Exhausting an A/C + Small tent

Southerner

Well-Known Member
I'm a few days away from starting my first grow!

I currently have a basement that is divided down the middle with my grow room on one side and the laundry room on the other. One problem i'm seeing down the line is I won't have any sort of perpetual grow system without a separate chamber of some sort. I want to change that, but I have the larger problem of needing to cool what will be the flowering room with an a/c as I am maxing out at 81 degrees(18/6 cycle) during my test runs of the past few days and that's without plants even being in there. From what I have been told, that is bordering a temperature that will begin to stress the plants. Problem is that I need to vent the a/c safely through a carbon filter. I've sorta ruled an inline Ozone out just because I hear the smell can be quite strange in itself and they are pretty darn pricey. Will ducting a one hose portable a/c to a 4" Can fan with an inline Phresh filter and sending it out the dryer vent do the trick?

Also, I would like to hit two birds with one stone with this solution by adding in a small grow tent in the laundry room side where the A/C exhaust will be pulled through and out the vent. Would a 4" fan have enough power to exhaust both the a/c and a small grow tent using a Wye before the inline filter without having any blackflow issues? Thanks!

EDIT: The ac vent would be about 8 feet from where it needs to be vented out, the tent would be approx. same distance.
 

subzerori

Member
an a/c doesn't exhaust the inside air outside unless you have make up air found on bigger systems. the air on the outside is from the condensor fan that is cooling the refrigerant in the a/c. If it is a window shaker type a/c then you would need to silicon the outdoor vent to prevent any indoor air from going out. it would be minimal.
 

Southerner

Well-Known Member
Well that's the problem, I have no windows that I could put one of those in. I just scored a pretty nice one hose LG unit from craigslist for $120. I know the hot air is blowing from the condenser fan but in a one hose unit you are definitely going to have some stank coming out that one exhaust hose. What I was thinking, and did a poor job explaining in my first post, is trying to find out if it would it be fine to hook up a 6" CAN fan to help pull that hot air from the a/c hose and through a 6" phresh inline carbon filter. I 'm assuming that the internal a/c exhaust fan isn't going to be able to go through any sort of filter without help. Perhaps there's a more elegant solution?
 

subzerori

Member
Yes you will need a booster fan to help this out if you add a carbon filter. The exhaust fan on one of those r2d2 machines isn't strong enough for the added static pressure of a filter. You can get booster fans set up for 4 6 and 8 inch ducting and bigger if needed.
 

Castor Troy

Member
i have the same type portable ac. i got a carbon filter cloth, and covered the condensor coil with it(on the back of the machine at the bottom behind the plastic shroud. i havent had any smell issues. or you could sell that one, and buy a two hose unit and punch a hole for the intake hose
 

Southerner

Well-Known Member
I think I got it figured out. Basically going with the idea to boost the exhaust with a 6" CAN fan to be able to pull it through one of newish phresh inline carbon filters. I'm going to use the same exhaust line/filter to exhaust out of a small 2X4 veg tent that I plan on eventually adding as well. Thanks for the responses.
 

phlopalopagus

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you've got it figured out:clap: I have had almost every brand portable ac and if you don't get enough air though it it will over heat get really hot and blow a fuse and next time you check you room it will be 100 plus degrees it has happen to me many times. I like to use all 3 forms of smell control. a little ozone in the room ona gel under the ac and carbon to clean the air in the room but I have the two vent pipe kind now. Oh and I put my portable ac on a keyboard stand so it is cooling the hot air it seems to work better. Keyboard stand cost about 30 dollars but you can find one on craigslist for dirt cheap people think they are going to play keyboard and don't lol.
 
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