I just bought one of these used for $100 off of craigslist.com its an AMCOR AF 9000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner AC Nano Tech seems to work... ok i guess.- it gets in the high 90's and sometimes it feels like its more than 100 degrees here where im from so i really needed it. i dont run CO2 though.. should i? im workin with a closet and my last two grow attempts went bad because the plants dried up before i got back from work...and i watered them every morning..=/ the ac i bought has only one hose. im scared to run the 400 hps until they REALLY need it (because it gets so hot!) so i have a couple of t'5s for just three plants. i dont want to germinate more seeds if theyre just gonna dry up.. =[
CO2 does help with getting good yield but its not all that cheap if you look at the long run(I'm talking about bottles and a regulator), I refill my bottle every other week or so . I have a fairly small area(7x5x7) and run the reg on 1. As far as the single hose AC you'll get odor in the exhaust, single hose uses some room air to pull over and cool the coil, this air is then exhausted and anything in the room air exhausted with it(such as co2 and odor). You can convert your single hose to dual, theres two intakes on the unit more than likely, these hopefully are separated (my lg seems to not be separated, to check which one is air to cool the coil(its more than likely the one on the side, the one on the back will be return air) just close off one of these openings and if cold air coming out of the unit stops you know thats not the right one and its the other one you'll wanna duct. I can't find the link but I saw one guy who made a box out off plywood and cut a round hole in it and then ran flex to that . I work in a hvac sheet metal shop and have a different idea which would be a square to round fitting with a flange so I can just gasket and screw(watch screwing anything to the side of an ac, theres coils inside and if you puncture one its pretty much over) it to the side of the unit and run flex. So basically all your doing is making it so it draws air to cool the coil from a different area. The return will remain like it is . my problem is the return and the air used to cool the coil are both pulling the same air, they aren't separated (but they will be, duct tape is wonderful). As I said though, with a single hose unit you'll pump room air and whatever is in that air out of the room , odor and all). I've never really grown from seeds so I'm not sure but seedlings want to be in a really humid and warm environment from what I've read , the ac cools and dries air . another thing I forgot to mention about co2 is the ability to run higher room temps , into the 90s if you have to. Now about the 400 watt hps, it sounds like you're just starting and have seedlings, an hps light is actually meant for flower. You want a metal halide for veg (although I've read hps for veg does work its not the right spectrum of light). good luck and happy growing.
