waterboy

I had a bad experience with heat this summer, almost lost my whole grow, a 4 bucket DWC scrog in a 3' x 3' x 6' grow room in my garage (if you can call a 3 x 3 area a room). Managed to keep the plants alive but lost potency and yield in a big way. I am going to be changing my setup to a recirculating DWC and will still do the 4 bucket scrog but with a central reservoir. In an effort to combat the heat would I be better of investing in a chiller for the res. or a small a/c for the room itself. gtg Thanks

GreenDragon2k

heheheh, both


I'd probably recommend investing in an air conditioner first. Especially considering they're much cheaper than a chiller, and the air temp is the biggest issue potency / bud density wise. But that depends on your outside temperatures... What do your temps look like outside, day/night?. Would adding another blower instead be better than an air conditioner?

If your having root prob's/high res temp issues then a chiller is also a must-have...

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waterboy

thanks for the reply GD. for ventilation I have 2 6" fans, a 6" vortec fan hooked up to a sun systems cool hood w/400w hps. Daytime temps 95 to 105, night is in the 60's. Typical norcal, central valley summer temps.

boss429

do you use c02?
if you use an a/c with the vortec you will be venting expensive air. it's better to discontinue the fan, seal the box and buy c02 if you go that route. and your temps are high enough i would probably do that.
you will also want to insulate your cabinet if it isn't already, another way to make sure you don't leak expensive cool air.

waterboy

I have never used Co2. Could you please give me a short description on how Co2 would solve my high temp problem? My box is insulated and would be easy to make air tight. If I don't vent the box my temps will be over 100F regardless of the outside temps.

Thanks for the input. I guess it's time I looked into Co2.

GreenDragon2k

well you might have to invest in co2 anyway if you want to do the air conditioner /sealed room thing properly, might as well go all the way.

but co2 is no substitute for an air conditioner. that is a common rumor that should be extinguished. Usually co2 requires an air conditioner (especially in hot climates) because you have to seal the room up in order to keep all your co2 contained. Your buds will suffer from the high temperatures regardless of having co2 or not, even if it seems like the plants are doing better. You want to keep the temps between 80 - 86 when using co2 for optimum bud density and structure. 76 - 78 is optimum for not using co2.

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boss429

oh it won't. what i was trying to say was the most efficient use of an air conditioner is to recycle the air, that is do not vent your expensive, air conditioned air out of the box.

however if you do this then your plants will use up all the c02 and then die when they don't have any more. so if you seal the box, remove the exhaust and use AC to control your temps exclusively (so you have no intake or exhaust happening) then you will have to add c02, it is not optional. that's why i was asking if you already use it.

also some of my reading has stated plants grow better (up to 85*!? i wouldn't go there myself though) so you wouldn't have to run the AC as hard. i would still try to cool the room down to 77* at the highest myself, though.

BTW insulate the h**l out of that box to keep your expensive cool air from warming up so quickly in that hot weather.

hope that helps, sorry if my other post was kinda hard to read...

JinpachiMishima

If you have CO2 in your setup (assuming your environmental controls are dialed in correctly so the air mixture is appropriate) you can keep you temps much higher up to about 95 F safely. I would not recommend it though as it is more trouble than good from it.

AC is a much more important investment than any chiller. Air temp needs to be controlled more closely as well as circulation and any AC unit will aid in that. I live in Texas so the heat is a huge issue in summertime (garage would be impossible to grow in) and AC is the only way to balance the temp. I never used any chillers in my Ebb & Flow setup and my water does get a bit warm although I never had any problems with it....higher temps, however, did cause issues when my AC was not working well and the temps reached about 94F in the grow area.

If you grow in your garage....where do you route the exhaust not to be smelly?

waterboy

Thanks for all the help. I bought a small 5k a/c unit. It has a built in thermostat and can either bring in fresh air from outside the grow room, or just recycle the air in the grow room.

Can y'all give me an idea where to mount the a/c unit, my grow room is 3' square and 6' tall. I have 3 places that I can mount the a/c:

• above the light

• between the light and the plant??

• below the scrog screen

Next stop Co2.

This forum Rocks. Thanks All.

btw JinpachiMishima, I vent into the attic, no problem. This is a retirement community and nobody pays any attention anyway. The the 6 plants I have outside in my garden are doing quite well and it is the same story with them. It is so nice to live in a state with medical marijuana laws. No Paranoia.

JinpachiMishima

Above the light is the best place to mount the AC unit. One thing - just about all AC units have to have a hot air exhaust that needs to be routed out of the actual grow space or the efficiency will not be nealry the same. If you are unsure about yours, turn it on for a 5 minutes and see if it blows any hot air from any of it's registers.

Good luck with the new setup!