Temp and humidity

[Mollisol]

Trying to keep temp and humidity in the proper range is driving me nuts!

I'm constantly having to fiddle around with the tent.

I need to invest in some kind of automation. It's just so expensive!

Last night I turned the exhaust fan off during the dark period in an attempt to keep it warmer. I checked this morning temp was 57 degrees and humidity had climbed to 96% !.

After a brief panic attack, I opened the tent and kicked the fan on. Finally with the top of tent partially unzipped and fan set to one. I'm stable at 72 degrees and humidity at 50%.

[Pyrokill]

Look up ink bird on Amazon. It may or may not work for you but it's helped me out for my grows. Seems the price went up but see if this link works.

https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Temperature-Controller-Pre-Wired-Thermostat/dp/B07GQWY9HM/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?crid=2LYWY16ZIE3E3&keywords=inkbird+temperature+controller&qid=1706895940&sprefix=inkbird%2Caps%2C173&sr=8-13

[Orggrwr]

The AC Infinity controller 69 has good automated environmental controls if you can figure out how to program it. I'm still working on that part. This tech stuff is a challenge for us old hippies.

[12HourPower]

If you want simple humidity control without temperature, the inkbird IHC200 has worked well for my 6x6 closet. It's about $20 less than the one with temperature control, and is user friendly to set.

[Rootsruler]

I'll second the vote for the AC Infinity controller. I have the old model Controller 67 but I want to upgrade to the Controller 69.

Using a controller will make your life much easier and you'll be able to track the conditions in your space more accurately with the data you are provided.

Mollisol - If you're down for picking up a controller I'll sell you my controller 67 cheap. I've been wanting to upgrade to the controller 69 as it allows me to connect my ACI humidifier to it and automate that too. If not, now worries as my plan has been to upgrade to the 69 and use the 67 controller to run the 2 x 2's.

[ezmaarc]

I’m an AC Infinity fan boy! Love my 69! Wifi all the way IMO.

[12HourPower]

That screenshot sold me. I'm a sucker for graphs and charts. Do you have to be on your home network to check the status, or does it work anywhere?

[ezmaarc]

Control and monitor your babies from anywhere, any time

[Going2fast]

All of the above. The ac infinity controller even the older one like I have is so simple. Yes slightly expensive but quiet and reliable.

[Radeon]

Another vote for AC Infinity. Love it. Well worth the cash. Makes it so easy to correct problems.

[ezmaarc]

…well that is if you have cell service or wifi.
It could use a few improvements, but it pretty amazing as-is.
Here’s another few screenshots when scrolling down on the graph, and one of exported csv file. Geeky cool shtuff! Mine has 4 ports to control and monitor, which enough for me. But I think they have higher capacity versions. Their price is reasonable for what you get IMO

[12HourPower]

Hahaha yes of course, with cell data or wifi.

Graphs, charts, AND tables?! Hallelujah. Sure would be nice to see how stable my temp and VPD is. I hate having to use the AC thermostat and DH settings.

[Bluey]

Controlling a tent there are quite a few automated systems out there that work and that can be applied to an entire room.

When you seal the room and push temps down with an airconditioner things get kind of wacky with the humidity. Doing it this way you can control temps very easily in a tight range, plus or minus 1⁰F if you want, but humidity is harder to nail unless using a lung room. But it is not necessary to nail the humidity for optimum growth, which Ill explain later.

With a humidifier in early veg and the AC running I can keep humidity in the 60% to 72% range averaging 70%. It'll drop to 60 briefly, but maybe for 30 seconds in a 1 hour period. No issues for the plants caused by this. An AC also lowers the humidity quite a bit so your fighting that with the humidifier.

Later in flower when i have to run a dehumidifier mid flower the best I can get is about +/- 5%RH when trying to keep a 55%RH. In later flower that range tightens up once below 50% and if buds are quite large and dense Ill try and hold 40%RH in the last couple of weeks and RH doesn't move much at all...maybe +/- 2%.

The dehumidifier pushes up temps also.

I was worried the swings in humidity may impact bud yields but no, they thrived. And the VPD will stay steady as the lowest RH is always at the end of the AC cycle so temps are lowest and the peaks of humidity, the highs, occur just before the AC starts so temps then are highest..which maintains a very stable VPD right smack middle where it needs to be.

im using an automation system I put together myself using really cheap WiFi humidity and temp sensors ( these need calibration at least once a week as they are shit and drift a lot) and wifi controllable power outlets to control all the equipment. The hardest part is you need to closely monitor the room with logging software and change the set points for the automation to kick in based on the logs. Using the logs to set the set points works well because that allows fir sensor lag and motor start up delays etc.. If you don't log the environment it's really hard to get it where it needs to be.

The indoor growers in climates of ultra low ambient humidity really need to seal the room as if running a CO² system to get humidity into range especially in early growth...or fill the entire room with plants and damp medium but a bit unpredictable.

[12HourPower]

Your explanation of the temp/RH cycle of the AC makes perfect sense to me. I see how it would balance itself out like you said. I still want to log it to see how stable it is. I essentially calibrated the AC thermostat to a bulb thermometer 🌡️ which is probably the most accurate temp meter I have. When the AC thermostat says 77°F the tent reaches 74-75°F. Still trusting the DH humidistat for now. They are right next to each other, but the AC thermostat is taped up away to the side so the DH doesn't blow warm air on it.

I only put the AC in because the DH raised temps over 81°F, which I wasn't expecting due to inexperience, but after thinking about how they work, it's thermodynamically sensible behavior for a machine. In the AC the exhaust heat from the condenser coils flows outside, but in a DH it doesn't have anywhere to go except back into the room. Seems obvious now.

Bluey are you building using raspberry pi or Arduino based sensors? I'm interested in how you are doing this DIY automation.

[Bluey]

They are all Tuya based it appears, but some are 'locked' in an attempt to lock you into a certain brand or proprietary software or a subscription. Some of my early sensors were not and were Bluetooth which required a hub. I got rid of those and the hub and now everything is wifi with direct router connection. It's a bit more reliable.

Getting around this proprietary crap is easy as long as they are Google Home or Alexa compatible. Everything runs on mains power apart from my non-wifi temp and humidity sensors that I use to calibrate the connected sensors.

If you want to log all your data on your LAN rather than somewhere in the cloud you'll need a server and you can do that many different ways. I use a NAS.

The automation is not 100% reliable. Very occasionally a set point or trigger, etc. will fail to operate but you can often set safety parameters on the appliance to remain in a safe range, eg. the thermostat on a heater or AC, or set further set points just out of range as a safety measure. Additionally I can set my power outlets to fail safely in the event of a power failure, eg. you can set the power outlet of a water pump in a tank to resume operation in the 'Off' position on the resupply of power. Flooding the place is not an option. You can do this with everything and have it resume in different settings.

[12HourPower]

Mollisol did you end up getting a controller?

[Mollisol]

I have not. Since that brutal cold snap ended, things have stabilized.

Temperature is holding around 70F. And RH 45-50%

I have a large dehumidifier in the basement that is set to maintain an RH of 50%. So that helps too.

[Radeon]

Yes! I had humidity problems when that cold snap hit. Lasted about a week. -45 below and not much moisture in the air. Only thing I could do was water em as much as I could to keep humidity up. Didn't open tent unless necessary. Kept door closed to room. Now, no issue at all. According to my AC Infinity app, I'm at 67f, 49% rh, and 1.12 kpa.

[Mollisol]

Yeah, during that cold snap. Low humidity was my problem. I bought a 6 liter humidifier and that helped alot. It's not an AC Infinity brand so the ACI controller would not control it.

I've since removed it from the tent, as it's not needed now.

[Radeon]

I tried to get the humidifier for my tent and both models were out of stock on the whole www.. I couldn't find 1 anywhere. Even on the AC Infinity site. I guess everyone was snagging them. I don't need it now cause spring is approaching but next year I'll be a little more prepared. First ever grow during winter.