DIY Window AC Box Build For a Tent

[Cannabean]

wait, Im not sure about digital window ACs...I have only used digital portable ACs. I would double check though. My digital dehumidifier won't work with a controller. I don't think either had the power outage memory feature you speak of though.

 

[SB.J]

Yeah thanks for the reply, if I were to do this I would probably cut a hole in the tent so the front part works better and also exhaust out. 4 X 750 with 600 MH in between one in trays. The only problem is I should get a 24000 btu unit but it can only run on 220V and the lights are on that... The 15k is the only one I can find at home depot / wallmart for that. I think it could be done really easy if I exhaust it out properly and continue buying correct AC units... I just dont think a 15k btu will cool 5 lights and a big dehumid easily enough.

I saw on that other guys forum you said to read that he had an cold air intake for the air to be exhausted. Cold air intake into the vents on the side/top but that would void any return policy. As long as I can run something at low setting it should last for a very long time and is worth it. I just dont want to be using another 2kw for an AC unit, not worth the power..

Not sure if there are any suggestions.

My exhaust to everything is on 2 separate lines going into the attic that seems to have a small hole at the top. I wanted to connect the garage attic to the main house attic but I am not sure if there are electrical cords running in the attics?? There is no power in either of the attics.

I know about wearing rubber gloves and just attempting to cut through with a jig saw??

It would drop the ambient temps a lot I believe allowing everything to work easier.

Thanks

SB.J

 

[SB.J]

so it seems like only the LG 15000 btu unit is 115v. I am also looking to get temperatures at 75 constant with no fluctuations and possibly less towards the end. I am using CO2 but I have found that heat always ruins it and rather waste some co2 than deal with less quality towards end

 

[BlueGrassToker]

Things tend to have their price points elevated whenever things outside of the normal box of commerce take place. For example, when a person uses an AC unit until the warranty period is almost up and then returns it for a refund. At the very least it is dishonest.
Returning items after a fair bit of use like that helps to increase the price of those items for others. Somebody is paying for the cost of such returns and you can bet that it is NOT the mfg, distributor, or salesman. -It's US that pays extra, and you can bet on that.

FWIW, I have always felt that karma tends to come into play with these sorts of situations...and I would be sure there are NO holes in your rubber gloves when you go blind fishing for AC voltage lines.

 

[SB.J]

understandable, but i have the hydrofarm 12k btu and it doesnt work for shit. last year it steamed my entire room up after being on in the summer. went to my hydro store and he replaced it right then and there. it happened again not producing cold air he gave me another new one. that is a small company giving me this. im talking about wallmart / home depot corporations who dont care about those type of things. if you are unsatisfied then it is fine they said. my problem is that i cant find an AC unit that will last a year or 2 or hopefully more that does not degrade unless you get a minisplit or chillers and ice boxes.

yeah it is really not the best idea but i feel that having a clean and cold room is needed and if you unit cannot do that return it to those corporations who make so much from you daily. I guess the US could be paying for it but in the end the corporations are loosing out so minimally that it doesnt matter at all to them.

i havnt bought and returned anything yet i just want to have the options to if the unit doesnt preform as well as it did when i purchased it about 2 months before

 

[Cannabean]

sorry sb.j, I may have been confusing. cold air intake; that is just the duct through which the ac sucks in the tent air to be cooled. there is not a fan on this duct nor the duct that the ac blows the cooled air back through.

the only fan is the fan in the pics, helping the ac exhaust motor to push the hot air out of the garage. It passively pulls air from the garage, through the holes on the side/top of the unit, just like the engine fan does.

you'd want to duct this hot air out of your ambient room though...can you just duct it into your light exhaust?

so you have 3600w and 82° ambient temps. a 15k btu might be slightly underpowered. What about two 10k btu window units, placed on either side of the room? do you have the amps for that?

I still think the 15k btu would be on half the day and two 10k btu window bangers would run about 15 minutes/hour.

portables suck and you won't realize how much they suck until you try a window unit or can fork out for a minisplit(only $1500).

 

[SB.J]

yeah I could potentially pull 2 10k btu but id have to run an extension cords (already a bunch). I only want to put 1 hole in the tent too so i wouldnt need to loose any air from the shit. I can only exhaust at one part in the room so only on one side ideally.

What do you think?

 

[Cannabean]

sounds like going with a 15k btu window shaker is the only option yougot, the AC wont run 24/7 like your portable but it will run a goof half-day and some of the night. still worth it and will save you electricity, hassle with returning stuff, etc.

if you're hesitant, just get one on craigslist, I got a 10k btu for 75 bucks and its a workhorse, if it fails or doesnt perform like you expect, youre only out a couple bucks.

 

[SB.J]

yeah im looking online home depot has a 15 btu for 360 so not to much. i need something clean too cant deeal with pm anymore. yeah im just thinking if summer time temps sometimes hit 85 during the day not sure if that btu can handle lights + dehumid even if on majority of the day

 

[RedWhite&Green]

Don't know if this thread is too old for any support, but I had a question for CannaBean.

Would you think it would be possible to seal the front of the A/C with your 2x4 setup boxed off, Tent on a closed ventilation circuit with the A/C just as you have, but have the A/C in an actual window. In other words, putting the A/C into the window, boxing off the front for the tents circulation.

Would that type of a setup work just as well, and without the additional exhaust fan?

 

[Cannabean]

Would you think it would be possible to seal the front of the A/C with your 2x4 setup boxed off, Tent on a closed ventilation circuit with the A/C just as you have, but have the A/C in an actual window. In other words, putting the A/C into the window, boxing off the front for the tents circulation.

Would that type of a setup work just as well, and without the additional exhaust fan?

yeah if I am understanding that correctly, it sounds like it should work.

If you have your window ac exhausting outside of your ambient air room then you won't need an additional exhaust fan (white canfan I have in my pictures) to push the air. That fan is only to help the ac's motor push the air when having to exhaust through a duct. no duct, no need for exhaust fan.

 

[RedWhite&Green]

yeah if I am understanding that correctly, it sounds like it should work.

If you have your window ac exhausting outside of your ambient air room then you won't need an additional exhaust fan (white canfan I have in my pictures) to push the air. That fan is only to help the ac's motor push the air when having to exhaust through a duct. no duct, no need for exhaust fan.

Thanks for the response!


Like others have said about cutting a hole in the tent and having the A/C within the tent. I was thinking of doing something similar where the A/C is still in the window, but butting the tent up to that window so the A/C vents and such would be within the tent.

But then that brings up another issue with there needing to be air circulation. If the A/C is blowing the cold air directly into the tent via hole cut into tent, then it would defeat that whole purpose of having the carbon filter working with negative pressure because that hot air from the room housing the tent would be sucked into the tent making the A/C completely inefficient.

But then even if I was to just setup a scrubber within the tent, there would be no negative pressure so even with a scrubber running would smell still leak from the tent?

With the setup that I asked you about originally, and the one I outlined above, which would be the best (In your opinion) for my setup?

5x10 Secret Jardin tent within 11x11 room
2 x 1000w lumatek HPS (closed circuit ventilation with window exhaust)

Thanks for any help! I've been trying to conquer this problem for a while now!

 

[Cannabean]

im confused. you said you have closed circuit vent on your lights but also say 'the carbon filter working with negative pressure'.

do you have it carbon filter > light > fan > window? or window > light > fan > window?

The latter would imply that your carbon filter is a 'scrubber' and just recircs the stink inside the tent while the lights are on their own closed circuit vent line without any carbon. There should be no pressure, positive or negative in the tent at all.

so back to your first idea 'cutting a hole in the tent and having the A/C within the tent. I was thinking of doing something similar where the A/C is still in the window, but butting the tent up to that window so the A/C vents and such would be within the tent'
this is exactly what you should do.

 

[RedWhite&Green]

im confused. you said you have closed circuit vent on your lights but also say 'the carbon filter working with negative pressure'.

do you have it carbon filter > light > fan > window? or window > light > fan > window?

The latter would imply that your carbon filter is a 'scrubber' and just recircs the stink inside the tent while the lights are on their own closed circuit vent line without any carbon. There should be no pressure, positive or negative in the tent at all.

so back to your first idea 'cutting a hole in the tent and having the A/C within the tent. I was thinking of doing something similar where the A/C is still in the window, but butting the tent up to that window so the A/C vents and such would be within the tent'
this is exactly what you should do.

Below is my current setup, looking to become more efficient with the air and A/C as temps during the last grow were outrageous.

15k BTU window A/C (in window)

Air Cooled Hoods Closed Ventilation
Air gets sucked from the room the tent sits in ==> Tent Duct ==> Air cooled 1000w Hood #1 ==> Air cooled 1000w Hood #2 ==> 737 CFM HV Inline Fan ==> Tent Duct ==> Y Adapter (with carbon filter) ==> Vented out window

Carbon Filter - Negative Pressure setup
Carbon Filter ==> 424 CFM Inline Fan ==> Tent Duct ==> Y Adapter (With hood exhaust) ==> Vented out window

In my current setup the A/C cools the 11x11 room which the tent sits in. The tent recirculates / scrubs the air using negative pressure passive intake, and exhausts outside with a Y adapter and window vent. The Air cooled hoods also take their air from the A/C 11x11 room the tent sits in, meets with the Y adapter and the window vent.


If I haven't confused the hell out of you, then i'll continue ha.

If I were to butt the tent to the window, cut a hole in the tent, tape it up so the A/C vents and digital display ect. are all in the tent. Then the carbon filter setup would be sucking hot room air into the tent since the A/C is no longer cooling the 11x11 room, which would be stupid and inefficient / ineffective.

So I would most likely have to turn that fan / filter combo into a scrubber only. Which once doing that, since there is no longer negative pressure, the smell would leak from the tent? Or will the scrubber be so efficient that there is no smell to even escape?

Also since this would be technically a sealed environment (or at least as close as you can get with a tent), Would C02 work out nicely here?

 

[Cannabean]

makes sense. nice setup. I think changing the setup to what we're discussing will be far more efficient than your current setup.

a scrubber should be plenty efficient and no smell should leak except when you open the tent because there should be no +/- pressure. go overkill on your scrubber, I use 24" x 6" scrubbers in my 4x4' tents and replace them often.

and yes since it's sealed, it's perfect for co2. rooms with elevated levels of co2 can be flowered at higher temps too, I keep my co2 supplemented tent from 78-82 deg.

 

[RedWhite&Green]

makes sense. nice setup. I think changing the setup to what we're discussing will be far more efficient than your current setup.

a scrubber should be plenty efficient and no smell should leak except when you open the tent because there should be no +/- pressure. go overkill on your scrubber, I use 24" x 6" scrubbers in my 4x4' tents and replace them often.

and yes since it's sealed, it's perfect for co2. rooms with elevated levels of co2 can be flowered at higher temps too, I keep my co2 supplemented tent from 78-82 deg.

Thanks for the help dude, i'll be sure to update you on my results!

 

[RedWhite&Green]

Kind of creepy... but If you look at my first post in your thread, it was posted the same month and day but exactly 2 years later. An hour within the last post too...

 

[tommyleebones]

yeah if I am understanding that correctly, it sounds like it should work.

So here's hoping this topic is once again not too dead to ask you a question Cannabean...

In short, I'm wondering the same thing, about having the AC hang out of a window as it's intended to do, but then making a box around the front and making two ducts, for the warm air intake and the cool air exhaust. I'm wondering, would I need a fan going in both directions? It seems you only have one for the warm air intake. And would that answer change if I had ducts that were both aimed upwards (ie does gravity affect the airflow significantly enough to cause a sort of backflow that would overwork the unit?)

Long answer is I'm actually not a grower, I am just a guy looking to cool his room — but it's a room in a weirdly-designed house here in sweltering southern Louisiana, where having no AC in the summer amounts to torture. But I have no real windows that lead directly into my room. So after considering lots of options, I think the best method is to put an AC into a window across a hallway, then use ducts to bring the cool air into my room (and the warm air out).

No one on the internet seems to do anything like this, except growers. So here I am! Hope this isn't too annoying for an outsider like me to be bugging you for questions...

But if you're down for more details, here's the layout of the rooms in question:

So just to be clear, the house extends to the left and downwards (where the dotted lines go), while the right and the top are outside of the house. So the shutters at the top do lead to the outside (actually to the street), but are not suitable for a window unit since they are shutter doors. And I can't just stick a unit in the windows since it would have to cool the entire hallway before getting to either room (and the ceilings are about 12 feet, so that's a considerable volume).

I'm mainly trying to cool Room 1, and I'm thinking it'd work best by placing an AC in one of the windows and running duct from the front of the unit into Room 1 via the doorway (the squiggly line indicates a curtain, because there are actually no doors there... I told you it was weirdly-designed). Unfortunately if I do this then I'm putting a duct right across a hallway, forcing people to duck under it (no pun intended). So I'm hoping to have the ducts first extend vertically a few feet, then across to Room 1, so people could walk under them. This would also allow the air pumped into my room to be placed closer to the ceiling fan and thus distributed better.

Ideally I could get a unit with enough power to cool Room 1 entirely then also Room 2 if need be, which is where I do office work occasionally.

So I'm wondering if I should get an inline fan for not only the warm air intake (as you have) but also the cool air exhaust. Or if this idea is totally idiotic and there's a better method altogether...

Thanks ahead of time for your advice, especially for a non-grower like me!

 

[EastCoast710]

what are you doing about the water that leaks out the back of that ac? or does it not leak ? get a special AC?? my ac will leak if I tried that lol. since I only have a small 2000w grow right now.. I was thinking of adding a 1000w vertical inbetween my 2 1000s horizontal. but there is no window in the are of the grow. I was thinking of cutting a whole into the wall I built .. and putting the ac in the wall.. but then I was thinking. wat about all that EXTRA WATER coming out the back.. and shit.. if I seal my lights up I could probably do it .

hows it working out.. keeping your room cool?

 

[Cannabean]

hi tommyleebones

I may not be understanding this correctly. are you planning to run two lines of duct, one for cold air exhaust and one for warm air intake, into room 1? so it would have a front box that looks exactly like mine?
Could you instead just duct the cold air exhaust into room 1 and let the warm air intake pull directly from that hallway? i know its not ideal for circulating a sealed room's air, but it may be a quicker fix to get a 4"x12" box to 6" duct adapter (this or this ) and running one line of duct across the hallway. and if youre able to cut into the drywall, these are low profile so people wouldn't have to duck and can run across the hallway, into the drywall, and into the room via a nice faceplate

if you want to do the other way with two duct lines and a full box to create a sealed room, it would be more efficient but more work.
From the AC box to the room, how straight will the ducting be? if its relatively straight, you can probably get away with using one small fan midway along the cold air exhaust duct to help push the air. if noise is a concern, S&P fans are very quiet

the warm air ambient intake is usually much larger in surface area than cold air exhaust on window ACs. because the AC has essentially an inline fan inside it, its gets no resistance from pulling through the large surface area of the warm air intake area and a fan is not needed on this end as well, even if you duct it. try to use as large of duct as you are willing to, and keep the bends and turns in the ducting to a minimum.

your situation is kind of what portable ACs are meant for, unfortunately you have to run duct through a hallway and people would be tripping over the ducts of a portable since they are low to the ground.

good luck with your windowless cave room haha. sounds muggy but good news is window ACs also dehumidify the air as they cool it and are much more efficient than portables. I'm interested to hear how it goes for you.