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Questions regarding sun heat management in garden shed

LuckyAcres

LuckyAcres

New member
Hey everyone. I grow in a shed 10'x15'x7' high. This time of the year conditions are perfect. So perfect that in the last round of 20's temps the fans were still exhausting hot air from the leds! The problem is that in the summer the roof is in direct sun at the hottest time of the day. I sort of got by last summer for my first attempt at growing but this year it's a different bizness all together! Doing it right 100%!
what I have done already.
r-13 fiberglass in all the walls, inside covered with clear visqueen doubled in places with reflective Mylar. Painted plywood on the outside.
Ceiling is covered with 1" reflective styrofoam insulation r-6 value I think.
2 exhaust fans, 6" each and 2 intakes same size.
assortment of ground fans inside
70 pints dehumidifier, I hate how warm the air comes out, other source of heat!
gravel floor covered with very thick construction vapor barrier, and I mean really thick!

ideas to help cool down the shed.
paint reflective white paint on roof shingles and walls directly hit by the sun.
purchase a/c unit, any recommendations? Will I still need the dehumidifier?
i could seal the shed to near perfection if needed be.
would I need to purchase co2 machine if using a/c?
add extra layer of styrofoam insulation to the ceiling and walls
install (a very light!!!) eco roof! Most unlikely due to weight.
spread out potted bamboo(or other tall narrow shrubs) along the west wall between shed and fence to create shade...adds extra plant maintenance and water needs.

that's where I'm at folks. Any other recommendations are welcome. If you've tried any of the above, did it work? What would you do different?
i figured I'd start my intel gathering now while things are calm.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers!
 
If it is not very humid where you grow. You could try an evaporative cooler. They work great on homes, warehouses and greenhouses in hot dry climates.
 
Believe it or not there is a few ways to cool a greenhouse, one is a "Fan Mister" and another would be water cooling, Hydro Innovations for the small growers (aka Surna for the commercial industrial side and parent company) makes a few different products, which one is called an "8-inch Ice Box Cooler" and have been being used from small growers to larger style commercial-industrial size types of set ups to cool the air; it is based on the basic concept of a car's radiator and heater core.

To really try to help you the most I recently read an article by Surna on their "Blog" on their company's website titled "Considering Your Regional Climate When Choosing Equipment for Cannabis Cultivation", it really outlined your options as they are a company who specialize in making and designing equipment specific for the cannabis industry and for cooling. Depending on where you live and what the environmental conditions are like they really open your eyes to the right cooling solutions specific for your growing environment. At the end of the day its always free to listen, look and learn... and come home to DIY it all yourself for pennies.
 
You could re circulate water from top to bottom of roof , hay just spitballing ,or put solar panels up there not just to block sun but helps u run the equipment ! Lol
 
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The ice box cooler is no go, budget, amps and space problems. Back to the drawing board.
does anyone have recommendations for a decent a/c unit?
 
Just off the top of my head, I don't know what your budget is, but did you ever think of getting a couple of tanks of spray foam insulation. If you're in the 20's degree nights, I would think for your area, for homes, the insulation code would most like be an r 21 in the walls (you're about half that) and the ceiling at least an r 30 and higher. The foam kits being advertized are running about an r 7 per inch. I would also be looking at some type of roof vent system.
 
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I've read 5000 btu's per 1000W lamp. I always get oversized appliances so they don't have to work as hard.

You can use the water from your AC and dehumidifier to water your bamboo! I like the solar panel suggestion too.
 
Thanks bob! That's the page I was looking for last night, got lost on some other tutorials! Gonna look a bit more into the diy cooler but sounds pretty involved. Roof vents are definitely a good call caveman, re insulation, my walls are 2x4's so that's all I can fit in there, and ceiling has even less space, hence the foam boards. thanks all for the input!
 
Just a thought, but if you could get a hold of an old car radiator or heater core and put a fan in front of it you can make your own ice box cooler.... as for how to cool such a unit, DIY a Chiller on YouTube, pick up a small fridge for $20-50... just encase you didn't look at the DIY aspects to save tons in how to do it.
 
Greenthumb said:
Just a thought, but if you could get a hold of an old car radiator or heater core and put a fan in front of it you can make your own ice box cooler.... as for how to cool such a unit, DIY a Chiller on YouTube, pick up a small fridge for $20-50... just encase you didn't look at the DIY aspects to save tons in how to do it.
Click to expand...

Sounds pretty cool. I'm all about diy, I'm too cheap to buy new stuff unless I have to! My main issue here is that I have literally no single amp to spare in my electrical panel. So anything that's going to require power will be a problem at the moment. Got bids for adding a secondary panel but no money for it. So...
i picked up couple of roof vents today. Will paint reflective white paint on the roof and the 2 sunny walls. Will buy portable a/c only if it allows me to replace the dehumidifier with it. I'll add an extra layer of styrofoam panels on the ceiling. And I'll go from there. Worse comes to worse a bunch of plants this summer will move outside to finish their business in the back yard under the sun!
thanks again everyone for the brainstorming and insights!
 
That is one of the things which make using chillers verses AC units so awesome, chillers use less power to do even more cooling... I mean obviously I don't know where you are eating up the amps at, but since AC and lighting both top that list usually... hence I figured it something that may work for you if not now perhaps in the future. I hope your roof vents work out for you.

Oh and encase you didn't have a chance to really dig into Chillers and water cooling yet, you can cool the air, the water (hydro) and also run the dehumidifier all off from a chiller, which actually really surprised me when you crunch the numbers on a traditional AC verses Chiller. An 5-Ton AC really puts out about 3-Tons of cooling, a 5-Ton Chiller puts out 5-Tons of cooling, and since the water cooled dehumidifiers (also DIY one's) gut the AC coolant and AC compressor, really the only thing that you leave is just the fan to turn it on and off as you set the controller. The AC another energy hog also gets pulled, and its all replaced with one electrical device that is cost efficient to run with the cheapest operating costs. DIY the entire project for pennies on the dollar and lowers the electrical draw of the grow.
 
Greenthumb said:
That is one of the things which make using chillers verses AC units so awesome, chillers use less power to do even more cooling... I mean obviously I don't know where you are eating up the amps at, but since AC and lighting both top that list usually... hence I figured it something that may work for you if not now perhaps in the future. I hope your roof vents work out for you.

Oh and encase you didn't have a chance to really dig into Chillers and water cooling yet, you can cool the air, the water (hydro) and also run the dehumidifier all off from a chiller, which actually really surprised me when you crunch the numbers on a traditional AC verses Chiller. An 5-Ton AC really puts out about 3-Tons of cooling, a 5-Ton Chiller puts out 5-Tons of cooling, and since the water cooled dehumidifiers (also DIY one's) gut the AC coolant and AC compressor, really the only thing that you leave is just the fan to turn it on and off as you set the controller. The AC another energy hog also gets pulled, and its all replaced with one electrical device that is cost efficient to run with the cheapest operating costs. DIY the entire project for pennies on the dollar and lowers the electrical draw of the grow.
Click to expand...

Alright you sold me! Thanks so much for the details! I don't have the mechanical engineer brain to get it all but I WILL dig into it and figure it out. I'll run the idea by a couple friends too and see what we come up with...to be continued...
 
Here if you plug this article name into a search engine you should find it just fine at Surna

"Surna’s water-chiller system vs. traditional air conditioning Choosing the best cooling system for your grow"

It covers what I told you and will start giving you numbers to look at and things to compare in prices, etc...
 
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