as it will just vent it out of the room. Therefore you must use a schedule or youll be wasting CO2. We cool a few times a day, then bring the temps back up. This is a big change from my old CO2 regmine. Oh and we are running 4 aircooled 750 digital lights with a recirc hydro system. So because we are not using the A/C to cool the water, just the plants, it doesnt need to be powerful. The unit was $150 used.
i was thinkin of getting one, but it seemed unneccesary, if you can vent your room and keep the temps good there seems to be little need for one, they use alot of power.
Racerx - thanks for the post. Best one on this topic.
Question- how do you vent the heat from the portable AC?
Does it come with an option to do that or was it something that you rigged on your own?
JackdaWack : I cant vent to the outside world. Just not possible.
Keeping it self contained makes it 99.99% safe.