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HELP! Temperature control

Iceman1066

Iceman1066

New member
Hey guys and thank you for taking the time to read this. I've grown in tents for years and had no problems but now I've gone bigger and using a loft. The loft is fully insulated and waterproofed. X20 plants (gorilla skittles) x6 light's, 2x air in, 1 air out 3 fans. 1st grow last winter temperatures was around 30 degrees which I know is still a tad high but got a good return of around 5oz per plant. Sadly the last grow was hitting temps of around 40 ! I've added an air con unit and reduced to 4 light's but temp today was 33 degrees and they only in veg on 400w light's. Anyone please got any tips on how I can reduce it even more. Any help will be greatly appreciated
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In a loft it's going to be a problem if you are using HID lights and you can't exhaust the heat they produce. Maybe look into LED lights for your next grow. Can you draw cool air in from the floor below?
 
I've suggested led lights but obviously they cost. Its definitely something I want to move to in the future. I just need to get through this grow 🙈 sadly I can't draw air in from downstairs but I do draw air in from a chimney and I send the air out to a separate chimney as im blessed with 2 in this setup. Just hoping the less lights and an air con will get me through but just incase was wondering if there was any tips ?
 
Had a friend put a window ac unit in her fireplace and it exhausted into the chimney. Maybe reduce the airflow and let the ac do most of the work? Just spitballing here.
 
Appreciate the thought. We did have quite a long tube from the ac to the chimney to get rid the hot air but found the tubing was getting hot so only on Monday we moved the ac to right next to the chimney so they're is minimal tube showing which has definitely helped.
 
If you set it up like that you need to provide ducted outside air for cooling the condenser coil. If you do not, the condenser will use room air which is then exhausted as hot air out the chimney. Every cubic meter of air exhausted from the structure must be replaced with air from somewhere. Usually through cracks under doors etc. Then you are sucking hot air back into the structure. This effect greatly reduces cooling efficiency. This same effect is why portable room air conditioners with just one duct to exhaust the hot air are so inefficient. Just a thought.
 
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Tbh ive never had to use an ac before so I thought to ballance the air being sucked out by the ac I'd add an extra air in from the other side of the room.. your reply makes a lot of sense as the ac kicks out really cold air but isn't cooling the room down as much as I had hoped 🙈 cost us nearly £500 aswell but without it it gets way too hot. Arrrrrrgh banging my head against a wall for a solution lol
 
Hey Iceman kind of a weak thought here but maybe you could use 1 gal frozen water jugs surrounded by 4 pots so you would need 5 for 20 plants. Kind of a pain as you would need to replace daily but could help keep your roots cool which I believe is the most critical part. Use a soil thermometer to keep around 65 F.
 
This may be a cultural thing. When you say loft I might say attic and we both mean the same thing. Am I correct, like the space above the ceiling of the top floor and below the roof? If you put energy into a system it will get hot unless you find a way to remove it. Is it yours, can you get creative? Put vent hole through wall, tie into the plumbing vent system for exhaust?
 
Yeah loft and attic are same thing 😁 its a friend's house who i partner with. The room is fully isolated and a thermal lining to prevent it glowing up like a Christmas tree to thermal cameras lol. Below is a rough sketch of the setup. The air in is coming from 1 chimney and air out plus ac hot air is going out of a separate chimney. Ya can't see on the sketch but we have 2 air ins. 1 in the ground and 1 on the roof blowing down. Also 3 fans moving the air around. Hope this helps? Also really appreciate your help 🙏
 

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Can you change some of your ducting on the air in side? You have two air in ducts. Reroute one to the AC condenser coils. That may help with AC efficiency. How far away is your carbon filter exhaust from the AC unit? The greater distance the better even if it means more ducting pipe. If you can't vent the energy directly with air, you have to be more efficient at pumping it out with the AC.
 
The ac unit only has 1 air out so not sure how I could direct the air to the coils? The carbon filter is hung by chains on the ceiling (as you probably know to reduce vibration sounds) we did initially have the ac at the other side of the room but found the air out ducting was getting hot even with foil on it so was basically like a radiator hence why I moved it close to the chimney to have minimal ducting. Would moving the carbon filter to the other side of the room help at all? Room was at 37 degrees today 🤦‍♂️
 
A window type AC? Air for the condenser coil is taken in on the sides of the AC (outside air- unit is normally in a window hanging out in the outside atmosphere), cools the condenser coil and is exhausted out the back (hot air). Room air is drawn in from the bottom of the front, run over the evaporator coil which cools the air and is blown back into the room. The two air flows are separate air flow systems. So the hot from the rear needs to go up chimney (how you have it) and intake air from the outside from the chimney needs to be ducted to the side(s) of the AC. From there it will flow over evaporator coils and out the back up the chimney. An AC is just a heat pump. It needs to have separate air sources to be efficient. You want to create distance from the AC cold air output from the carbon filter inlet sucking air out of the room so it does not just suck the cold air that you created back out the carbon filter.
 
Perfectly explained thank you 😊 sorry im a total novice on ac units as never had to use 1. Ive passed this info to my mate along with the YouTube video and he can make it happen but just got back from there now and the temp is 29 at last !! Not Perfect but a hell of a lot better than in the 40's. Thinking that by removing the long ac air out ducting has definitely helped. Will see how it goes over the next couple of days and and will probably go for your idea of an air in to the ac unit. Thank you for all your help. Really appreciate it 🙏.
 
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