Heat issues.....feels like im chasing dragons.....

I have a 12x10 room with 4 1000W lights with digital ballasts mounted up high there are 2 rows of lights with two lights in each row and are ducted to each other and cooled with 6 inch fans sucking outside air and exhausting into the attic which works pretty well.

The only equipment in the room producing heat are the ballasts, the lights and a 4 burner propane co2 generator.

I recent put a wye fitting on an a/c duct in my attic and rerouted the air coming to my lights from the house a/c and I have NOT noticed a drop in temp but rather a slight increase of two degrees. I deleted the a/c vent in this room to duct the cold air through my lights.

With the burner on and the a/c's running as well as the a/c from the central system in the house I can maintain 83-86 at the plants, after rerouting the a/c vent so the 6 inch fans suck air conditioning through the hoods I have noticed a temp of 86+ at the plants and 88-90 in the room.

I have two 14,000 BTU a/c units cooling the room and they are dual hose units sucking and exhausting air from inside the attic( which works fairly well too)

What are my options to correct this? Remove the ballasts from the room?

Thanks for looking at this.

taking the ballasts out of the room will help but not enough to get those temps down. i'm confused with all the ducting talk. don't pull air from your house a/c through your hoods. when the air handler is off then you are stripping the gears on the blower fan. not good. just suck fresh air through the hoods and exhaust it into the attic. those portable a'c units are pretty inefficient. i'd look into a window a/c or minisplit. you wouldn't even need 24,000btu of cooling on one of those because they are so much more efficient. 18,000btu would be more than enough.

nuglets said:

. those portable a'c units are pretty inefficient. i'd look into a window a/c or minisplit. you wouldn't even need 24,000btu of cooling on one of those because they are so much more efficient. 18,000btu would be more than enough.

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Those dual hose AC are getting quite the bad rap for sucking alot of cooled air out of your room along with your co2. I bet a better AC would reduce the amount your burners need to run to maintain your level as well.

I run 4k open hood in an 8 x 11 x 8with water cooled co2, ballasts out and a dehuey with an 18k window unit. 2-14k units for 4k air cooled is out of control. Your paying 2x as much as you should be to cool your space. A nice effecient unit will pay for itself in no time.

Other than replacing them, I would think that sealing up the unit would be possible. I'm guessing, it is designed to draw a certain percentage of the air needed to cool the condensor from the room itself. Simply sealing the leaks may cause the unit to overheat. I would try to seal it up as well as possible and install a booster fan in the hose. Theoretically, a single 14k unit should be able to handle 4 1ks that are air cooled.

I have re done the ducting in the attic back to the old config and repaired the a/c vent in the room so it functions again. I have also turned my burner off and my temps are at a constant 75 at the plants I am at the end of my first week in flower; making the plants a total of 5 weeks old since rooted clones. Here are some pics

I have 2 gavita pro 1000s I have a 11x11 room, i cut the room in half it has a window and a door that leads to my enclosed back porch. the question i have is should i use the window AC i have or get a portable ac? what size portable would be good? also would the window ac suck out my room smells outside for all to smell? LOL. I thought i could get a portable ac and exhaust it onto my carbon filter and use my 6" fan to bring fresh air in from the window or cut a hole into my back porch door and pull air from there HELP !

I actually lowered my co2 generator closer to the intake of a/c unit and just by doing that i have lowered my room temps by 3 degrees down to 81 constant at the plants. I am going to keep my setup going like this as long as possible but by the way these monsters are growing I will have to enter the room on my hands and knees below the canopy just to water them......they are on the verge of being out of control...

Tiberium said:

I actually lowered my co2 generator closer to the intake of a/c unit and just by doing that i have lowered my room temps by 3 degrees down to 81 constant at the plants. I am going to keep my setup going like this as long as possible but by the way these monsters are growing I will have to enter the room on my hands and knees below the canopy just to water them......they are on the verge of being out of control...

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haha, that's a good thing. monster plants rcok!

Tiberium said:

I actually lowered my co2 generator closer to the intake of a/c unit and just by doing that i have lowered my room temps by 3 degrees down to 81 constant at the plants. I am going to keep my setup going like this as long as possible but by the way these monsters are growing I will have to enter the room on my hands and knees below the canopy just to water them......they are on the verge of being out of control...

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If you haven't already, getting those ballast out of there should help a lot.

coolj said:

I have 2 gavita pro 1000s I have a 11x11 room, i cut the room in half it has a window and a door that leads to my enclosed back porch. the question i have is should i use the window AC i have or get a portable ac? what size portable would be good? also would the window ac suck out my room smells outside for all to smell? LOL. I thought i could get a portable ac and exhaust it onto my carbon filter and use my 6" fan to bring fresh air in from the window or cut a hole into my back porch door and pull air from there HELP !

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A single hose portable draws air out of your room, a dual hose portable is supposed to draw air in one and blow it out the other to cool the condensor. They appear to also draw air in from the room and blow it out the exhaust hose. I would think if you restricted the air flow into your room you could reduce this while maintaining air exchange. A window AC simply recirculates indoor air. There is very little leakage between the inside and outside coil. A decent window unit is cheaper and more efficient than a portable.

It is probably more cost effective to ad Co2 and seal your room than to try and cool your air to 75 and exchange it once very few minutes. It's like driving around with the AC on high and the windows cracked an inch. You never get that refrigerated feel. If you seal your room and ad co2, you should be able to run a 12000 btu window AC unless your in phoenix or vegas!

Probably time to lollipop soon from the look of those beautiful ladies! My $.02; use multiple, high velocity inline fans to move the hot air from your space into another room or directly outside via a carbon scrubber. A/C is very energy efficient, as previously noted. Plus- I've seen some beautiful SoCal plants that were at 90 degrees plus for most of their lives- best of luck to ya

Dont suck air in from the attic, attics are huge heat traps, fresh air should be cool, not hot. Sending air from the AC duct through your fans is just blowing cool air past your lights and into the attic. Let the house ac blow into the room, just run a flexiduct down to floor level so cool air stays low till your recirculating fans mix it. let your exhaust fans suck it from high up in the room, and blow out the attic. keep that vent fan aperature as high as possible, and your recirculating fans pointed low, so CO2 doesnt get vented as much

alternately, if you can gain access to outside air (even in a super hot climate) you can close the AC vent in your room and suck in outside air saving you huge AC $$$. Even if it's balls hot outside, a swamp cooler can chill it the fuck out real good with nothing but ducting, burlap and a steady supply of water.

A 10 foot rigid metal duct (like 6" ducting vent tube, the rigid sheet metal ones, sometimes called stovepipe) lay it on a wood frame or even on a few rocks to elevate it off the dirt. It can then can be wrapped in cheap burlap sacking. Lay down a matching length of vinyl roof gutter with caps on the end filled with water, and a slow dribble from a hose bib to constantly soak the tag end of the burlap. Osmotic action draws the water into the burtlap sacking, evaporation cools the pipe, and bob's your uncle, dirt cheap hill billy air conditioning! It works best if placed in shade.

This soooo works, and when its 130 degrees outside, youll be chillin like a villain. it adds a little humidity, but not very much. I know this works, cuz i lived in an uninsulated, unfinished attic in the mojave desert for a whole summer with niothin to cool my sack than this thing and a fan.

mini split lg is a good brand