5 ton central AC debate! whats the deal with Excel?

[budleydoright]

I just talked to some guys who are doing a gas fired waterchiller that runs on natural gas. It is supposed to be more effecient than an electric chiller. When used outside, the refrigeration process automatically stops once the air tempurature drops down low enough to passivly cool the water.

Could take quite a load off of an electrical panel, freeing up more for lighting.

 

[VagPuncher]

Prop. I got 3 x 3.5 tons with quick connects collecting dust! Like 1 year old. York Latitude series with air handlers.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

ahah damn too bad you're not local….im banned from entering canada due to a DUI i got back in my younger dumb years...

 

[VagPuncher]

Fuck. That sucks.

I have like 100k in gear sitting around doing nothing. Let me think of something. If you need gear i'll send some down, brah.

 

[megayields]

PROP, my boy OWNS his own HVAC business, he sets up our rooms....

now THAT's good info...........

 

[Backyard Farmer]

now THAT's good info...........

More like something he could have PMed the guy...and completely useless to any one else but prop.

 

[megayields]

More like something he could have PMed the guy...and completely useless to any one else but prop.

uhh not really ..IF you know the right peeps....

 

[krunchbubble]

Prop and Mega are my peeps...

 

[Sleeper7784]

Prop, don't be sold by the over priced self install hydrostore a/c brands. Do you have a vacuum pump to remove the air and contaminants from the system before releasing the pre charged compressor, or refrigerant gauges to check operating pressures, or a tank of r-22 or 410a refrigerant? Just in case. These are things that they don't tell you when you by self install a/c's.

Drive around and look on peoples roofs guaranty you won't find an excel or ideal.

I've been an a/c tech and installer for over 8 years now.

Seems your looking for a split system.

My personal fav. Systems are ruuds and rehems.

Tranes, american standard are some of the more expensive brands.

All the new a/c's are at least 14 seer and have r410a scroll compressors.

In the end they all do the same just a matter of how well you maintain and service them.

What's the size of your grow room you size a/c's 1 ton for every 400sqft of space being cooled. 5 ton or 60,000btu is capable of 2000sqft of cooling.

 

[watts]

Rheem Prestige series is good

 

[Yes4Prop215]

Prop, don't be sold by the over priced self install hydrostore a/c brands. Do you have a vacuum pump to remove the air and contaminants from the system before releasing the pre charged compressor, or refrigerant gauges to check operating pressures, or a tank of r-22 or 410a refrigerant? Just in case. These are things that they don't tell you when you by self install a/c's.

Drive around and look on peoples roofs guaranty you won't find an excel or ideal.

I've been an a/c tech and installer for over 8 years now.

Seems your looking for a split system.

My personal fav. Systems are ruuds and rehems.

Tranes, american standard are some of the more expensive brands.

All the new a/c's are at least 14 seer and have r410a scroll compressors.

In the end they all do the same just a matter of how well you maintain and service them.

What's the size of your grow room you size a/c's 1 ton for every 400sqft of space being cooled. 5 ton or 60,000btu is capable of 2000sqft of cooling.

thanks for the pointers, il have to check out those brands. I'm leaning towards a goodman 16 seer 4 ton heat pump unit per 8kw. first room is 16x45 and will be 16-20kw of flowering. second room is 16x24 and 8-10kw flowering. i am going by the california grower standard which is 1ton of cooling per 2kw of lights. a bit overkill but i want to oversize my units for those eventual heat waves…

gonna go with a 36k mini split system for the 8kw veg room, figured veg plants like higher temps and the room will only be vegging 5kw constantly, the other 3kw are for overflow because i always seem to run out of veg room for teens and clones.

 

[budleydoright]

Be careful oversizing, an oversized unit is much less efficient than a proper sized.

 

[Sleeper7784]

thanks for the pointers, il have to check out those brands. I'm leaning towards a goodman 16 seer 4 ton heat pump unit per 8kw. first room is 16x45 and will be 16-20kw of flowering. second room is 16x24 and 8-10kw flowering. i am going by the california grower standard which is 1ton of cooling per 2kw of lights. a bit overkill but i want to oversize my units for those eventual heat waves…

gonna go with a 36k mini split system for the 8kw veg room, figured veg plants like higher temps and the room will only be vegging 5kw constantly, the other 3kw are for overflow because i always seem to run out of veg room for teens and clones.

Yes it is possible to over size an a/c. Air distribution is key to properly sizing a conditioning system. If not done right it could lead to an embalace in the barometric pressure in the room, leading to in-efficient operation, and eventually part failure. What I'm saying is your buying a big investment and you want it done right. You don't want it to be 110 degrees for 2 or 3 weeks straight and find out your coils freezing up due to a fuck up install.

First advise I'd give you is don't buy a heat pump. They are not designed for climates that have winter temps below 50 degrees.
They work best in so. Cal or flordia, places that have more mild winter temp.

They sound good in theory, but the heat they provide during winter months is crap and a lot of time have to be supplemented with electric heat coils... Look out pg&e bill it will sky rocket.

 

[budleydoright]

My point is your better off having your compressor running as close to 100% of the time. You don't want it to cycle too much, not very effecient.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

good points thanks again y'all. didn't know that its better to run the ACs at close to 100 %…thought it would be nice to have them running a little owed. gonna stay away from the heat pumps then, and get the standard low ambient temp kit. AC sure is confusing!

 

[Sleeper7784]

It can be confussing. There's a little more to it than just getting a big one and plugging it in lol. The ones thru hydrostores make it sound so simple. Just got to get all the facts straight and talk to the right people.

Sorry if we just complicated things bro. It really is, what it is, and you don't want to spend more money than you've got to.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

I have some heat pump units and they work great at keeping my grow room dialed when the lights are off in the winter.

You can get ones that use a propane furnace as well for heating instead of the electric heat coils.

 

[budleydoright]

AC sure is confusing!

There are great threads about proper AC sizing here on IC mag. I'm pretty sure this is covered. Once a compressor kicks off, it takes a few minutes for the pressure to equalize before it should restart. Once it restarts it takes a few minutes for the coils to get cold. During this time you are expending energy with no return. A smaller unit running all the time not ever experience this. Don't get me wrong, you have to design for the peak loads.

 

[Backyard Farmer]

when you're running 40 kW in lighting I don't think that's a concern

 

[budleydoright]

when you're running 40 kW in lighting I don't think that's a concern

It's a concern in my 10k room I would think it would be 4X as important in a 40k.