“In my neck of the woods we have grow friendly ac dudes.”
In your neck of the woods everybody is grow friendly. Here you better do it yourself. I may be making a mistake with these 5 8000 btu machines as they are not as efficient electrically as the mitsubishi but they won't all run at the same time as I will stagger settings. They will be mounted in a line down one wall at the highest point possible and their output will be directed straight across the ceiling towards the other wall. Spanning the grow area. I think this is going to create a rolling air motion in the room. I will have a lot of control using the ac fans and cooling settings in conjunction with the timers. These are programmable timers.
They are light enough for two people to install easily. I consider them to be disposables if they break. $219 each. I can run down to the depot and get another one or have it delivered in three days. I get a lot of operational redundancy. if one does break I won't lose a grow.
My building is not insulated except for the grow area and the total volume of the structure is around 26,000 cu ft. My little insulated area is only 1871 cu ft of that so I think it's going to handle the heat from the ac's fine. There is also a 12 ft x 16 ft electric overhead door installed that can be left open. I have another set of windows that can be turned into powered vents if necessary.
“I shamelessly stole your idea of running a row of lights down the center of 2 rows of plants trained back to screens and the ducting is solid. The rooms I have can/will hold a lot more plants... not sure if I can just saturate the room with CO2 and mix w/fans or if the ducting is really necessary. I am going with ducting at the moment....”
I would like to see pics of both the lights relative to the plants and the ducting if possible.
“*** what about the eventual thermal mass of that cooling pool in the unused space in your outbuilding??? will it work and stay cool enough? Are ambient temps low enough that you'll just have fresh air chilling that tank?”
This slab is massive and shaded. The ground at six feet of depth is usually within a point or two of the annual average air temperature. At my site around 57-58 degrees year round. So the slab will always be a little cooler than ambient air. But there is also a trick you can use if needed to get it a little cooler in a passive manner. The cooling reservoir should be in full contact with the slab first and then you insulate out about six feet laterally on top of the slab around it. This makes the area directly under the reservoir much cooler.
But although I initially wanted to avoid drain to waste cooling with the tankless generator after calculating burn times with the hydrogen pro model at the high setting at only around 3.5 minutes I think just hooking up a pressurized line to it might be best. Take up a lot less room. And I have a really nice 100 ppm stable water supply here so I can probably run without ro water here. This means I can still use the water to mix with.
Another thing is their install video instructs you to run a pump full time during lights on with co2. Just constantly recirculating.
They seem to have resolved the problems the first model had. I know I can find a water heater to do the same thing but I don't have a lot of time and need something proven.
Well, back to the mine. Yo ho heave ho!
In your neck of the woods everybody is grow friendly. Here you better do it yourself. I may be making a mistake with these 5 8000 btu machines as they are not as efficient electrically as the mitsubishi but they won't all run at the same time as I will stagger settings. They will be mounted in a line down one wall at the highest point possible and their output will be directed straight across the ceiling towards the other wall. Spanning the grow area. I think this is going to create a rolling air motion in the room. I will have a lot of control using the ac fans and cooling settings in conjunction with the timers. These are programmable timers.
They are light enough for two people to install easily. I consider them to be disposables if they break. $219 each. I can run down to the depot and get another one or have it delivered in three days. I get a lot of operational redundancy. if one does break I won't lose a grow.
My building is not insulated except for the grow area and the total volume of the structure is around 26,000 cu ft. My little insulated area is only 1871 cu ft of that so I think it's going to handle the heat from the ac's fine. There is also a 12 ft x 16 ft electric overhead door installed that can be left open. I have another set of windows that can be turned into powered vents if necessary.
“I shamelessly stole your idea of running a row of lights down the center of 2 rows of plants trained back to screens and the ducting is solid. The rooms I have can/will hold a lot more plants... not sure if I can just saturate the room with CO2 and mix w/fans or if the ducting is really necessary. I am going with ducting at the moment....”
I would like to see pics of both the lights relative to the plants and the ducting if possible.
“*** what about the eventual thermal mass of that cooling pool in the unused space in your outbuilding??? will it work and stay cool enough? Are ambient temps low enough that you'll just have fresh air chilling that tank?”
This slab is massive and shaded. The ground at six feet of depth is usually within a point or two of the annual average air temperature. At my site around 57-58 degrees year round. So the slab will always be a little cooler than ambient air. But there is also a trick you can use if needed to get it a little cooler in a passive manner. The cooling reservoir should be in full contact with the slab first and then you insulate out about six feet laterally on top of the slab around it. This makes the area directly under the reservoir much cooler.
But although I initially wanted to avoid drain to waste cooling with the tankless generator after calculating burn times with the hydrogen pro model at the high setting at only around 3.5 minutes I think just hooking up a pressurized line to it might be best. Take up a lot less room. And I have a really nice 100 ppm stable water supply here so I can probably run without ro water here. This means I can still use the water to mix with.
Another thing is their install video instructs you to run a pump full time during lights on with co2. Just constantly recirculating.
They seem to have resolved the problems the first model had. I know I can find a water heater to do the same thing but I don't have a lot of time and need something proven.
Well, back to the mine. Yo ho heave ho!
