How big air-conditioner do I need?

[grow4fun]

Does anybody know what size air-conditioner I need to cool a 10 x 10 x 7 room (700 cubic ft.) with 4 1000W lights? The rest of house is about 86 degrees to start with (at the time of night when lights are on, due to house walls radiating the heat theyâ??ve absorbed during the day). The lights are air-cooled, but still put off a good amount of heat anyway (a 750 cfm fan pulls air thru them, either fans getting old or the outside/intake air isn't cold enough).
I was going to buy a 9000 BTU portable unit, then realized I might be throwing the money away; it might not be big enough to cool the room. One website I saw had a calculator on it; it said for a room that size, if itâ??s a kitchen, 27000 BTU (which suck about 2700 watts) would be right. And thatâ??s not counting the heat from the semi-aircooled lights. Room currently has 90â??degree temps.
Has anybody ever cooled a similar setup?

grow4fun Reviewed by grow4fun on 07-03-2006. How big air-conditioner do I need? Does anybody know what size air-conditioner I need to cool a 10 x 10 x 7 room (700 cubic ft.) with 4 1000W lights? The rest of house is about 86 degrees to start with (at the time of night when lights are on, due to house walls radiating the heat theyâ??ve absorbed during the day). The lights are air-cooled, but still put off a good amount of heat anyway (a 750 cfm fan pulls air thru them, either fans getting old or the outside/intake air isn't cold enough). I was going to buy a 9000 BTU Rating: 5

[gsxxer]

general rule is 3500 btu's for each 1k of light plus 20 btu x sq ft

so 3500 x 4 = 14,000 btu + 10 x 10 = 100 x 20 = 2000 btu + 14,000 =

total = 16,000 btu

and i think thats without aircooled lights, so maybe you could get away with a little less, but deff need more than a 9000 btu portable, and make sure you get a good quality one so it lives up to its tru btu's as advertised.

Do you have Co2? you could get away with higher temps, but still would need an a/c, dehumid, since it would be an enclosed environment, but maybe could get away with a smaller a/c

[gsxxer]

oh yeah, where are you pulling in air for the cooled lights? outside? or in the 86 degree room?

becasue if you dont have some sort of cool air blowing through there its pretty much pointless, it will help a little bit, but that why its called air-cooled...you have 4 1k, thats ALOT of heat, you need to have cool air blowing through the tubes, or get the proper size a/c wich would be at least 14,000 btu imo.

[grow4fun]

Thanks, I was thinking along those lines (theoretically), but you know how when you actually go to do something the results can be a lot different than the theory (because of the complexity of the overall equation). You really have to talk to someone thatâ??s actually done it.
Totally makes sense though: watts and BTUâ??s are two different ways of measuring heat. Watts x 3.412 = BTUâ??s. So 1000 watts (the amount of heat put off by a 1k light + itâ??s ballast) is equal to 3412 BTUâ??s. So 3500 BTU's of cooling power would offset the heat of the light, then add the amount that would be needed to cool the same room if it had no lights in it. Yeahâ?¦â?¦:stoned:

Btw, air for lights is pulled in from outside --- but itâ??s like 60 â?? 65 degrees, night. Feels nice and cool, but for cooling purposesâ?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦â?¦

[u.g.u]

I can tell you for sure the 9000 will not be enough I got cooler temps I run 4 lights but 2 rooms 2 in each and the 9000 is barley getting the job done if my outside temps go any higher I will have to upgrade oh and I am running 2 440 cfm fans 1 on each side to cool the lights I think the 16000 would do great get a mini split that is what I am looking into they have a dual zone split but its 2k so I am still trying to get away without it but the singles are like $700

[GrowinGreen23]

16000 btu's is a lot i think i feel you could get away with a
"cooler" room with a 10000 btu a/c unit i mean the plants don't want it ice cold like we humans do ha ha

GG23