Will insulating a drop ceiling help a mini split.

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Apalchen

Well-Known Member
I have two rooms, in each room I have 6 gavita 1000w de. I also have a generic 3 ton mini split in each room. If I run my lights at 1000 they keep the temps in below 82. If I try to run at 1150 they shoot up to 84-85 degrees.

My building is insulated very well, but I have a drop ceiling on the bottom of my trusses, that I didn’t insulate(roof of building has spray foam insulation’s as well as all exterior walls). I was thinking maybe insulating that drop ceiling will help the mini splits perform a little better. I really like to run at 1150. But I’m not really sure it’s gonna help and don’t want to waste my time Messing with fiberglass if it won’t help. Reason I’m not sure it will help is that even when my attic is cold I still have trouble getting to 82 when at 1150.

Also do plants add heat to a room, dehuey is barely on, but I swear my new ac worked a lot better when the rooms was empty.
 
xox

xox

Well-Known Member
thats a tough one with no photos or dimensions. i doubt insulating above the drop ceiling will do much unless there is a very large space between the drop ceiling and your existing spray foam. see the split is cooling all the air above your drop ceiling if that happens to be a very large space there could be some benefits to shrinking the area your splits are trying to cool essentially shrinking the insulated space by lowering the ceiling. even then the benefits could be negligible if its not alot of cu.ft above the drop ceiling. should do a cost comparison adding another small mini split vs insulation. i dont know how large your space is either just my thoughts.
 
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Apalchen

Well-Known Member
xox said:
thats a tough one with no photos or dimensions. i doubt insulating above the drop ceiling will do much unless there is a very large space between the drop ceiling and your existing spray foam. see the split is cooling all the air above your drop ceiling if that happens to be a very large space there could be some benefits to shrinking the area your splits are trying to cool essentially shrinking the insulated space by lowering the ceiling. even then the benefits could be negligible if its not alot of cu.ft above the drop ceiling. should do a cost comparison adding another small mini split vs insulation. i dont know how large your space is either just my thoughts.
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Yeah my rooms are 12x24, and I can grab a dual head s split with 2x18k heads for 2600 or so. That should allow me to add a couple more lights to each room and cover the lil bit of extra I need I think. So as far as cost goes it might be bit more up front but would pay off more in the long run to add another split.

It’s legal here but still concerned about appearances and I already got 2 - 3 ton splits outside my building, might need to build a fence or something to hide more units, still need one for my veg and water/storage area too. I got by fan cooling last year but some days were quite hot in veg.
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Oh and forgot to mention the new ac might be working better than I thought, I had hooked it up to my trolmaster controller and apparently had programmed something wrong I unhooked and controlled with remote and was able to hold 78-80 at the canopy.

I think I’ll have to play with that trolmaster AC controller for a bit and see but might see if they take it back and just set up a WiFi schedule for the ac.
 
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Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Herb & Suds said:
I worked on a couple large grows in commercial buildings with rubber roofs
We had to run sprinklers on the roof to keep heat down
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It took forever to get my ac last year, the days were warm and that was my lights out, I was able to lower the temp a few degrees spraying the building with a water hose, lol. The nights were cool enough to air cool until I got the unit. Dark siding really absorbs a lot of heat.
 
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newbplantgrower420

Well-Known Member
no plants dont add heat in the rm. only thing i can think of is them releasing humidity then dehumidifier kicking on and releasing heat.

im sure ur dehumi works quite a bit espc late in flower when theyre releasing a bunch of humidity even during lights on.

i just swapped all my DE HPS for 10 650w LEDs and I was hoping my 1 3 ton split would hold it all under control but it struggles so I have to use the other 3 ton split too. we're both at over 6500w of lighting if u crank it up to 1150 on ur 6 lights. i guess thats the limit on these splits idk... im pretty well insulated too.
 
redi jedi

redi jedi

Well-Known Member
Apalchen said:
Oh and forgot to mention the new ac might be working better than I thought, I had hooked it up to my trolmaster controller and apparently had programmed something wrong I unhooked and controlled with remote and was able to hold 78-80 at the canopy.

I think I’ll have to play with that trolmaster AC controller for a bit and see but might see if they take it back and just set up a WiFi schedule for the ac.
Click to expand...
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
newbplantgrower420 said:
no plants dont add heat in the rm. only thing i can think of is them releasing humidity then dehumidifier kicking on and releasing heat.

im sure ur dehumi works quite a bit espc late in flower when theyre releasing a bunch of humidity even during lights on.

i just swapped all my DE HPS for 10 650w LEDs and I was hoping my 1 3 ton split would hold it all under control but it struggles so I have to use the other 3 ton split too. we're both at over 6500w of lighting if u crank it up to 1150 on ur 6 lights. i guess thats the limit on these splits idk... im pretty well insulated too.
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I was at the store today eyeing some loriflux fixtures, thinking I could prob cool 8-10 with my unit. So that’s good to know it’s not quite 10.

yeah in late flower I’m usually running 3 70 pint dehuey and just had to add another 50 pint with those in my room that’s further along, if I can finish this run it’s gonna be a good one. One of my biggest runs to date, just a lot of plant mass for the equipment I have. I think the extra dehuey will bring me thru to the end. Looking at some quest units, hopefully soon.
3F231FAA-FDCB-43AE-9877-C2B733B1F511.jpegDC477C4B-8A9B-4E8A-9814-F99FF581EB78.jpeg
redi jedi said:
What make are your splits?
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The first unit I bought was a mr cool 3 ton diy. I got it last year and it works well, does run a little hot if running all 6 lights at 1150. But keeps me under 84, and at 1000 watts I can set it wherever and it keeps up. I like the unit, I hate the distributor and also mr cool employees couldn’t answer some fairl simple tech questions on the phone.

So my most recent purchase is a klimaire diy 3 ton unit. Still trying to figure out what temps it’s holding it seems to have a bit more power than the mr cool but I can’t say for sure yet. The company is nice to work with as well they actually answer the phone without holding for hours. I think my issues yesterday were from having some setting messed up in the trolmaster ARS 1 mini split controller.
 
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Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Star Dog said:
Plants in a room do make a difference to temperatures, check out thermal mass.

Very nice grow, falling over isn't a bad problem to have!
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I haven’t come up with a solution to trellis where the isles are, I would come down and hook first and second trellis together with another piece, but I do a good bit of defoliating by reaching way back in from the isle. So thinking it would be in the way. My isles seem to get smaller and smaller the more dialed in I get this room. Lol.
 
downhill21

downhill21

Well-Known Member
Apalchen said:
I was at the store today eyeing some loriflux fixtures, thinking I could prob cool 8-10 with my unit. So that’s good to know it’s not quite 10.

yeah in late flower I’m usually running 3 70 pint dehuey and just had to add another 50 pint with those in my room that’s further along, if I can finish this run it’s gonna be a good one. One of my biggest runs to date, just a lot of plant mass for the equipment I have. I think the extra dehuey will bring me thru to the end. Looking at some quest units, hopefully soon.
View attachment 4877158View attachment 4877159

The first unit I bought was a mr cool 3 ton diy. I got it last year and it works well, does run a little hot if running all 6 lights at 1150. But keeps me under 84, and at 1000 watts I can set it wherever and it keeps up. I like the unit, I hate the distributor and also mr cool employees couldn’t answer some fairl simple tech questions on the phone.

So my most recent purchase is a klimaire diy 3 ton unit. Still trying to figure out what temps it’s holding it seems to have a bit more power than the mr cool but I can’t say for sure yet. The company is nice to work with as well they actually answer the phone without holding for hours. I think my issues yesterday were from having some setting messed up in the trolmaster ARS 1 mini split controller.
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Just, WOW!
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
downhill21 said:
Just, WOW!
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Run from the pictures is over now, 18.7# from 6 lights. But I’ve had better runs out of that room. Replacing bulbs before sending next ones to flower, and got a mono crop of my favorite (modified mints -sin city) up next and she throws down, hoping to be back up over 20 out of this room. The new room with the klimaire mini split is looking insane, but it’s a mixed strain run so the canopy is uneven af. I tried hard to keep it even just wasn’t happening. And I believe I overvegged a bit so on my 21 day strip im gonna have to go hard.

can’t really tell cause the picture is taken through my method seven glasses but I replaced the 4 bulbs in the front as they were getting old with the new hortilux ceramic hps. It’s a much whiter spectrum visually, not sure what it’s gonna do couldn’t find many reviews and I didn’t get them in til like day 12 or 13 of flower. The two bulbs in the back are regular de hps as they didn’t need replaced yet. I love cmh so hopefully this is a good mix of the two. If not I’ll go with Phillips de hps bulbs which is what’s going in my other room.

Got modified mints, animal cookies, trop banana clones in here, and a couple I can’t remember off top
Of my head. And I also have some from seed. 3 bluntz from sin city, G code by Raw genetics and white peach Bellini by Raw genetics.

on another note and I really never thought it would be an issue but I wish my wife would quit buying starting more seeds, I’m tired of mixed runs and have plenty of keepers to run.

0537FB7D-6388-4983-A85A-6B180D519312.jpeg
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Apalchen said:
on another note and I really never thought it would be an issue but I wish my wife would quit buying starting more seeds, I’m tired of mixed runs and have plenty of keepers to run.
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Not really, I love new stuff, but it does make my job harder. Besides we just picked up some Mac v2 seeds the other day. My problem is I’d just save em all for later, but next thing I know she got em started and I gotta fit em into my runs lol.
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
Digger47 said:
Looks like a plywood ceiling. I'd blow a bunch of insulation on top of the ceiling.
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Yeah I’m still thinking about it. Problem is with multiple rooms going the building is never empty. If it was empty for a few days I’d have the drop ceiling and the interior wall as spray foamed like I did the the exterior walls.
 
downhill21

downhill21

Well-Known Member
Apalchen said:
Run from the pictures is over now, 18.7# from 6 lights. But I’ve had better runs out of that room. Replacing bulbs before sending next ones to flower, and got a mono crop of my favorite (modified mints -sin city) up next and she throws down, hoping to be back up over 20 out of this room. The new room with the klimaire mini split is looking insane, but it’s a mixed strain run so the canopy is uneven af. I tried hard to keep it even just wasn’t happening. And I believe I overvegged a bit so on my 21 day strip im gonna have to go hard.

can’t really tell cause the picture is taken through my method seven glasses but I replaced the 4 bulbs in the front as they were getting old with the new hortilux ceramic hps. It’s a much whiter spectrum visually, not sure what it’s gonna do couldn’t find many reviews and I didn’t get them in til like day 12 or 13 of flower. The two bulbs in the back are regular de hps as they didn’t need replaced yet. I love cmh so hopefully this is a good mix of the two. If not I’ll go with Phillips de hps bulbs which is what’s going in my other room.

Got modified mints, animal cookies, trop banana clones in here, and a couple I can’t remember off top
Of my head. And I also have some from seed. 3 bluntz from sin city, G code by Raw genetics and white peach Bellini by Raw genetics.

on another note and I really never thought it would be an issue but I wish my wife would quit buying starting more seeds, I’m tired of mixed runs and have plenty of keepers to run.

View attachment 4907271
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That’s good stuff! The room is so clean in design & the canopy in the photo is gorgeous.

What info you keep in the clear plastic box on the pole? Strain?
 
A

Apalchen

Well-Known Member
downhill21 said:
That’s good stuff! The room is so clean in design & the canopy in the photo is gorgeous.

What info you keep in the clear plastic box on the pole? Strain?
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That is a prokure slow release pack. Basically it slowly releases some sort of chlorine gas. Supposed to help keep the air clean from mold spores and such. So far they seem to be working good. I use fast release packs in between runs for cleaning the room and their liquid spray for cleaning in between as well. This one is supposed to be safe with plants in the room, saw videos on YouTube of some big grow using them. I got rid of my pm before using these so I can’t say if they will get rid of pm, but I haven’t seen any come back and like to try and prevent it.

thanks for saying that about my room, it was my first big build out and I’d probably do a few things different construction wise, but I’m not a good carpenter at all, I just did it myself cause I couldn’t afford to pay anyone to do it after just buying a house and moving. Did have help from 1 friend but he not a carpenter either,lol.

Digger47 said:
No access from outside the room?
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Yeah it could be done I’m a little paranoid that I’d have missed sealing somewhere and it creates so much mist in the air while being sprayed, that if I did miss somewhere it could get on my plants. Maybe the blown in would be better cause it’s just made from paper right?
I couldn’t imagine the guys that do that spray foam for a living not having health issues. Yes he wore a respirator once it got bad(could barely see 10 feet so foggy in there). But I’m sure over time they breath a ton of that stuff in.
 
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