Adjusta-wing vs air cooled hoods

What do you guys recommend? I heard the adjusta-wings are nice especially with the super spreader being able to get the lights closer to plants. But I was wondering if the air cooled hood design would reflect more light back to the plants because it is not an open wing design like the adjusta-wing. What do you recommend as being some kick ass good reflectors?

The XXL reflector's are great to make sure your whole garden is evenly lighted..I use a lux meter and check for hot spots and this set up seem's to be MY Choice but...32"square with cool tube..I can hold my hand on the glass under the lamp and it's comefortable less heat in grow to deal with! still need A.C. four foot square space 1000watt HPS Co2.....

As stated even small spaces require much planning ....what are your other parameters for the grow? dirt/hydro? plan well build once! Keep asking question's and look at all the different type's of grow's and find what your looking for and just do it my brother it's a lot to think about just try to think about the whole grow! Good luck you can do this!!!

Adjust a wings are great...as long as you can deal with the heat. every 1k watts is 4k btu's of heat that needs to be offset with cooling. Air cooled reflectors are great at removing up to half the heat generated with minimal light transmission loss (around 5% through the glass) as long as sufficient CFM are used and airflow isn't restricted (i use 350 cfm per 1k)

Stealthbomb said:

Adjust a wings are great...as long as you can deal with the heat. every 1k watts is 4k btu's of heat that needs to be offset with cooling. Air cooled reflectors are great at removing up to half the heat generated with minimal light transmission loss (around 5% through the glass) as long as sufficient CFM are used and airflow isn't restricted (i use 350 cfm per 1k)

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i agree somewhat. if you can offset the heat then adjust a wings provide stronger light. but most people don't use them on higher wattage bulbs because it's expensive to cool them. i've found that 4,000btu of cooling is needed for every 1,000w of air cooled hoods. for adjust a wings it's more like 8,000btu in my opinion.

nuglets said:

i've found that 4,000btu of cooling is needed for every 1,000w of air cooled hoods. for adjust a wings it's more like 8,000btu in my opinion.

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Thanks for the comment nuglets, can you explain the 4000 btu cooling for every 1000W of air cooled hoods? Is that only for summer time temps?

that number is based on adequate oversizing of your a/c unit. it's always more efficient to get a bigger a/c and have it run a lot less. you don't want to get an a/c that has to run all the time to keep the room coo. it will use more electricity than an oversized one and also cause the components to fail quicker. that number i've always used. got it from a couple websites and growers. seems to hold true. it's not set in stone cause every environment is different. growing in a basement in alaska requires different cooling than growing in a garage in arizona. if you are growing in a home then usually the air around you is a set temp. if you are in an attic that would be slightly different; or a basement. those numbers are based on average home environments.

check out this chart from hydroinnovations. look on the left side and it will explain cooling a lot better. http://www.hydroinnovations.com/pdf/12082011-CoolingSystemChart.REV.1.1.pdf

that number is based on adequate oversizing of your a/c unit. it's always more efficient to get a bigger a/c and have it run a lot less. you don't want to get an a/c that has to run all the time to keep the room coo. it will use more electricity than an oversized one and also cause the components to fail quicker

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I understand this quite differently, a properly sized AC should run almost all of the time. An oversized unit that cycles requires energy to bring the evaporator to temperature everytime the compressor cycles. this is why an inverter minisplit is more effecient too. A unit that is running will keep your environment at the correct temp and humidity level with minimal swings.

Am I wrong here?

budleydoright said:

I understand this quite differently, a properly sized AC should run almost all of the time. An oversized unit that cycles requires energy to bring the evaporator to temperature everytime the compressor cycles. this is why an inverter minisplit is more effecient too. A unit that is running will keep your environment at the correct temp and humidity level with minimal swings.

Am I wrong here?

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as far as i know that is wrong. you never want an a/c to run constantly. from my understanding a properly sized a/c will run 10 minutes and cycle off for 10 minutes. this also saves you drastically on electricity as the unit is not running constantly.

Perhaps we can get an expert to chime in. the whole concept behind the inverter based mini split is to spin the compressor down to a speed that accomplishes the cooling demand. This is so the compressor can run 100% of the time. Everytime a compressor cycles, much of it's time is spent bringing the pressures up, once there the coling begins. If the pressure is never allowed to equalize, cooling is happening the entire time the compressor is running which removes more heat.

So figuring your 10/10 cycle. The compressor is going to have to run a period of time every 10 minutes just to get the gases pressurized enough for the system to work.

Also the dehumidifying effect if the unit has the proper load on it. I have to stand by my assertation that it is more effecient and more effective in our application to properly size your AC to run almost full time at peak load. I'm going to have to research this now!

let me know what you find out. my buddy from high school is an hvac tech and that's what he told me when i was doing the setup for my old room. what about your house? why is it that you would want something different from the air handler in your home than you would want from a minisplit in a grow? i mean you definitely don't want your air handler running nonstop right?

Yes, Actually you do. From what research i have done. It is better to have your refrigerated air sized to your space so that it doesn't constanly cycle on and off. If it is properly sized it will run more than 50% of the time. In a sealed room to keep the humidity down that equals about 70-80% of the time. Otherwise, in my case the dehuey comes on when the AC is off whicha adds heat and causes the ac to come on.

I'm not saying you don;t want extra headroom when you purchase. It's just a 2 ton unit doing the job of a 1 ton is less effecient.

budleydoright said:

Yes, Actually you do. From what research i have done. It is better to have your refrigerated air sized to your space so that it doesn't constanly cycle on and off. If it is properly sized it will run more than 50% of the time. In a sealed room to keep the humidity down that equals about 70-80% of the time. Otherwise, in my case the dehuey comes on when the AC is off whicha adds heat and causes the ac to come on.

I'm not saying you don;t want extra headroom when you purchase. It's just a 2 ton unit doing the job of a 1 ton is less effecient.

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yea, see i've heard the exact opposite. having your a/c run non stop will cause the unit to fail quicker and also uses a bunch more power. seems more logical to me. why would i want to undersize my a/c so that it has to work all of the time? doesn't make any sense to me. i'll ask around and see what i come up with. ijust know that everything i have read says it shouldn't run non stop.

Never said under size, I said properly sized. The reason is the amount of time it takes for that compressor to "Charge" the system every time it cycles. It is more effecient to have a proper size wich runs 70-80% of the time than a cycleing unit. I also believe the lower cycleing also increases the MTBF not decreases. If your AC is running 50% of the time, how do you control your RH the rest of the time?

budleydoright said:

Never said under size, I said properly sized. The reason is the amount of time it takes for that compressor to "Charge" the system every time it cycles. It is more effecient to have a proper size wich runs 70-80% of the time than a cycleing unit. I also believe the lower cycleing also increases the MTBF not decreases. If your AC is running 50% of the time, how do you control your RH the rest of the time?

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if your a/c is running enough to cool the air in the room by passing it over the coils then it is running enough to keep the humidity in check. i've never had a problem before. a/c runs about 65% of the time with lights on and a lot less with them off. never needed a humidifier for daylight cycles. any a/c is going to require a dehumidifier for the dark cycle when it does not run near as much. i don't care how you size it.

For what it's worth, I've had a 5k BTU a/c cooling 2k watts 24 hours a day for 3 years. I keep it set @ 72 and my room never climbs above 78. If I'm going into winter time I'll put a heater in the room and set it @ 68 and make them battle. I feel like emailing Zenith and telling them I love them.

Grow Safe!


EDIT: I'm currently running 2k watts and an additional 600w vertical bulb (bare) and am maxing out @ 83 when it's over 90 outside. I run co2 so not really a problem. I just clicked on that link for the BTU calculator and they're suggesting over 25k BTU for my room...

slump said:

For what it's worth, I've had a 5k BTU a/c cooling 2k watts 24 hours a day for 3 years. I keep it set @ 72 and my room never climbs above 78. If I'm going into winter time I'll put a heater in the room and set it @ 68 and make them battle. I feel like emailing Zenith and telling them I love them.

Grow Safe!

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lol, email zenith and tell them you love them? too funny man.

adding a heater is about the same as adding a dehuey. works great and is easier to control.

Here's the poop from energystar.gov:

Properly Sized Room Air Conditioners

Many people buy an air conditioner that is too large, thinking it will provide better cooling. However, an oversized air conditioner is actually less effective — and wastes energy at the same time. Air conditioners remove both heat and humidity from the air. If the unit is too large, it will cool the room quickly, but only remove some of the humidity. This leaves the room with a damp, clammy feeling. A properly sized unit will remove humidity effectively as it cools.

Here's some good reading on the subject: http://www.proctoreng.com/articles/bigger.html

they explain a perfectly sized air conditioner as one that runs 100% of the time as being the most effecient.

No problems with frost buildup? A lot of ACs require a defrost cycle or the rad gets blocked with frost...