Luke Highwalker

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.

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SPACE-CASE Filing Cabinet Stealth Box
HOTBOX: Cheap & Easy in room A/C

Hash O'Kief

My box is mounted to the ceiling
The front looks like yours

in my box...the middle section of the unit...where it intakes outside air...sucks air from the next room

and the back section (where the hot air blows out)
is OPEN to the attic

I have one wooden baffle (sealed with foam tape)
that keeps those two separate

and the front of the box seals the cold air from those 2 back sections

Only thing I don't like is it's got a digital switch
so if the power blinks...it does NOT start back up

good job on yours...It took me weeks of designing to come up with mine...and installing the 45lb unit 7 feet up wasn't fun either

__________________
I used to be underarock
but I'm feeling much better now

I'm into the finer things.........Hash O'Kief

Luke Highwalker

yeah sorta built this bitch on the fly.

originally i was going to divide the intake and exhaust sides of the hot side...but fuck it. i didnt want to force all the air through the unit, cause i have no idea how much it could really move.

i decided it didnt really matter if the unit was working as designed, or if i was forcing air through it forwards or backwards...as long as cool air went in and hot air out the a/c should work...and it damn sure did!

my ceiling is a nightmare, cedar. above it is another level so no attic... the other side of the wall is outside so no cutting there either...

Really my biggest obstacle here is that everything in my room is just sitting there. Nothing is permanent and there have been no perm. mods to the building. When i tear down all i have to do is cut the duct, stuff it in the ceiling and reinstall the light fixture...poof. the grow room now no longer exists!! the light tight frame around the door also just pops out and the original trim goes back on covering up all the screw holes from mounting the light trap

Props to you for hanging that a/c by yourself though..i could barely get this bitch into the little box 3' off the ground.

oh yeah, this unit is a frigidaire with digital thermostat..if the power goes out it resets to ON with a temp set of 72f. also the gfci on the cord doesnt reset when power goes out...unlike every other inline gfci i have ever used.

__________________


SPACE-CASE Filing Cabinet Stealth Box
HOTBOX: Cheap & Easy in room A/C

Allglad

lol I have one similar to this in my garage...it is for when I go back into hydro. It is similar to this, but rather than have ducts it is mounted into the ceiling.

I need to either make a setup similar to what you did Luke..or duplicate my garage set up here in the house grow. Dont know why I did not think of it sooner.

Mahalo for share'n ...Luke
\ooo/

Luke Highwalker

haha yeah man i was at the store oogling one of those 600 dollar jobs when it just kinda hit me...Hey, i have duct and a fan already! All i need is the box Due to the beauties of the internet i was able to trade some crap i had layin around for a like new window a/c....ahh i love it.

I would like to thank being poor for contributing so much, yet so little to my life.

__________________


SPACE-CASE Filing Cabinet Stealth Box
HOTBOX: Cheap & Easy in room A/C

Luke Highwalker

To further aid in my battle against heat i had a little mod.

I installed a shelf between the legs of the hotbox, and sat my water chiller on it.

Then i cut a door into the cardboard wall that serves as my diverter. This door opens to act as a duct/diverter keep the hot air of the chiller blowing towards the filter, and not towards the grow.

The result? my res is a frosty 65 degrees, the room 75-78...i couldnt ask for more.

__________________


SPACE-CASE Filing Cabinet Stealth Box
HOTBOX: Cheap & Easy in room A/C

Allglad

Yea that is a kewl design for no attic Luke.

Here is what my a/c in the garage basically looks like. Click the pic if it is to small to be viewed.


note on the top view...I added some panels on the front sides & the very top of the box to seal the a/c unit in.



note on the front view is that my box sits in the hole that I made in the ceiling. It actually is screwed to 2 x 4"ish lumber that anchors it so I dont bump it or what ever.

There is no back view because I dont find it required. The back is a solid piece of plywood and can be seen in the top view. The bottom view well I am just lazy if someone does not understand I will make a pic for it.

Luke Highwalker

i like it, i wanted to mount mine on the ceiling orignally....but im just one man.

i cant pick it up that high..

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SPACE-CASE Filing Cabinet Stealth Box
HOTBOX: Cheap & Easy in room A/C

Allglad

Yea It was not easy get'n it up there alone.. Yoda taught me some good powers though.

An option to help get it up in the ceiling would be to use pulleys.

Luke Highwalker

harbor freight sells a bike picker up thing...its two pulleys and a little block and tackle. would be a great helping hand or even an adjustable light hanger...only 9 bucks to boot.

but again, this room is completely tear down friendly....i can have the whole thing gone in under 30 minutes with absolutely no traces of the grow.

i can have it torn down and moved out quick and dirty in under ten minutes....

this is why they call me a guerrilla closet grower...im always growin in someone elses space

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SPACE-CASE Filing Cabinet Stealth Box
HOTBOX: Cheap & Easy in room A/C