Hey everyone, i'm back at it again.
It's summer time, and i know grow room temperature is on everyones mind. With temp's spiking into the 90's something had to do be done...quickly. Problem is, like always...im fuckin broke. Portable A/C {the in room kind} are upwards of 500 bucks, and many are not smell proof because of how they vent the hot air.
So with a little horse trading and 20 bucks, here is what i came up with.
Materials List:
Window Air Conditioner Free! {$98 Walmart}
Sheet of Plywood Free!
{2} 6" Duct Collars $6
Screws & Liquid Nail $5
4 Fence posts for Legs. $4
6" hole saw
all i could scrounge up was about a half sheet of plywood, 49x40 i believe. these dimensions will fit a small window unit, if you have anything bigger than 6500btu you are on your own for measurements.
{4} 24x15" pieces
{2} 16x15 pieces
Frame up a box, however is easiest for you. Liquid nail this bitch together, because the air inside is HOT and you want to keep it inside! Even a small leak will render the a/c nearly useless.
Once the Box is completed, cut a hole in the front for the a/c to slide into.
Drill 2 6" holes on top of the box, close to the rear corners as possible.
Apply a bead of liquid nail to the duct collars, put them in place and screw them down. Use the Home Depot Duct collars, the lowes ones are way too short.
Once the box is all ready to go, mount the 4 fence posts. Remember to mount the box so the rear is about 3/4" lower than the front...so your condensate still runs to the back of the unit. Drill a hole in the bottom of the Hotbox for the condensate line to stick out of. If your a/c doesnt have the line, just get a 90 degree barbed fitting from HD and stick it in the black grommet on the back of the a/c unit. I used leftover drip irrigation pieces, but i would recomend something larger.
Thats Pretty much it.
In the pictures you will see a large cardboard thing...this is fairly critical if you have a filter sitting on the floor. Cold air sinks Hot air Rises. This simple cardboard wall forces the Can 100 behind it to pull hot air from the top of the stack, instead of sucking all the cold air route out of the grow area. Some day i will wrap it in panda plastic.
The ducting is routed as follows. Can 100 filter with Can 6" fan sitting on top. 6'" cool tube 1kw, duct goes out up through the ceiling and out the house. The room has a 4" passive intake from the outside. Filter~>Fan~~>HotBox~~>Cool Tube~~~>>>>>Exit
This thing works great. I set the thermostat on 76, my thermo says 75.4 most of the time. The a/c runs maybe 3mins on 15mins off....probably less.
Had a few troubles in the beginning, lots of condensate dripping out the front, not cooling well etc.
Trouble Shooting 101:
NO AIR LEAKS!!!! Tape all the seams, screw holes etc..anything that leaks air.
Make sure the back of the a/c is AT LEAST 4" from the back wall of the box.
Extraction fan always on, can be low speed at night when lamps off for noise's sake.
Filter/Intake to exhaust system isolated from cold area..hanging from ceiling is best.
Once i fixed the air leaks all the problems stopped. The condensate was because it was working so hard. Putting the wall up around the filter was done at the same time and definately helped further reduce cycle times.