G
Guest
With a lot of interest i looked at your other thread and have an almost identical shed grow in mind when i move. I wanted to point out last thread bout your shed, but figured you'd prolly heard/thought about it already, but let me tell ya how i cool my grow presently, in hot-ass Nevada; and what i'm going to do when we move; [we're looking for another house right now that's on more rural land]
Out west, at the end of every summer, a whole bunch of (normally really expensive) portable, room-size evap coolers hit the second hand and consignment shops. People don't really know how to use em and so they come in almost brand new. Last summer i bought one, and this summer, bought another one; one for 20, one for 30 bucks, literally as close to brand spanking new&unused, as you can get. Prolly each of them had been run for 20 hours max.
I put a regular old $4.00 evap cooler float-valve (Lowes) into the one i'm using; grabbed screwdriver, took off back; theres a plastic tray there that'll hold bout 3 gallons. drilled a hole in it, slapped it in, then put on a 1/4 inch hose i took off the pvc line to the cold on the washing machine, under the house. Ran the 1/4 inch hose about 25 feet to the cooler. The whole thing sits under the house, some shrubs & lattice obscure sound & vision under there; it's dark, and well concealed.
This cools 90, and 102 degree air down to somewhere between 68 and 75 degrees, off the face of the cooler, when it's on. It sits under the house so from my perspective it's totally silent; and, drips, any work i do, isn't indoors. It blows up a 12 inch flex vent that's about 6 feet long, into a hole in one end of the grow closet.
When i move i'm going to do a shed the same way you have; but instead of passive cooling thru convection, i'm going to be hydro, so i'm going to sit the portable evap cooler inside, with its back right up against the shed wall. I'm gonna cut a hole in the wall, and seal as per whatever's handy. Outside, i'm gonna lean a piece of plywood against the shed - to shade, as well as conceal, reduce any sound signature, etc.
The hydro reservoir will take the air right off the face of the cooler, and that'll give me a water temp i can manage. after that, air up, round, and out, the vents in the roof. I'd imagine my roof venting will be very basic and be enough to do the deal... similar to yours.
It's way, way too expensive to buy one of those portable coolers brand new, considering the usage. They want from 180 and up for one. But, at the end of the summer, when people put em into consignment/second hand stores and the price is one tenth of that, boom... it's a sA-Mokin deal for what ya get. They're all plastic, pretty much bulletproof, and they work, if you give em free air path to pull coming in, and the air a free path out. Again, they say, you're supposed to have roughly as big a path out for the air as in, but in reality, a little overpressurization doesn't hurt anything; it works just fine once the air movement sets up, and the spec.s aren't critical for the venting in and out - provided only that you meet the 'roughly' as much air out, as comes in, criterion.
They'll cool a place down a lot, and deliver a humidity around 45 to 55%. At night, you'll have to turn it off if it gets down to the seventies, or it'll put the temps in the 50s in the room. Mine's on a timer and i turn it on for about 14 hours in the height of summer, off ten, and just let a single fan pull air through then, when it's cooler at night.
And,
it's as close to maintenance free, as you can get. I ran mine last summer, with the water in from the float, evap- cooling, for more than two months. I'm sure the water in that reservoir had gotten hard enough to dance on, but it was still cooling like a champ, never a hiccup. They say you're supposed to either periodically drain the water or let it slow-trickle at all times, to keep the water from becoming solid stone, but mine never missed a beat. Finally toward the end of summer i went below and flipped it onto it's face, pouring out all the water, (bout 3 gallons) tipped it back upright, let it refill, and off to the races again. Easy as pie with that 24/7 feed from the 1/4 inch line.
I did the same thing, this summer, with exception being that i went below and flipped it over & refilled it about once a month, or 5 weeks or so.
I was really inspired by your first shed grow thread, and told the wife then and there we'll have to do a shed. Great threads, thanks for the inspiration. I'd been thinking about a shed, wondering why others don't do them... like yours, and when i saw your thread, i'd already figured on the evap cooler solution if i ever did shed-growing.
We're looking for a new house right now, and the Mrs. says the shed grow is something she wants to do too, seeing your first shed-thread; it really makes the thoughts come together seeing you do yours, thanks.
I'm planning on using some odor control for the shed. Neon sign transformer, ozone generator, hung from the area just around the roof vents out, in a metal container, either a metal bucket or box, whatever seems to be easiest to put together; as long as it can't start a fire; a lot of people smoke home made ozone generators so fire-proof container for it's a must.
Out west, at the end of every summer, a whole bunch of (normally really expensive) portable, room-size evap coolers hit the second hand and consignment shops. People don't really know how to use em and so they come in almost brand new. Last summer i bought one, and this summer, bought another one; one for 20, one for 30 bucks, literally as close to brand spanking new&unused, as you can get. Prolly each of them had been run for 20 hours max.
I put a regular old $4.00 evap cooler float-valve (Lowes) into the one i'm using; grabbed screwdriver, took off back; theres a plastic tray there that'll hold bout 3 gallons. drilled a hole in it, slapped it in, then put on a 1/4 inch hose i took off the pvc line to the cold on the washing machine, under the house. Ran the 1/4 inch hose about 25 feet to the cooler. The whole thing sits under the house, some shrubs & lattice obscure sound & vision under there; it's dark, and well concealed.
This cools 90, and 102 degree air down to somewhere between 68 and 75 degrees, off the face of the cooler, when it's on. It sits under the house so from my perspective it's totally silent; and, drips, any work i do, isn't indoors. It blows up a 12 inch flex vent that's about 6 feet long, into a hole in one end of the grow closet.
When i move i'm going to do a shed the same way you have; but instead of passive cooling thru convection, i'm going to be hydro, so i'm going to sit the portable evap cooler inside, with its back right up against the shed wall. I'm gonna cut a hole in the wall, and seal as per whatever's handy. Outside, i'm gonna lean a piece of plywood against the shed - to shade, as well as conceal, reduce any sound signature, etc.
The hydro reservoir will take the air right off the face of the cooler, and that'll give me a water temp i can manage. after that, air up, round, and out, the vents in the roof. I'd imagine my roof venting will be very basic and be enough to do the deal... similar to yours.
It's way, way too expensive to buy one of those portable coolers brand new, considering the usage. They want from 180 and up for one. But, at the end of the summer, when people put em into consignment/second hand stores and the price is one tenth of that, boom... it's a sA-Mokin deal for what ya get. They're all plastic, pretty much bulletproof, and they work, if you give em free air path to pull coming in, and the air a free path out. Again, they say, you're supposed to have roughly as big a path out for the air as in, but in reality, a little overpressurization doesn't hurt anything; it works just fine once the air movement sets up, and the spec.s aren't critical for the venting in and out - provided only that you meet the 'roughly' as much air out, as comes in, criterion.
They'll cool a place down a lot, and deliver a humidity around 45 to 55%. At night, you'll have to turn it off if it gets down to the seventies, or it'll put the temps in the 50s in the room. Mine's on a timer and i turn it on for about 14 hours in the height of summer, off ten, and just let a single fan pull air through then, when it's cooler at night.
And,
it's as close to maintenance free, as you can get. I ran mine last summer, with the water in from the float, evap- cooling, for more than two months. I'm sure the water in that reservoir had gotten hard enough to dance on, but it was still cooling like a champ, never a hiccup. They say you're supposed to either periodically drain the water or let it slow-trickle at all times, to keep the water from becoming solid stone, but mine never missed a beat. Finally toward the end of summer i went below and flipped it onto it's face, pouring out all the water, (bout 3 gallons) tipped it back upright, let it refill, and off to the races again. Easy as pie with that 24/7 feed from the 1/4 inch line.
I did the same thing, this summer, with exception being that i went below and flipped it over & refilled it about once a month, or 5 weeks or so.
I was really inspired by your first shed grow thread, and told the wife then and there we'll have to do a shed. Great threads, thanks for the inspiration. I'd been thinking about a shed, wondering why others don't do them... like yours, and when i saw your thread, i'd already figured on the evap cooler solution if i ever did shed-growing.
We're looking for a new house right now, and the Mrs. says the shed grow is something she wants to do too, seeing your first shed-thread; it really makes the thoughts come together seeing you do yours, thanks.
I'm planning on using some odor control for the shed. Neon sign transformer, ozone generator, hung from the area just around the roof vents out, in a metal container, either a metal bucket or box, whatever seems to be easiest to put together; as long as it can't start a fire; a lot of people smoke home made ozone generators so fire-proof container for it's a must.
Sorry to hear about your mold issues. I read about it on your post. Doesn't it just suck the way that shit eats our lovely buds?
hahaha.....i see your knee deep in budzzzzz as it should be my friend......
