Portable AC trick: free distilled water, rock solid PH, no top-ups

[THCV]

Hi y'all-

Just had to let you in on this craziness. I have a sealed room with a Soleus portable AC keeping things cool (14K btus). Lately, the AC had been filling up with water and not working as well, i had to drain it daily. It has a water evaporator that is supposed to exhaust built up water out the exhaust tube (this is a dual-hose unit), but it was clearly overwhelmed with the humidity coming off the plants. So I hooked the AC water output into my 55 gal res. to prevent build-up.

Now I never add water to my res! I have 16 huge plants in a multiflow, and they drink a lot, but every day the water is at the same level, but the PPMs go down. Before it did this, I tested the water coming out of the AC, it is pure, distilled (0 ppms) and it had very low ph (4.0). Since my res usually has a slightly rising PH, with this new setup i never need to lower ph, it stays at 5.9, and i never add water. It appears to be sucking water out of inside and outside air, thus adding net water to the system without me doing anything.

Isn't that INSANE? I wouldn't believe it if it hadn't happened to me, and i needed to share. It has changed the way i add nutes, but man is it low maintenance. Highly recommended.

 

[pontiac]

Thats PURE FUCKIN GENIUS, we need more inovators like you here in ICmag. Care to post some pics?

 

[Dreamscape]

Care to post some pics?

Is it this one ??
http://www.sylvane.com/soleus-air-ky36.html

Are you set up in an attic/basement/spare room ?

Any intake and exhaust ?

Thanks
~Dream

 

[THCV]

Thanks, pontiac. I'll take some pix tomorrow for all to see. It's truly amazing, i still can't believe it.

Dreamscape, it is a sealed room within a house. For the AC, intake is from the floor of the next room, exhaust goes into the attic. Its the dual-hose Soleus LX-140. It's a quirky unit, but once set up correctly it is solid.

 

[Bulletproof]

Hey, I've got a DeLonghi Pinguino portable AC, it works the same way by taking water out of the atmosphere and cools the air using it. It doesn't work well when it's overwhelmed by too much water, but I've noticed that the water in the AC gets moldy very quickly, but if you use the water right away it might be ok, adding peroxide or chlorine works too. One time I left the AC on all day, left it off for 3 days and then turned it back on... a horrible smell came out of the AC, the best way for me to describe it is to wash your clothes in the laundry machine and leave them in the machine for a day or two without taking them to the dryer and take a whiff.

 

[treble]

THCV Thats a great find!

Excellent Idea and don't you feel good when you score an ingeneous idea. I know I do.

I was wondering what power use is like on that unit. I see its rated at 1350 watts but I figured it would run on an thermostat so it may not be on all the time.

Is that how it works for you?

Do you have a feel for how much difference it makes to your power use?

cheers
treb

 

[THCV]

treble, since my room is sealed, the unit is always on, either cooling or dehumidifying (or, theoretically, heating, but it never really needs to) and i have never run without it so i can't compare. It has it's own digital thermostat controller--actually, it has a ton of sensors, it is pretty sophisticated. I think it peaks around 11 amps, but i basically just think of it as the same monthly cost as another 1000 watt HPS. I have it on a dedicated 120v 15a circuit.

bulletproof, you should try this trick if your a/c has an output and isn't currently moldy. I have never had mold in my ac at all, the water is 0 PPM but, well, it smells like primo buds! Maybe it will recycle the terpines for better smell too post-cure, i'll let you know. I was emptying it regularly before I connected it, so i am very familiar with the water it outputs.

 

[Guest]

Hello THCV,

I am currently in the process of building a sealed room, so any tips, hints and especcially pictures would be welcome.
What kind of CO2 suplementation do you use, a burner or tank system?
What are the dimensions of your room?

 

[THCV]

PD, a dual-hose portable AC is a very easy way to seal the room. More advanced is split a/c or heat exchanger. I use a CO2 tank, room is 12x12x9 and i have 3x1000w hps. The ac handles the heat no problem, but lights are out by 1130AM, and we haven't had any heat waves yet, so we'll see how it performs this summer. Generally, the room stays between 70-78, with rh of 45-65%, all based on the AC's auto mode. All lights are vented with a fantech 8XL, with ducting once again pulling air from the floor of the next room, through the lights and into the attic. This air has no smell, as it never hits the inside of the room.

The only smelly air that is expelled is into the attic, and only when the air exhanger on the ac unit has switched to move indoor air out, like when heat or rh is very high; otherwise it is like a split a/c. I have no charcoal or anything, but i will put an ozone generator in the attic if i ever smell anything outside the room--which I haven't yet, and i take lots of walks around the house outside. This is my 3rd flower in the room with no serious problems; veg isn't sealed (why bother).

 

[THCV]

Pix

Pix

Here are some views of the AC, it's inputs and outputs and how it feeds into the multiflow.

 

[Guest]

I'm interested to know how the "distilled" water has a ph of 4.0??

 

[Bulletproof]

atmospheric CO2 lowers the pH of water, distilled water readily accepts anything.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

^^Very true...you can boil the water to release the CO2 tho and bring the PH back to ~7ish if needed.

 

[Guest]

Hmm....didn't know that. Very cool.

 

[THCV]

atmospheric CO2 lowers the pH of water, distilled water readily accepts anything.

really interesting, bulletproof. I was wondering how that works. For me it is perfect, since i was using PH down every few days to get the res back in line, now i don't have to.

Of course, the success of this is all about ratios. I keep the res filled to 180L and it stays there. Each day the plants drink about 5-10L (i'm in late flower) and the AC fills it back up. If the res were at a lower level, the PH would probably drop rather than stay constant, and the PPMs would drop too much daily. 50 ppms per day is totally manageable; i keep it within a range depending on where i am in the cycle, but for example i nute it up to 1500 ppms and then 4 days later it's at 1300 and I nute it back to 1500 again. Not exactly what i like, as i was keeping PPMs solid at 1400 before, but not having to add water or ph down makes it all worth it. I hope it's ok for yield, won't really be able to tell until it's all cut and dried, natch.

Tomorrow is flush; i am looking forward to initially flushing with tap water and letting the AC take the 200PPMs of my tap down to zero over the last 2 weeks (actually, 4 days i guess). Glad i didn't buy an expensive and annoying RO filter, and this is so much more eco-friendly. Now I just need solar power for my lights! (kidding)

 

[killabrown420]

sick setup thcv, very cool indeed.

 

[Scay Beez]

I assume you are not using c02 because the soleus is exiting air out of the room. I tried to use a mac12k at first to seal a room. I have a delonghi a/c that has no exhaust that I use with c02 and it works really for a small room. Very clean looking room setup.


- sbz

 

[THCV]

i am using co2. the soleus only exhaust part of the time; most of the time is acts like a split ac and just cools and recircs the inside air, using outside air to run the compressor. some co2 probably escapes, so i overdo the co2. my buds are large and dense, as they should be with co2.

thanks for the props, guys.

 

[20kw dreams]

That CO2 in the water also helps to kill off bacteria.

Sounds like you have a nice setup. I am actually setting up a 6 light sealed room in about a month. I was going to use an 18,000 btu AC to cool 6 lights though. 4 of those lights will be on an 8" elicent, and 2 of the lights on a 6" fan.

Do you run your lights at night to use the cooler air to cool your lights and the AC compressor? What's the weather like where you're at? We don't have the house we'll be using yet, but we have to decide wether to live above or below the fog line. Where we are living, below the fog line the weather stays pretty consistent, never gets too hot or cold, but the houses are closer. You get above the fog line and the weather can swing from shitty hot to freezing cold at night, but it is easy to get alot of land.

You have a grow thread to show off this beaut?

 

[THCV]

you bet i run the lights at night. but, I'm a stoner, so i do 1130P-1130A so that i can sleep late and still get in to see the ladies before lights out! i don't think my AC could reliably hold temps below 85 if the lights went on beyond that. next flower i am going to switch to lights out by 10AM since we are going into the summer. I live in Socal.

Hot to freezing can be ideal if you invert your light cycle. The house will buffer the temps, so the freezing night temps cool the "day" and the hot outdoor daytime temps keep the "night" from dropping too low, keeps the DIF in a good range without heating or using exessive AC (AC works a lot better with the lights out). Winter in socal is like that.

If you are rocking 6KW, 18K btus might be a bit lite. But the fan cooled lights help a ton--i went from hitting 83 regularly to staying below 73 the day i added the cooling ducts and fan for the light. In your situation, without cool night temps and running at night, i would bet you would need another AC. I say run the lights at night, and go above the fog line--unless day temps will be really fucking hot like 90-100.