Dual Hose Portable A/C

[TentFarmer]

I will be receiving and setting up one of these babies this week and was wondering if anyone could provide any insight. I opted for the dual hose/vent as I was told it was more efficient. It was also stated that it didn't exhaust any of the rooms air into the vent, instead the heat exchange was all through the inlet and outlet vent. Hope that this will keep the smell locked in while I pump the heat back out.

Just trying to make sure that my first attempt will be a good attempt. Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ArtVandolay]

Sounds like something that would solve all my problems! Do you have a link? :holysheep:

 

[blancolighter]

How much do those puppies run?

 

[TentFarmer]

http://www.portableairshop.com/

You can find them under 400 but I was told that a single vent created a vacuum effect as some of the hot air of the room being cooled was vented out (creating a loss of efficiency and smelly air going out the vent). The dual vent supposedly takes care of all of that.

Anyone with real life experience out there?

 

[cadlakmike1]

I own one, but it's different than the one in the link. I don't use it for my grows i used it in my house before I got central air. The one I have has a 6 in tube than needs to be vented outside. It also fills up with water really quick and the one I have is a pain to empty. I never really liked it but it was better than not having AC.

 

[TentFarmer]

Yeah, I'm not ordering the one in the link. I was just too lazy to look up the one I did order. The one I have coming is not supposed to require emptying that often because it evaporates a portion of the water and sends it out the exhaust.

I am actually hoping my does have a removable tank, in which case I'll run a drain hose from it, to my humidifier reservoir and hopefully compensate for the dehumidification process. Or maybe this is all just a pipe dream.

Speaking of which, time for another.

 

[kasgrow]

I use a portable ac but it is a single hose. It works pretty good. The two hose setup sounds like it should work better. My ac is a 10,000 btu and it uses 1,150 watts so it can get expensive. I run my lights at night to minimize cooling needs and they are air cooled with outside air.

 

[TentFarmer]

Mine is due to show up tomorrow. I guess I'll be my own source of info on this one.

 

[TentFarmer]

1st bit of new found knowledge....
THE BOX IS ABOUT A HUNDRED POUNDS!!!!!

That's all I know so far, time for some "encouragement."

 

[andy52]

i used a portable ac last summer.it was just a plain ac unit.i taped 2 flexible ducts to the front of the unit,running into my tent.it did very well for controlling the temos.the elec.cost to run it was not worth it to me.thats why i will be growing outside next summer.its just not feasible to pay a ridiculous power bill just to keep weed cool.

 

[TentFarmer]

I am truly jealous. If that was an option I would definitely do the same. Unfortunately it's just not in the cards.

My rooms current setup shot up to over 95 when I was testing the systems. Turns out a tent in a bubble will get pretty hot with 600 watt hps bulb shining away.

Off to run electric and vents.

 

[TentFarmer]

Well I only had to run another electric line and run vents into my furnace room. I'll take advantage of the vent heat this winter (my house needs a humidifier anyways so the moist are could work well if I disperse it properly). Look into pumping the hot air out this summer.

Lights are running and I seem to be topping out around 76. If this setup works I'll be set for the addition of CO2.

Drum roll please....

 

[papabeach1]

(scoof) ya blowing dry air out of that.. it dont work on my last indoor grow..

myself air itself with air ciruclation. like moving fans.. works best..

with air in vent and air out vent.. co2 is include.. than to deal with cleaner air with no co2... good luck.. let us kknow how it goes if u gonna play with it

 

[TentFarmer]

It turns out the dual hose doesn't correct the vacuum effect in the room being cooled (my bubble room nearly imploded after 10 minutes of running). Not a big deal but I'll be doing some more venting. My current plan is to have a line run from a vent to the out side, through my light and out the chimney. I'm also going to have the portable a/c vent its hot air out the same vent (combining both sources of hot air).

To compensate for the vacuum effect in the bubble, I'm going to add a 4" vent from outside with a anti-blow back device, so that when the a/c runs, it sucks in clean air through the vent and the a/c pumps the hot air out.

If I get this Mad Scientist plan to work, I'll post photos. If it doesn't I'll never mention this ever again

 

[TentFarmer]

A/C is setup and running. I ran a dedicated line to venting my light. Then vented a/c out the chimney.

The a/c is barely having to run and I'm keeping steady at 79. Going to let the system run for a day or two and then ready to get started.

Now just waiting for the mail to arrive.

On a side note, a great benefit of negative pressure from a portable a/c is that I feel it helps keep smell in vs drifting out. I have a incoming vent for the room, but it's a bit undersized so it keeps a little suction on the seams of the door. My intentions were for extreme scent control. Find out how this works.

 

[TentFarmer]

So.....

I may not be the brightest crayon in the box. If one vents hot air out the chimney, the hot air goes away. I was all good on this aspect.

However if you pump air out of your house, you need a way for air to get back in. I'm currently having cold air from my attic sucked into the house through every nook and cranny it can get through.

Moral of the story, I'm putting a vent into my grow room today.

5th times the charm. Right?!?!?

 

[TentFarmer]

So here is the part that sucks and a lesson to be learned. I was trying to make a vent free room. My theory was that if I could seal it up in plastic, cool it from within the room and never vent, then the stanky danky stuff I like could be grown worry free.

So my answer to this was a portable a/c as I could just vent into another room. Ended up having to run an inlet vent and outlet vent (something I avoided last grow) just to make it work.

As I'm working on both vents I'm bundled up as its freakin cold. When it's all said and done I have a working system (so far) and a thought in the back of my mind as to why I didn't just vent for heat in the first place. My only hope is that my current method will help me keep scent free.

At least if electric is too high I can just pick up some dampeners.

Moral of this story.... ummmmm.... This is an expensive sport.

 

[TentFarmer]

So I discovered an unexpected benefit of running a dual hose portable a/c in the winter. That is that the compressor doesn't have to run. Apparently the air sucked through the inlet while running the fan is enough to keep my room (outside of the tent) at 68 degrees and inside the tent, the lights keep it around 78 with the help of a temp controller hooked up to an exhaust fan.

I do believe that I can do a co2 setup now. Now just the issues in buying one. Any one making donations?

 

[Medman]

Moral of this story.... ummmmm.... This is an expensive sport.

You said it brother. Got me 2 1000 watts and a single vent portable a/c which works great btw...$1500

 

[mendo local]

Pics?