I am now running an Air Conditoner, do i still need a cooltube and blower exhaust fan

[TokenBlackGuy]

My flower setup has a 600HPS thats in a cooltube and a 400 MH in a reflector.... The loud 465 cfm activeair fan is pulling air thorugh a carbon filter -->cooltube--> back into the flower room.. So im wondering if i should just run a queiter simpler system buy getting rid of the exhaust fan and cooltube and use a regular reflector to house the 600.. I have 4 fans circulating air in flower room aimed at lights, tops and bottom of plants...

For the smell i would use an inline carbon filter like this

http://4hydro.com/growroom/airtecho.asp

And connect it to the exhaust of the portable AC that will blowout to another room and when i get the money, buy a vaportek for insurance...

Any comments welcomed..

Also what temperature is perfect for a flowering room?.. i now have the AC set at 76...

 

[monkeyman]

I would imagine that a cool tube would still be useful because it'd allow you to get the light closer to the plants themselves. Even if you drop the overall room temp to 76 my guess would be that plants right under the light would still be pretty hot.

 

[AlexanderS]

cool tubes make the heat between the bud and light disapate before it has a chance to affect them, ac cools the room, so id think optimly both should be used.

 

[TokenBlackGuy]

But the way i look at is, i have a fan aimed at the light, then i can push cold air towards the bulbs and it would have the same effect that the loud squirrel fan and the cooltube do but maybe to a lesser degree...

Maybe i could use something like a ductbooster and attach it to my cooltube and get rid of the exhaust fan... there wont be any resistance and it will blow the hot air towards my portable AC...
does that sound like a good plan?

 

[blackfin]

you can use duct boosters to vent the light.... also get the heat out of the room

carbon filter -->cooltube--> back into the flower room...... there wont be any resistance and it will blow the hot air towards my portable AC...

, you don't want to, just, use the AC because of the power consumption (unless you don't mind)

what is the btu of the AC? are you planing a sealed room, and if so, you're going to need CO2...

 

[TokenBlackGuy]

you can use duct boosters to vent the light.... also get the heat out of the room , you don't want to, just, use the AC because of the power consumption (unless you don't mind)

what is the btu of the AC? are you planing a sealed room, and if so, you're going to need CO2...

The btu is 9000 and i was going for a semi sealed room.. the AC only has one hose so thats for intake and exhaust..and this is the only way air can get in without me opening the door..

There is no way for me to vent the light into another space, thats why i am deciding to get rid of it and use a regular reflector..

Also with a 9000 btu AC, i should be able to control upto 3000 watts, right?

 

[blackfin]

i'm sorry bro there's no way to do a semi-sead room, or it could be, but you'll still need CO2, the AC intake/outtake has to be sealed, and 9000btu is good for 2000watts and gas fired CO2 generator, so you're set on the AC..... you're going to need CO2 supplementation (bottle or generator) .... the carbon filter can just have a fan on it and the fan run 24/7 filtering the air, no ducts, no air cooled lights

.... it's called CEA (controlled environment agriculture)..... i've always wanted to do one but the cost of a portable AC has held me back

here's a link
http://maximumyield.com/viewart.php?article=224

later,
bf

 

[TokenBlackGuy]

i'm sorry bro there's no way to do a semi-sead room, or it could be, but you'll still need CO2, the AC intake/outtake has to be sealed, and 9000btu is good for 2000watts and gas fired CO2 generator, so you're set on the AC..... you're going to need CO2 supplementation (bottle or generator) .... the carbon filter can just have a fan on it and the fan run 24/7 filtering the air, no ducts, no air cooled lights

.... it's called CEA (controlled environment agriculture)..... i've always wanted to do one but the cost of a portable AC has held me back

here's a link
http://maximumyield.com/viewart.php?article=224

later,
bf

why do i need CO2?..everything is working so far and my plants are loving the cool temps.. Im not really trying to max out yield, just cool the plants down...
Also my grow cant be sealed because there is only one hose for the portable AC, so thats where exhaust and intake are at...

do you think a fan sitting on a carbon scrubber will actually clean the air?
I

 

[blackfin]

oh ok so you do have exaust and intake..... or is that just for the AC, if it's just for hte AC find out what the exchange rate is..... the reason for CO2 is because i thought you didn;t have any air exchange, except for the AC....

oh yea the carbon scrubber doesn't need to be hooked up to all the ducts that you are proposing because you have the air coming back into the flower room anyway.... so just a fan pulling air through the scrubber will be fine, and it will clean the air of dust, spores, or anything else in the air....

 

[TokenBlackGuy]

oh ok so you do have exaust and intake..... or is that just for the AC, if it's just for hte AC find out what the exchange rate is..... the reason for CO2 is because i thought you didn;t have any air exchange, except for the AC....

oh yea the carbon scrubber doesn't need to be hooked up to all the ducts that you are proposing because you have the air coming back into the flower room anyway.... so just a fan pulling air through the scrubber will be fine, and it will clean the air of dust, spores, or anything else in the air....

so do you think a cheap 6 inch duct booster from home depot could work on top of a carbon filter for a room the size 15Lx 4W x 5 H? I really want to try to keep the noise down in the room, but i do have a 465 cfm squrriel cage blower...

Also my air conditioner is my only intake and outtake... Only one hole is for intake and outake...

 

[blackfin]

it might but can't say for sure.... i think those are suncourt fans, i use one of those for my light (400w), they are only 180cfm free air (free air means without any resrictions), and they are kind of loud, i can hear it downstairs, but i don't have anyone coming over, also any fan you get is going to have some hummm to them.... but the blowers are the loudest......

a 6" vortex will work lovely, they are 159.99 at... http://mdhydro.com/elinfan.html ..... i'm sorry if it's out of your buget but just use the blower for now untill ya get the cash... you have to think of it as an investment.... when you move you might have a bigger space and will beable to vent to a different space, then you could run 2000watts with that fan and AC...

do you know the exchange rate for the AC.... plants need atleast 330ppm of CO2 (normal atmosphere)..... how long have you have the AC, if you haven't noticed any ill effects then there should be enough CO2 in there....

later,
bf

Edit: do you have any pics of the room, adn is that 15" or 15'

 

[TokenBlackGuy]

I eventually was going to invest in a inline fan sometime soon, just wish i would have done that earlier instead of buying the squirrel cage fan...

I dont know the exchange rate on the AC but its better than when i didnt have it and just had the door open...
And my room is 15 long... the far end of my room is a 4x4 section with my lights and then the other 11 feet is where my tub of soil, juggs of water and portable AC are... the area is open and not partitioned off...

 

[blackfin]

hey bro, sounds like you've got it figured out now...... just use the blower till you have the funds to buy the fan....

that's a nice size room by the way... what do you have planed for it... separate veg, mother area would be great, that way when you have harvest one crop another will be ready to go in, and you could do that with floros, as to not cause excess heat build up, hahaha nevermind you have an AC..... black and white poly can be your friend :friends:

if ya need any thing else just ask....

later,
bf

 

[TokenBlackGuy]

i already have a few cabinets for clones and veggin in another closet... i plan on adding one more 600 to the flower room after this harvest so i would have a total on 1200 HPS and 400 Mh= 1600 watts..
Only thing bad about my room is that the ceiling is on a angle and the highest point is about 5'3''...
when i get my new place im going to use the 2 600HPS ballast to create 4 Homeboxes with a flip flop system and also use the 400 MH for a vegroom, with this setup, i will be running about 2000 watts 24/7 and hopefully grow 1 1/2 to 2 pounds every month... That is my dream growroom..
also thanks for the advice