Problem Keeping Room Cool... HELP ME DAMNIT!

[Keyz]

Hello all, sorry I don't have any pics, so hopefully I can explain everything where it's easy enough to visualize.

Problem: My room is running in the high 90s and I can't get it down!

Here's how my room is setup. First off, I'm in a 9x9 room built in a garage. I'm running 4000 watts, aircooled hoods. Basically it's two seperate scrogs, with space in the middle of them to give me walk room. Over each scrog is 2 1000 watts, so basically two rows of two. On TOP of the room (Actually on the top, the room is built like a seperate box inside the garage) I have a 10" vortex fan, with Y that splits it to two 6inch. Each split goes to one row of 2000 watts. The flow of air is as such [garage --- lights --- another 6inch Y that exhausts out of a little vent in a glassblock window thats blocked off in the room]. I also have a 14000 btu AC that is intakes from the garage and dumps back into the garage.....

Hopefully you can visualize this.... Right now, I'm in like the 100+ degree range...

Now, I JUST configured it this way... it was setup as follows, and stayed about 5 degrees cooler: Intake from window vent into a y ----> splits to both rows of lights----> into fan on top of room, blowing back into the garage. I also had my portable AC intaking from the window, and exhausting back into the garage. Temps were at about 96-97 in the room, but the inside of the garage was at least 115 degrees from all the heat dumping inside...

So first step, I'm definitely reversing back to how I had it originally, so that'll give me a few degrees difference, but I still need to come down more.

Fuck... I need some help... Room is sealed and I'm running CO2, and I'm out of money, so if I can just get my temperatures down to at least 89, ill be happy... any thoughts? What would you think is the preferred chain of air flow?

HELP ME!!!!

 

[Zoolander]

The garage still gets to hot if it's not insulated even with a box with a/c the best thing to do would be to drywall and insulate the top and if you van run a bigger a/c if you have 220. most garages are unfinished and have uninsulated doors that just allow heat to pour in. Summer sucks for this type of set up

 

[Zoolander]

plus the a/c is just dumping all it's heat back into your setup making it work harder. . Can you cut a hole in the stucco and wall mount the a/c ?

 

[Keyz]

Well, you're right, the garage is unfinished, but the box is insulated and drywalled.

 

[Keyz]

No stucco, it's cement block. I could probably find a way to vent the AC out the roof of the garage maybe using a 6 inch fan that I have laying around somewhere, but I'm still not sure it's gonna cool any more.. Yeah, summer sucks in a garage.... This is the third summer in the garage, first summer running 4000 though. Temps aren't too bad here right now though. Outside is about 79 degrees, so it's not deadly hot, but boy ol boy is it hot in my room.

 

[greenmatter]

get the heat from the lights out of the garage!

intake/outdoor air > fan > lights > exhaust outside (using the fan to push instead of pull will keep all the smell in the garage if your duct is not 100% sealed)

that should take a few thousand BTU's out of the building ..... it's a start

 

[Keyz]

Thanks greenmatter... I think theres two roof vents in there too, so I'll try to hook one up and exhaust at least some of the air through there....

 

[burns1n209]

You have to vent th ac out of the room and you have to vent the air cooled lights out side, your just blowing the hot ass air inside the garage if you can exhaust them outside u will have no problem cooling that room down. The air out of an ac unit is very hot 100+. Same with the air coming outta the lights 100+. Can u put a roof vent in and tie both exhaust lines to it. You can get a 10 in wirrly bird for the roof and just get a 10 x 6 x 4 Y sheetmetal adapter.

 

[burns1n209]

You should run your lights at night to, if possible

 

[krunchbubble]

run your rooms at night...

 

[Keyz]

Yeah, I thought about putting a bigger roof vent in, but it's not at my residence, so I would have to convince the homeowner first. Yep, I ALWAYS run my rooms at night.... I'm in veg right now though, so I'm just trying to get it together before I get them into the next stage

 

[Guest 18340]

Imho, take a bit of everyone's advice and your problem will be solved.
I'm in the dirty south and heat is something we deal with first hand before we ever dare plant a seed...
You need to get the warmed AC air out of the garage, you need to get the warm air from the lights out of the garage AND you need a better type of AC, that portable will NEVER cool that room.
At least get a 14k btu window unit...

 

[Hydro-Soil]

If you put your lamps on separate timers... you can reduce your maximum heat point a bit.

Just have each lamp shut down for an hour each cycle... at different times from the other lamps. (I know, you said you were out of cash... manually?)

You really won't lose much yield and your quality will go up with the temp drop.

Stay Safe!

 

[Keyz]

Thanks for the advice guys.. I reversed my flow so everything intakes from the glass block window vent... then the lights dump back into the garage.... Then I took my exhaust from the portable, hooked it to a Y on a 6 inch fan I had laying around, and have that fan pushing the air out of a vent in the roof. The other side of the y I just left open so that it would suck some of the air out of the garage so the inside of the garage won't be so damn hot... Once I get some cash and get some more ducting, there's another vent up there I can exhaust from. But, after doing this, I turned just TWO of the lights on, and it held steady at 77... I'm gonna turn the other two on and see what I get.

Thanks guys!

 

[ThePizzaMan]

I was under the impression that you should have 5000 BTU per 1000...so you should first start by getting a bigger AC unit. This plus getting that hot air out of the area should make an enormous difference.

Cheers

TpM

 

[cody2white]

I was under the impression that you should have 5000 BTU per 1000...so you should first start by getting a bigger AC unit. This plus getting that hot air out of the area should make an enormous difference.

Cheers

TpM

Thats for bare bulb. Aircooled hoods needs less

Reversing it is a great idea. I wish i had 79° air to work with

Goodluck bro i think you got it though

What kind of hoods are tou running?

 

[Keyz]

Sorry Cody, been pretty busy, all hydrofarm, but I'm not sure of the models, actually I had these sitting around from old runs. I've been doing 2000w bare bulbs for a little while, but I wanted to increase light, without increasing my AC size, so I decided to go back to hoods. Had three already, borrowed another from a friend. With all four lights on, i'm bouncing around 82-86 right now, which really is EXACTLY where I wanted it.

I think because of the CO2, I didn't really have any heat stress at all. Everything still grew pretty fast, and the scrogs filled up nicely still. But now that my heat is down, they just look a little perkier, a little happier, a little more satisfied lol.

Oh yeah, another thing I changed was, I had built a rack to house both my portable AC and my dehumidifier. Originally I had the AC on top, and DH on the bottom, but after I thought about it, that didn't make any sense, so I switched them... It didn't give me any immediate temperature change, but after reguiding everything else, in the long run, maybe it helped some... maybe not... Really who cares if it did or not, as long as SOMETHING i did in the process made a change lol. But a 20 degree difference is nice change, and I think I was just working my AC too hard. Now that the six inch is pulling the exhaust from it, it seems to blow wayyyy cooler.

 

[burns1n209]

glade to hear things are headed in right direction

 

[OhighO]

Yea man you needed to get the hot exhausted air away from the condenser on your AC. That is what actually expels the heat from you room. By trapping the heat in your garage you were not allowing the condeser to subcool properly thus making it very inefficient. My setup is very similar to yours "sizeand wattage"and I can keep my room at 70degrees with an 8000btu unit in 95degree weather. You just have to get the airflow right.

 

[Keyz]

That's cool OhighO. Things are in great condition now, and now that temps outside are dropping, it's running between 78-82.... I'm definitely happy, I didn't even think I'd be able to get it down past 90, and I was willing to take the 90 lol.