portable A/c users, how do you have it set up?

looking to pull the trigger on a portable a/c unit for the flower tent. I ran a duct from my current house vent, but don't always have the house ac on. so thinking of buying a portable a/c unit. its a haier unit from home depot http://www.homedepot.com/p/Haier-8-000-BTU-portable-AC-CPRB08XCJ/202675402?keyword=8000btu+portable+ac+unit#.Ud86VBbD85s mainly cause its pulls 6.3 amps, which is the lowest ive seen. this will be for a 4x4x7 tent. ill duct the vent of the unit and route that to my tent fan intake. then run the exhaust to a new exhaust tube I did this weekend. theres absolutely no room in my tent, so that's the reason why id like to run outside the tent.

so looking for ideas on you on guys have your set up.

thanks everyone

i did something similar, it worked but the portable ac units aren't too powerful for long.

I have some of the portable ac units dont use them much I never have heat issues really in my tents even with me running open hoods no hood ducting or glass. I have used them in hot places and I used a thin sheet of sheet metal formed a kind of mask that fit over the cool air vent which I then connected a duct mount with a cheap inline fan from homedepot then ran the flex duct to the top hold in the tent. Turn the unit on flip the inline fan on and it sucked the cool air right from the unit through the flex duct and into the tent. Then a fan down low blowing up helps blow the heavier cool air back up as it falls.

ghb said:

i did something similar, it worked but the portable ac units aren't too powerful for long.

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did it not last that long? or was the output not that great? im running 81* with a cool tube. id like it to be below 79* in flower.

DemonTrich said:

did it not last that long? or was the output not that great? im running 81* with a cool tube. id like it to be below 79* in flower.

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i used it for 1 month constantly then it kind of lost all cooling abiity, you can get them re-gassed i think.it served a purpose i suppose

cool thanks for the heads up. I normally buy the ext warranty on items like this.

I use one... pics of it vented out a cellar window in my case.

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/690531-first-time-grower-results-discussion.html

If you get one from say Home Depot... buy the warranty as these will lose full power in about six months running with lights 12/12.

You can easily get it replaced for free more than once if you do this... worth it over the more expensive models sold in grow shops and more than worth it if you don't need more than 10-12k BTU for your space.

I came across the same problem with having my ac unit connect outside as well.... what I did ( and it works great), is take a garbage bag and tape the open side to the vent of the ac ( where the cool air comes out only) and cut a hole, (around 5-6 inches) depending on your ducting. then slide some ducting into the side of the trash bag (where you just cut the hole) and tape around it.Then run the ducting into the tent.... wallaaaaa you have a ghetto/very cheap and effective way of pushing ac from the outside to the inside. Its nice because you can control all of the settings without having to disturb your crop. Hope this helps!

ok guys, ive narrowed it down to 2 choices. a haijer 8000btu 6.4amp ac/dehumidity/fan unit, or an LG 10000 btu 8.6amp ac/dehum/fan combo. the haijer is 299, the LG is 264 or 299 I forgot. my main issue with the portable ac units are the timers. you have to set the timer like a count down timer, not an on/off programmable timer. so in my case my flower light time is 7pm to 7am. which means I have to go down there every day at 7pm (well at 6:30) and manually set a timer every day. has anyone figured out a programmable timer that I can set once and have it come one and off at a designated time so I don't have to do it daily? my plants are loving the ac im routing from the basement register. im getting 77* lights on and 73 lights off. 4* difference is great.

I plug mine right into a two plug timer with the environmental controller for the HPS lights and it goes on and off with the lights.

I know the 2 units have an auto restart function, like when the power goes out, the unit will restart on its original cycle. is this kinda what your ac unit is doing with the timer? I have my ac tube fan to come on/off with the light cycle, so both the timer outlets are taken. I have no problem buying another 25.00 timer. shit im already well over 3500 into my grow already. I was hoping for a programmable ac unit. it would be nice to run the ac ffrom light on to lights off, then dehumidifier from lights off to lights on.

Loving the ghetto garbage bag idea. A/Cs are good for dropping a couple of degrees if you blast the room where your tent is, dropping ambient temp, but you need to directly pump it into the tent to get any sort of decent drop. Just remember not to have it blasting directly on your plants. Remember to exhaust the A/C properly if it is portable, some come with a window adapter for a fishtail duct to clip into, these are good. Make sure it doesnt slip from your window back into your room otherwise you will just blast hot and cold air everywhere and increase temps.

I have mine plug into a regular timer it works great but the ac itself is a 9000btu im running a 1000 watt and when the outside temps r 90 its everything that ac can do to keep my temps down , but you know what now that i think about the first time i used it i was working with 2 1000watts and it worked fine but i cant remember if it was summer time, ne way if u got the money to spend get a mini split i heard they work great

WTF with these units dying in 6 months? My LG 12k btu has been running 24/7 for 3 plus years now. You buy crap, you get crap.

You can get a timer that is infrared, so that you can have things turn on or off specifically when lights are on or off. As for venting, just vent using the dryer tube stuff and then insulate that to decrease temperature of the tube heating up the room.

my biggest thing is finding a timer to come one and off when I want. I could buy another timer like my lights and ac tube fan are on. the LG 10000 unit has an auto restart when the power goes out. wondering if the timer would trip the auto restart feature of the LG. been trying to get to home depot and buy it, but working 13hr days sucks ass.

ok, got my portable a/c unit hooked up and semi-dialed in. I bought the LG 8000btu portable unit. 24hr turn on/turn off timer, high/low fan speed, dehumidifier, fan, ac modes, and has a remote. this is a great unit. was running lights on temps of 73-75* last night. im still dialing in my fans, as I can hit from 73* to 77* depending on what fan im running (5" clip vs 18" oscillating on low). im looking to buy the same timer I use for my cool tube hood fan and light setup, to use for the a/c unit and exhaust fan. im running a 6" 440cfm ventech fan to help get the ac exhaust thru the 16'+ of duct work outside. I will advise everyone NOT TO USE duct tape (yes even expensive gorilla tape) when taping duct work that has hot air. it will reactivate the glue and come apart. as I woke up this am and found mine hanging there. I have 3m hvac tape ill be using, along with hose clamps (worm clamps) for added securing factors. im hoping the light timer will turn on the unit and exhaust fan like it does for my light and hood fan. from the directions, if the ac unit is running and there is a power cut-off, once the power comes back on, the unit will resume its last operation. I hope, or else ill be manually turning it on and off which will be real crappy.

I took a 10"x6" box to 6" opening for my blower opening port and securely taped it w/the 3m hvac tape. then ran some 6" flex ducting and taped it (one 1/3 of the 8" fan opening as I still need fresh air intake when the ac unit is not running). then for the exhaust, I used to factory exhaust duct, mounted that to some 6" flex ducting to my 6" 440 cfm ventech fan, then to more 6" ducting to a 6" to 4" reducer to 4" ducting and running that out of my house to a custom exit vent from my basement (was a bish to cut a hole upside down and only having 1.5' of room to work with. but it works great.

ill also be testing my carbon scrubber once again inside the tent since I have managed to lower tent temps. I need to order another 6" 440cfm ventech fan before Im able to do so.

heres a quick pic I took last night of how mine is set up.

a good thing to look into is temperature drop at the first 3 hours of night i think uncle ben covers some of it and some other people too.

what im going for is a max of 5* from lights on and lights off. that's the "ideal" temp range for optimal growing from what ive read. I can hit 77 w/o the 18" oscillating fan on blowing the hot pocket away from under the cool tube. this is with 2 clip type fans on the hood side blowing across the hood. OR 73-75* with the 18" fan on low and the 2 clip fans on the bottom blowing from floor up thru the canopy. I actually have 3 clip fans doing this.