Controlling tent environment - how are you doing it?

I just recently picked up AC infinity controllers and that has made me pay attention to the environmental conditions of my tent grow much closer. Previously I just set my exhaust fan at a medium speed and ran it, day and night.

It seems having these conditions on my phone anytime I want them (while home anyway) has given me some heartburn.

4x4x8 tent, 6" exhaust, FC6500 w/ the LED driver outside the tent. 2 6" circ fans.

I'm lucky as the lung room is pretty steady, about 74degrees. I'm still working out the humidity as that does change seasonally and recently it has taken a dive but its coming back up mechanically but the past tells me It won't help overall.


What gets me is the relationship between heat, humidity and fan speed in the tent.

• lights on increases heat which ramp up the exhaust fans thus reducing humidity.
• lights off increases humidity which ramp up the exhaust fans thus lowering temps

I'm finding conditions are very rarely ideal and it seems the fans are chasing one aspect to negatively affect the other.

I've been playing with various setpoints, ramp speeds, room exhausts, ect. And really the end result is the same. High temp & low humidity or low temp & high humidity

Perhaps I'm just coming to the conclusion that tents serve a purpose but aren't really all that great due to the environmental extents.


what are others doing? what are your conditions like? Achieve nirvana yet?

I have exhaust fan and heater set to temp controllers to auto turn on and off at preset temps and time. Also have dehumidifier set 55-60 and a humidifier set at 45-50 to help keep RH in check. Seems to work alright.

I counter act everything so if I’m running my heater in the tent I set my ac temps one degree above my set heater temp so they create a safe area where neither will run as much for instance I set my heat at 81 and my ac at 82 or 83 to allow a little swing room so one doesn’t cancel out the other I also run a cool mist and warm mist humidifier the warm mist I’ve noticed does a much better job of maintaining the humidity but burns through the water much quicker but if I set one humidifier at say 65 percent and the other at a range of 60 when the warm mist humidifier uses all its water and the humidity starts to drip the cool mist humidifier will turn on and maintain a cool 60% for 24 hours which I’m usually in the room between work shifts to refill and check I keep my exhaust fan set at temps above my control devices for instance my infinity fans are set to come on at 84 degrees and 70% humidity it sounds like a lot but I’ve dialed evrything in so that they don’t work against each other and maintain an steady environment at all times I have a inlet fan that runs for five minutes every hour to produce fresh air and i run a dehumidifier outside of the room to counter act any room differences I run two hlg 650 scorpions with the drivers in the room which helps with heat also

Mr. Mohaskey said:

I have exhaust fan and heater set to temp controllers to auto turn on and off at preset temps and time. Also have dehumidifier set 55-60 and a humidifier set at 45-50 to help keep RH in check. Seems to work alright.

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You could always bring up the RH a little bit to counter act the exhaust fan sucking out too much of your humidity when it runs like I run my room between 61 and 65% RH and when my exhaust fan kicks on or my inlet fan kicks on it drops down to 60 or 61% and then gradually build back up but never really gets in the low humidity area

I see. It sounds like I could use more room control devices. I'm slowly getting into the idea of more and more electricity, devices, etc to maintain a grow. It sounds right though. I should get an ac for the room, probably wouldn't ever need a heater.

I don't see much of an issue when growing fast turnaround autos. But photos show it. I'm sure dialing in even further may boost yields but there is diminishing returns at some point. I wish I could get some solar for the daytime power demands.

@Hiphophippo how are you controlling all these devices? Do they each have setpoints that you trust or do you have a master controller and control via power outlets.

Plants can deal with a wide range of environmental fluctuations. I don't pay attention to it until late in flower when too high of humidity can lead to bud rot.

Filtered extraction, humidifier, passive intake, open windows, thermostat on an oil filled radiator set to 72F. Only kicks in at night. However I disconnected it yesterday as I am approaching mid flower. Lights on temps hover between 76-81F Avg. about 77F humidity in my climate is low 30’s. RH in the tent is 55-65% (early flower) with the help of cool mist running in the lung room (ambient 72%) If temps rise too high I can turn the fan up.. but that works against keeping my rh up in the tent.. opening the window near my passive intake does the same (reduces RH), but cools really well. So for now I open the window & ramp up the humidifier to 80%. It keeps me where I’m comfortable. I’m going to be opening windows from here on out to cool the flower tent, I will place a space heater facing the veg tent to keep those temps up.

I monitor the environment on a wireless inkbird hygrometer IBS-TH1. This is what I had this morning on the readings. (pic attached)
Window is open near my intake at this time. Notice the veg tent temps came down as well due to the open window. It’s usually 80F consistently.
I’m currently putting together a filtered/powered intake for the flower tent. Gonna seal her up as best I can. There will be pollen floating around the room I’m sure with my rookie adventures. (Won’t be on purpose) I will be running a 4” fan & filter in the room before I cross that bridge.

I have 2 of these. 1 for exhaust and 1 for heater. I can set a certain temp for certain parts of day, ie daytime/nighttime. They kick on automatically. Been working like a charm. When a power outage occurs, the settings get stored so i just have to go in, adjust time, and hit go.

I keep a dehuwey in the room the tents are in to keep RH down. I have a flower tent with 8" ac infinity with passive intake. I also have a veg tent with passive intake and 6" exhaust with a little humidifier.

Switched to LED for this grow. I can’t get my heat up and humidity down without a heater.

I just ordered a small 250 watt heater from Amazon to help. Even with my fan on high the humidity likes to creep over 60%. When I had a big heater that was working but getting too hot.

Mr. Bakerton said:

@Hiphophippo how are you controlling all these devices? Do they each have setpoints that you trust or do you have a master controller and control via power outlets.

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I have them all set individually and keep multiple hygrometers around the old dial kind and have them set up at various spots in the grow room to make sure everywhere is the same and everything is dialed in right. Me or my wife are in there multiple times a day so keeping everything in check is easy

Niwa

I use the AC Infinity to control temps with the exhaust fan,,, no need for a heater here. Humidifier in the tent with it being controlled by a Inkbird ITC-608T. Right now everything is cycling along at 79f @ 65% RH.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

I have exhaust fan and heater set to temp controllers to auto turn on and off at preset temps and time. Also have dehumidifier set 55-60 and a humidifier set at 45-50 to help keep RH in check. Seems to work alright.

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Which heater can you set temps and times on? Just bought one that said I could schedule it....I can only make it turn off or on in x hours.

I dont trust the devices sensors, and they are not usually positioned in the right spot to read. Plug the heater onto a controller. Get a better result doing so.

Edit: The picture i posted has a sensor so it will turn on and shut off the heater based on temp readings, and can be set for a day and night temp setting.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

I dont trust the devices sensors, and they are not usually positioned in the right spot to read. Plug the heater onto a controller. Get a better result doing so.

Edit: The picture i posted has a sensor so it will turn on and shut off the heater based on temp readings, and can be set for a day and night temp setting.

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Ahhh, gotcha, nice setup. My problem is I want the heater off when the lights are on (18/6). Do you program the time into it, or does it go by senseing night by darkness? With a mostly semi sealed environemnt, I need my ac to cool the exhaust air without it kicking on the heater if it gets a degree or two too cold. Gonna need an airconditioner when lights are on, and heater when they're off (basemnt room with several tents that usually hovers 65-68 /day, 62-67/ night with jumps of 5-8 degrees for a few hours when the heat goes on.). This day lungroom temp allows for me to control the tents from 76-82 with lights 75-100%, so Im looking to maintain that temp. I don't want the heater to switch on during the lights being on and get into a back and forth with my ac. May have to even turn on the heater and off the ac 30-45min before lights out so it can heat up the room a bit before I lose the heat from the lights. At least until nights get warmer here in the northeast. Think a timer is my best bet. Now I need to find an AC that fits in a tiny 20'x20' window and is somewhat programmable. I'm thinking those in-room units are inneffective and expensive

The controller has an upper and lower limit you set for a certain time period which i coordinated with the timing of the lights. So the heater only kicks on when it drops below a certain temp, and shuts off when it gets to a certain temp. Same with the exhaust, comes on when a temp is reached, and off when it gets below a set temp.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

The controller has an upper and lower limit you set for a certain time period which i coordinated with the timing of the lights. So the heater only kicks on when it drops below a certain temp, and shuts off when it gets to a certain temp. Same with the exhaust, comes on when a temp is reached, and off when it gets below a set temp.

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You got it man that gets her done