Evaporative cooler options

Hello all, trying to bounce some ideas off anyone who knows how these work (here if not). I already have a window unit that works great, but I am determined to get my energy bill low as it gets hot as shit here and the AC costs more than I'd like to pay if other options present themselves.

Anyways.

400w cool tube in a tent venting into the attic with an oversized exhaust fan on a controller. Passive intakes.
Temps get to 90-93, humidity around 25-30% when lights on. For arguments sake lets say these are the ambient numbers for the actual room the tent is in as well. Seems like an ideal environment for a cooler especially after seeing this:



I'm thinking of just putting it near the tent and letting the passive intakes handle the rest as the ambient temps drop and the humidity rises, thus equaling out my high temp/lowish RH issue to an extent. If the RH gets too high from the 100% humidity the unit puts out, crank the fan controller up to level it out.

At least that's my logic.

Thoughts on this? I'm all about being as efficient as possible and this seems like it would be right up my alley. As a side note I've already bought the unit so if anything it'll be a learning experience and I'll continue to use the window unit. Any and all help is appreciated.

you can leave an evaporative cooler in the room and it will cool things down a bit, but you'll need to leave the door open. they stop working once it gets cool enough or humid enough in there, which will happen with the door closed.

Fair enough. I'd be happy with it even dropping the temp 10 degrees in the tent. If it got too humid would turning the exhaust up help out at all? My fan is like 10x what I need for the size of the tent.

a 2800 cfm swamp cooler cools my house and 1000 watts of light for all but the month of august.I had to turn down the exhaust fans on my rooms to keep the temperatures below 80,let the cooler blow the room out.the average humidity is 11% where i live the higher the humidity the less effective your cooler will be.

Right. That's pretty awesome actually. The humidity in my area is pretty high... bordering oppressive... however my tent is consistently below 30% so I'm hopeful. Should be delivered in about a week, I'll update what happens if anyone is curious.

Personally I wouldn't go that route, but interested to see how it works for you.

Its more humid here, so I've never messed with swamp coolers.

Your goal for your growing environment is usually a climate slightly warmer than is comfortable in your home. (we all know this but just for conversations sake)

Usually with small grows and air cooled lights this delta T (difference in temp) is easily achieved with fan(s) alone.

The btu output of a 400 watt bulb isn't that much. Now if your wasting all your ac air, you can use two fans. One on a closed loop, Intake from outside , to light, exhaust outside. Then another fan, to exhaust from tent.

Its not necessary to get air from outside for your plants, the CO2 in your home is way higher.

- Jiji

That's the thing, I bought an over sized exhaust thinking I'd be able to throw a controller on it and dial it back to get a nice quiet/efficient setup. Now even when I max the fan out the temps don't move it seems. Even with the exhaust being ducted elsewhere and 72* ambient temps from my central AC I can't seem to get the tent lower than 90 without help from my dreaded window unit.
It's not making sense to me. I wouldn't think a little 400w (CMH at that, not quite as hot as HPS) would be this difficult to cool with my setup.

Curious as to what other route you're thinking?
At the end of the day as long as I don't have to use the window unit I'll be happy.

trevronious said:

Right. That's pretty awesome actually. The humidity in my area is pretty high... bordering oppressive... .

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no way a swamp cooler will work then.

trevronious said:

however my tent is consistently below 30% so I'm hopeful.

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trevronious said:

For arguments sake lets say these are the ambient numbers for the actual room the tent is in as well.

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The environment the cooler will be in is around 30% humidity, not outisde...

trevronious said:

The environment the cooler will be in is around 30% humidity, not outisde...

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no.

the swamp cooler is taking in the ambient air, not the air in your tent. your tent may be 30% Rh, but the ambient air most certainly will not be.

Surely I would have checked and made sure of that before buying anything. The room is a small laundry room that isn't a whole lot bigger than the tent itself. Didn't want to distract with specifics, hence the sake of argument. The ambient RH raises to 40% max ambient.

Hell if anything when the dryer is running the RH drops even lower while the temp goes up. Seemed ideal to me.

The route I was suggesting was the two fan setup, if 1 isn't cutting it.

72 ambient is fine. Does the room that the tent is in stay 72ish even when lights are on?

You shouldn't need a window air conditioner. Something is wrong with your setup.

- Jiji

trevronious said:

Surely I would have checked and made sure of that before buying anything. The room is a small laundry room that isn't a whole lot bigger than the tent itself. Didn't want to distract with specifics, hence the sake of argument. The ambient RH raises to 40% max ambient.

Hell if anything when the dryer is running the RH drops even lower while the temp goes up. Seemed ideal to me.

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just trying to be brutally honest.

Our central is set to 72, the tent is pulling in air around 78 give or take. After seeing that graph it made me think I would have a decent environment for the cooler. Even over estimating the temp and RH I'm hoping for a 10* change.

Getting more excited to get this thing every day lol.

Is this thread still alive? Im in the same position. My exhaust is temp controlled and bigger than what my room actually needs its hooked to 2 600 watt hps cooltubes. With it being summer during lights on its hitting 30 degrees Celsius and rh droping to around 28 with fans maxed out. im just wondering was the evap cooler a recommended addition given my conditions. Peace!!!

lfc89 said:

Is this thread still alive? Im in the same position. My exhaust is temp controlled and bigger than what my room actually needs its hooked to 2 600 watt hps cooltubes. With it being summer during lights on its hitting 30 degrees Celsius and rh droping to around 28 with fans maxed out. im just wondering was the evap cooler a recommended addition given my conditions. Peace!!!

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It may help, you'll want to slow down your exhaust to give it a chance to work.

Ye I turned them down and the temps shot up. Im just thinking if I got a decent portable one in there it would work for my temps and my rh?