HIGH TEMPS need some advice from Veteran growers!!

Ok so this 115 shit has got my very under-insulated closet/room going haywire. My 5000btu cooler is only able to keep me at 95 during the hottest part of the day. I am 2 1/2 weeks from harvest, I have some CO2 supplement from one of those "bag of shrooms" . I'm sure that it aint 1500 but it helps. It stays 85-95 for 2-3 hours a day lights on at 3pm so from 4 to about 7 its hot. There is nothing I can do currently to bring these temps lower for this time, what I want is ya'll to give me an idea of how badly this is going to affect me in 2 1/2 weeks? Everything looks spot on healthy and any of my pre-culled samples have been right in line with expected potency and density. I Have been watering more frequently IE not letting the coco get as dry before feeding/watering. How sunk is the ship? Usually this is not an issue as it is usually not this fucking hot in this part of AZ.

I know how you feel! I'm running an 8k BTU but its on the west facing wall. So just like you 4-6pm my AC can't handle the heat and room goes up to 80+* with lights off!( AC set for 75.) I'd maybe reccomend trying to vent the exhaust from the AC better. Maybe even assisting with a cheap inline fan for a bit. You can get them at Lowes for under $50. Also raising your lights will help with heat. 85*+ heat is going to kill the growth rate and yeild of your plants especially if they haven't swelled yet. You could be facing airy and whimsy buds. Shitty situation..

Long term, sounds like may need to invest in a bigger AC or change flower times to start later in the evening. 7PM+ If life allows that. haha. Plus it can help with electric costs overall.

Goodluck with whatever you do. I know how stressful this situation can be.

Easy fix...

Lights on at 8pm to 8am


Just my 2 cents!

I mean, it's obviously not optimal, but if it's only 2 weeks away, and only 3 hours at a time, you should at least make it to harvest.

Might reduce yield, I've never had that situation though, so couldn't say for sure.

^that's probably how I would've ran my lights. I don't think it would wise to make such a drastic shift all at once though, just 2 weeks from harvest. I could be wrong about that but I would imagine that could cause a lot of stress. If anything I would at least try and do it gradually by shifting it back 1 hour per day or less, but I know you don't have time for that either as it's 115 NOW. I think the best thing to do right now, since you say it's underinsulated, is to improve the insulation. That can make a huge difference by itself, and if that's not enough then I guess the only solution that doesn't involve fucking with your plants light schedule would be to upgrade the a/c unit

i have a super under insulated room i just put an 18,000 btu (for 3k of lights) in right now i still have dry wall residue on my hands.i'll let you know if it works. ganna run the lights on at night. but i also run digital ballast so i can turn down the lights save a shit a shit ton a heat. i know your house isnt in the 90's try and pump some of that cooler air into the grow room to help out that ac. what size light ? what size room? are you exhausting or sealed ?

I'd still switch to a later start up on light hours. It'd be better to give them more dark hours than light hours when ever decide to do it. It'd switch NOW.

More details on the room would help..

Inline fan CFMs?
Watts in room?
Carbon filter CFMs?
Ducting size? (6 or 8 or 10)
Ballast in room? (Magnet or Digi)

More info never hurts....

do what plant manbe said thats your best option. i do that anyway on the last part of flower along with dimming the lights.

ya and next time switch your hours and maybe your srp time of use plan so its cheaper after 8pm i flower 9pm to 9am and my veg room is 6pm to 12 pm

air cool ur lights/hoods... then ur a.c. should be able to cool it down better... also run ur lights from late night to early morning.. will be cheaper this way also..

I feel you friend! I live here too. Southern AZ. It's brutal right now. I go 6pm to 6am. I was up to 85-90 degrees in there with just the main ac in the house. I switched from a 250 to a 400w and the plants HATED me for it. Leaves started to canoe downward, some buds died and dried out. The suckers were CRISP when I harvested. Resin production suffered since the queens were stressed. There at the end, I couldn't water them often enough. 2 days was too little, everyday was too much. Eye! Shut down the operation until I could solve the heat problem.
Went to sog and got a 12000btu unit this week. Not set up, but I can't see investing so much to have a nice product and then it coming out like crap. So I bit it and threw the money down.
Keep us posted.
PS People that don't live here joke about the dry heat, but it isn't funny. It's a killer. Heat kills more people than any other natural event (tornados, earthquakes, forest fires, mud slides, hurricanes, solar flares, chubacabra). When we moved here, I stepped off the plane and got hit in the face with the heat here. Thought I was gonna die! I couldn't breath it was so hot. Imagine a happy little leafy plant.

Just be care you don't go too crazy with intake's out takes / btu units etc. If you are controlling heat / canopy height a 5k btu should be plenty for your grow, the 12k can do a couple lights for sure. Next thing you know your 400 w grow is gonna make your entire electric bill spike a couple hundred bucks because you are sucking all the cool air out of your house constantly and making your House A/C work overtime. I usually budget a little into a grow room a/c that is suitable for cooling the lights / ambient heat so I don't have to worry about the house a/c.

More info as requested:

8x8 Room (Storage room/shed) is located on a well shaded S. side of the house, big ass hill with 50 year old Hackberry trees shading the house. The room has 0 insulation beyond the 1/2 in thick foam that I put up as a reflective. Imagine if you will hollow walls with foam instead of drywall. I know you are all thinking right now "Of course its hot dumbass" well 2 things there. 1) I did not think that part through when I built the damned thing and I was in a rush, 2) NORMALLY it is not a problem but it has been WAY hotter than normal around here the last week or so. No central AC to feed to the room, house runs on swamp and window units.

5500btu "window" unit through the wall vents outdoors
2x 400w HPS 1 digital + 1 magnetic 1st hood is a 6" cooltube inside a hood the other is a 'all in 1' with 4" vents built in
4x 85w (actual watts) CFL + 4x 23w (actual) CFL

Inside room is sectioned into 2 4x4 closet/tents 1 veg 1 flower. room is "sort of" sealed. in cooler months I vent in outside air instead of using the AC.


So here is what I did yesterday:
I ran some 4" insulated duct from an outside vent, to the 6" cooltube, to the all in 1, to a 400cfm fan, to outside. Fan is on the same thermo loop as the AC now and as of last night 7pm inside temp was 80degrees. I will check it today at 4 and keep my fingers crossed.

NOTE: when I refer to temps I am measuring at the canopy only, not room temps.

PS: I know this set up is less than ideal, in fact I am constructing a 8x12 and upgrading the lights a little in my garage so that this is the last time I have to use the 'Super Hot Room Of Suck" but alas I must finish these last couple weeks where they are