Too hot in the Homebox

[MESCALITO]

Greetings and salutations, Mendrel. I don’t know if this is really “up your alley,” boychik, but here goes. I have heat probs w/my Homebox Virgin grow. 4 x 4 homebox, 400 MH w/170 or 180 exhaust (too small?). 3 small fans: a table fan about 12 in; a 10 in honeywell fan that swivels straight up and a small clip-on good 4 keeping a light breeze on the plants. Now that the weather is warmer, I cant get the temp below 85 even with window a/c up high and homebox unzipped.
My last pic May 29 ("Leaves Look Droopy" title) shows the leaves on 3 plants kinds lookin droopy:
http://www.treatingyourself.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=21544

[In The Wind]

Expensive but very much worth the price;
http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.jump/itemType.GATEWAY/itemID.575/iMainCat.575/iSubCat.575/qx/Air_Conditioners.htm

[Buffalo Bill]

Don't mean to step on anyone's toes, but if you decide that you want more exhaust which I believe you might need, texashydropnics.com has dayton 465's on sale for around $65. You might need to get a 4" or 6" adapter to go with it.

[MESCALITO]

That was good advice u gave me on that unit and went to that site but i didnt even have the $80 (S&H) at the time. When i had the $, they were no longer offering it. I regret not taking your advice earlier- as the proverb goes "Say yes now or pay me later." Well, when $ gets short, the bad thing is u can't even take care of the good deals when you want to.

[MESCALITO]

In the Wind, this portable cooler idea is an interesting alternative. A new exhaust is a lot less expensive, but i just dont know if it will do the job. and then i've thrown good money-after-bad.
What dya think Buffalo Bill?
Do either of u use a Homebox? I live on the top floor of an old structure, and it gets hot quick in my apt.

[Buffalo Bill]

It should help you that is for sure! I have a homemade box with plywood and mylar. It measures 2'X4'X7' and that fan does a good job exhausting the heat.
Check out the "web only specials" at texashydro and they still have the fan listed for $64.99. Hope this helps! Take care and be well....

[MESCALITO]

Thanx, BB. In the meantime - for the next few days... what do you'all think of my doing daily foliar spray (and let them dry away from direct lamp) as a way to keep leaves "cool" or does that tend to have the opposite effect since it's too hot to begin with, and will fry them faster?

[MESCALITO]

$9 at the store + some extra ducting hanging around: It'll work in the meantime:D :D :D

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4910/1531acducttp3.jpg

[pflover]

hehehe nice fix. :D

[Area_Man]

I have the exact same Aluminum box that you're using!
Good idea, and if it works keep it up :D

Will you be able to keep the duct going into the homebox during "night" cycles without allowing outside light into the box?

I like this portable A/C thing though, didn't know they existed till now :o
http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/Koldfront_9_000_BTU_Small_Portable_Air_Conditioner ___FREE_SHIPPING/itemID.14956/itemType.PRODUCT/iMainCat.575/iSubCat.964/iProductID.14956/qx/shopping/product/PAC901W.htm

[MESCALITO]

As to the night cycles, I figure if the bulb is off the exhaust fan should be ok 2 do the job, but who knows if it's 8o at night, BUT there is an "in" 4" opening that I could use in the lower right side (as you open the flaps). So i could move the box 6 inches off the wall and tailor this 6" duct into a 4" end piece right into the lower right opening for the box. The opening is especially designed to pevent light.
But it's such a monstrocity that it would certainly cause talk if the landlord came up. If i knew he was coming, I could zip up, drape a drape over the oppening, and if he HAD to know, i cud say im raising tomatoes. He wouldnt ask more than that. But not with king-kong snaking its way across the room like it is now. Im thinking one of the two solutions: Buffalo Bill or In Th eWind;

O I almost forgot. Buffalo Bill, how warm does your room normally get when your 465 cfm is keeping your box at 76 degrees?

[In The Wind]

I have not the home box but another vendors product which is exactly the same thing. I normally grow outside but when I do use the growroom I prefer that it is sealed off and the only venting is a Dayton 265 for the HID.

Yes, the 1st setup is expensive. But if you take the plunge and add co2 and one of those small air conditioners you end up with a no-smell, self-contained, plug and play environment that is mobile….No wacky hoses going anywhere, only an extension cord or 2… It sits in a room and looks all the world like a wardrobe…

With this setup you can control ALL of the conditions in the growroom, light, temp, humidity, and atmosphere. It will double as a smell proof drier and pay for itself in 1 cycle.

Don’t get me wrong, it took me awhile to pay for this setup also. But in the long run I’ll guarantee that you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it..

For your current situation I would seriously look at one of the AC units, not the air cooler. You really need to get the temps down at night to fully develop those girls.

Here’s what I do. I’ve got one of the 4X4 growrooms. I use plastic cement mixing trays for dirt. About 18” above that I have chickenwire screen in a 2X4 frame, with my light suspended over that. I use the remaining room for the co2 bottle, AC, and fans. I’ve even found that there is room for one of those plastic Rubbermaid cabinets that you can put in there and lightproof to use for a sexing chamber. That gives you a shelf to put stuff on. Run your grow as a scrog and your first grow will out do anything you’ve done to date. I posted pics of it one time but I can’t find them now, there up here somewhere.

[GriM]

check your local home dePOT when the weather starts to change again we had the 8000 btu portables that where cut down to 150 just to move them out the door last year(wish i had the $$$ then to pick one up) and if you cant wait till then home dePOT also does price matching so if you find the same a/c unit they carry online for a good price they will match it and most likly beat it ;)
I have the exact same Aluminum box that you're using!
Good idea, and if it works keep it up :D

Will you be able to keep the duct going into the homebox during "night" cycles without allowing outside light into the box?

I like this portable A/C thing though, didn't know they existed till now :o
http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/Koldfront_9_000_BTU_Small_Portable_Air_Conditioner ___FREE_SHIPPING/itemID.14956/itemType.PRODUCT/iMainCat.575/iSubCat.964/iProductID.14956/qx/shopping/product/PAC901W.htm

[leroy]

I have a dumb question. I know that most small a/c's are window mounted so the back of the unit pulls fresh air from the out-side. What happens when you just run the a/c unit in the middle of a closed room? Does it still get colder or does the a/c unit itself generate more heat than it cools? Mr. Wizard? Anyone?

[GriM]

I have a dumb question. I know that most small a/c's are window mounted so the back of the unit pulls fresh air from the out-side. What happens when you just run the a/c unit in the middle of a closed room? Does it still get colder or does the a/c unit itself generate more heat than it cools? Mr. Wizard? Anyone?have tryed that in a garage i was staying in for a while back in the day and it doest work well.... you could rig up a vent to the exust tho if your a handyman and make it a makeshift rig ;)

[FUNK4:20]

That 465cfm blower is lookin really good for me--thanks B.B.
Leroy if the airconditioner is enclosed and rated at the right BTU's for that room and thee heat vented properly you will see a huge drop in temp(about 12-18 degrees). While in an enclosed sealed room u will have total controll over your room adding co2 if u want cooling it down even more:) If you run a carbon scrubber u can make a prefilter out of moister collecting beeds to run inline before the moist air hits the carbon to save the life of the carbon and make sure theres no mold forming in the carbon.:)

[FUNK4:20]

or maybe not..lol---break time.--ding.ding

[MESCALITO]

Lot to consider. In The Wind's setup is sweet, and gives me a target for "someday". For what i can afford right now, I'm still deciding. Btw i am on my first grow, and will be looking into scrog in the future. On a 2x4 scrog with CO2, how many plants, / grams do you harvest?

BB, What is the diff between a "Blower" - i went to the webspecials at texashydro and found it thanx :) and a "normal squirrel type exhaust that i have? The Blower has that large rectrangular (out?)but aside from a different look,how does a blower differ from the more normal exhaust unit?

[In The Wind]

I have a dumb question. I know that most small a/c's are window mounted so the back of the unit pulls fresh air from the out-side. What happens when you just run the a/c unit in the middle of a closed room? Does it still get colder or does the a/c unit itself generate more heat than it cools? Mr. Wizard? Anyone?

I don't know, even the PAC's have to be vented and drained.

[In The Wind]

Dam edit window…
Anyway, my bad. I just back the unit up to the long bottom flap and it exhausts out there. Since it doesn’t have hoses going anywhere I didn’t even think about it.


The sexing cabinet. What I’ve got is one of those Rubbermaid Storage cabinets that I painted white on the inside with a 2’ T-5 in it. It fits right inside the growroom and work great for sexing new plants all within your controlled space.

[dykster]

I have a dumb question. I know that most small a/c's are window mounted so the back of the unit pulls fresh air from the out-side. What happens when you just run the a/c unit in the middle of a closed room? Does it still get colder or does the a/c unit itself generate more heat than it cools? Mr. Wizard? Anyone?
I you run a small window air in a room without a window....I would make the room hot. Why...you ask...because those things are very hot and what cool air comes out of the front...would be cancelled by all the heat that comes out of the back.
Also...not all pull "fresh air" but uses the air inside the room and only the condensation drips outside.
Hope that makes any sense.

[leroy]

It makes perfect sense Ms. Wizard. I did what Grim did. It was hot in the fort one day, I had lugged this a/c with me all the way from N.Y... No use for it here on the coast. But one day the weather did get hot, so plugged it in, ran it for awhile, got hotter in the garage than when it started out. The back of the unit was warm, so that is why it needs to be hung out the window.

[salmayo]

I have a dumb question. I know that most small a/c's are window mounted so the back of the unit pulls fresh air from the out-side. What happens when you just run the a/c unit in the middle of a closed room? Does it still get colder or does the a/c unit itself generate more heat than it cools? Mr. Wizard? Anyone?My A/C unit doesn't "pulls fresh air from the out-side", it blows outside air across the outside heat exchanger (condencer/radiator) and the other end of the blower motor drives another fan on the inside of a styrofoam (inside/outside divider) which blows inside air across the inside cold exchanger (evaporator/cooler). Both the inside and outside air paths are separate and basically each acts as a closed loop. So no "fresh air from the out-side" is pulled or pushed from outside and blown inside, so no odor scrubbing is needed at the A/C, since no air is being blown out.

Some A/C units have a CLOSED/OPEN circulation switch or vent option, so you can choose.

I only use the A/C to keep the room temp arround 75 degrees F, but I run a blow through (pusher) duct from outside to my sealed hoods and vent the hot air outside again. And I use a air pickup from the tops of my veg and flower areas, above the hood level, to remove warm air which is carbonate scrubbed and vented outside. One additional fan blows outside air in between the grow area and the kitchen, to provide fresh air and shield the grow room area (plants) form kitchen fumes. 3 fans, 2 outside inlets, 2 outside outlets and one scrubbed duct form the tops of the grow spaces for heat/ventilation control. If I add a fan in each grow area, that'll only be 5 fans.

I wish someone (else) would do a cheap fan to blower thread, my pics always stink.

[MESCALITO]

In the Wind, the portable a/c u recommend - since we have the same size units - it would be the $350 unit as opposed to the $200 "air-blower? - Is the that the one u have? I was hopin 2 get away cheap seeing its only 100 cu feet.

[In The Wind]

Mine was almost $500, but I bought it 3 years ago. It was the only one on the site at the time as I remember.

Get the A/C, not the cooler. You might take a trip down to Home Depot and make sure that they don't have something. Just make sure that you buy A/C, trust me, it will eliminate a whole host of issues.

This is how I approach it;
I want a safe system, burning the house down aint worth it.
I want a clandestine system. NO ONE CAN KNOW. That means no smell, and no hoses going everywhere. With this thing turned off it looks like storage.
I want production. I’m in a wheelchair and I just can’t manage a 5 or 6 foot plant. You can take that same plant and bend it over with scrog, quadruple the yield in a nice manageable space. I even LST my outdoor plants.

I don’t wanna harp. But I’ve been through it and through it and through it. Fighting electrical, atmosphere, smell, and thieves. If I could take every newbie by the hand and show them that it’s just better to bite the bullet on the front end. You’ll be a much happier grower. A much more rewarded grower.