Gquebed
Well-Known Member
Try running one non stop. Watch what happens...
Window Air Conditioner Freezing Up, Will Portable AC Do the Same?
- Thread starter Critical420
- Start date
chemphlegm
Well-Known Member
not in my grow room but I've see exactly what you say in the summer running a 5k non stop without thermo in the office while away all day.
Lite
Well-Known Member
Average ac in the south down here runs 13-15 hours a day for 10-12 years. what's ur point? Son I do this for a (shitty) living. I dont know a lot but i know me an air conditioner or two.
chemphlegm
Well-Known Member
shitty? that sucks, I always figured it was a good gig, to work or operate even. maybe move to the north where its colder? lol
Stink Bug
Well-Known Member
Could you explain this please?
Gquebed
Well-Known Member
Running on max cool for 13 to 15 hours straight? Your garden variety home depot special? Or industrial type mini splits?
And do the rooms they cool have a constant heat source? Or do units cool for 10 minutes then spin for 2 then cool?
Maybe i just had a bad one. And maybe the other two i have seen do the same thing were bad ones too...
Lite
Well-Known Member
I live in south carolina where its 100+ for a month straight down here, and 80+ for 6 months out of the year.
Stink Bug
Well-Known Member
The pans in newer style window ac units do not have drain holes anymore for the most part. Condensation water is now removed through the simple process of evaporation. In cold temps this dosen't occur even with the condenser heat, which is much lower in the winter.. The pan fills and freezes causing the fan blades to come into contact with the ice building up in the pan.
Stink Bug
Well-Known Member
In the winter window units evaporator cores can easily frost up when being run in a grow room. Even though your humidity in the room is say 50-60. The ac is continually condensing water vapor which is transpired by the plants to keep it at 50-60. which in turn turns to frost on the evaporator core. Every environment is different and they may work ok for some. But in general they are not designed to work at full efficiency in the winter.
Huckster79
Well-Known Member
Oh yea gotcha, i thought u meant you got mold ducting outside winter air in
Lite
Well-Known Member
Any air conditioning unit consists of 2 coils, an evaporator coil and a condensing coil. The inner coil in the area in which you are trying to remove heat from is the evaporator. The evaporator coil is a low pressure refrigerant cooled copper coil that typically runs 40-50 degrees F refrigerant temperature while flowing through the coil (providing the incoming air temp is 65F+
The outside layer of the unit the condensing coil. In between the indoor (evaporator) coil and the outdoor coil is a compressor. Think about what an air compressor does. Same thing kinda, except when refrigerant is in a low pressure state (which it is while its inside) it is in a gas form. After it gets pulled to the compressor and spit back out, its a high pressure liquid form.
pressure increase = temperature increase
you now have an outer coil that is running 40~ ish degrees warmer than your indoor coil is (more if ur room is hot or it is hot outside, up to 120-130F is typical if its blazing hot inside or outside)
Hot goes to cold, Passing the air outside over it, so in the winter hitting a 80-120F coil, that cold air grabs that heat outa the refrigerant and it cools well.
If you dont have enough heat to satisfy the cold of the outdoor coil however, your indoor coil will go to <32F which will cause the water vapor around the evaporator coil to freeze, causing low airflow over the coil, causing more freezing.
a variable speed unit combats this by detecting a low head (outdoor high) pressure, and reducing the fan speed. This reduces the amount of cold air being circulated over the outdoor coil, reducing the amount of heat that bid bad mr winter is stealing from the refrigerant.
The outside layer of the unit the condensing coil. In between the indoor (evaporator) coil and the outdoor coil is a compressor. Think about what an air compressor does. Same thing kinda, except when refrigerant is in a low pressure state (which it is while its inside) it is in a gas form. After it gets pulled to the compressor and spit back out, its a high pressure liquid form.
pressure increase = temperature increase
you now have an outer coil that is running 40~ ish degrees warmer than your indoor coil is (more if ur room is hot or it is hot outside, up to 120-130F is typical if its blazing hot inside or outside)
Hot goes to cold, Passing the air outside over it, so in the winter hitting a 80-120F coil, that cold air grabs that heat outa the refrigerant and it cools well.
If you dont have enough heat to satisfy the cold of the outdoor coil however, your indoor coil will go to <32F which will cause the water vapor around the evaporator coil to freeze, causing low airflow over the coil, causing more freezing.
a variable speed unit combats this by detecting a low head (outdoor high) pressure, and reducing the fan speed. This reduces the amount of cold air being circulated over the outdoor coil, reducing the amount of heat that bid bad mr winter is stealing from the refrigerant.
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Stink Bug
Well-Known Member
To answer the title of this thread. A single hose portable units is what you want to use in this circumstance. They only exhaust the heat from the condenser. Which is pulled in from the room its in and blown out the hose. A side benefits is a single hose will aid in exchanging the air your grow is in.
Lite
Well-Known Member
i accept ur apology for ur smart ass remark
Gquebed
Well-Known Member
Exactly. So...
And ac unit can cool the room enough for it to have a few minutes of down time until the ambient air warms it enough to kick in to cooling mode again. And thats the difference. Now put a heater in that same room so that the ac unit cant ever cool the room enough to kick out of cooling mode and see what happens...
Lite
Well-Known Member
This is why i tied my grow room into my central air and put it on a zone system. I blast my tent with 50 degree air at 900cfm.