Question on Closed Growing Enviroment

When you build a closed growing enviroment, lets say a 5x5x7 and its completely air tight if you cut a hole in the wall and put in a window air conditioner will the air conditioner be able to run and push air into the room? Ive been reading up on CGE and i cant figure out if you keep putting air into a space where the air cannot escape, how do people user air conditioners in this system?

maybe find the CFM of the air conditioner. then do some math(idk how lol) to find the right size holes u would need for that amount of air to go out efficiently. sorry i cant be too much help

There has to be some hole for the air to escape though. Plus your environment needs fresh air to be coming in or the plants will run out of CO2.

Id say keep the fres air vent closed???

clipse0 said:

When you build a closed growing enviroment, lets say a 5x5x7 and its completely air tight if you cut a hole in the wall and put in a window air conditioner will the air conditioner be able to run and push air into the room? Ive been reading up on CGE and i cant figure out if you keep putting air into a space where the air cannot escape, how do people user air conditioners in this system?

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The cheapest window AC units will not have an exhaust feature - this means it will only cool the room air and never exchange with outside air. I have a setup like this on my veg box w/ AC. It's necessary to have at least a passive ventilation system to keep CO2 balanced. I use a 4 " tube for air in, with another hole for exhaust. ( sealed against light ) The mixing of air, due to the AC fan inside the box, slowly exchanges with outside air. I've also used a vent fan on a timer, but it did not seem to benefit.

I dont know if this matters or not but would a co2 boost bucket have enough co2 to not have any ventilation holes. smell is a concern and i fugured a cge would help with that. I guess what my main question is say you blow up a ballon, if you keep putting air into the ballon the ballon will pop or it will be impossible to put any more air into the ballon, that is what im wondering with the airconditioner, if the air cannot go anywhere how can the air conditioner push air into the room. i hope that clarifys my question, sorry about spellin, im terrible at it

btw i seen the white russian in your tag, that is what is being used

Man o' the green said:

The cheapest window AC units will not have an exhaust feature - this means it will only cool the room air and never exchange with outside air. I have a setup like this on my veg box w/ AC. It's necessary to have at least a passive ventilation system to keep CO2 balanced. I use a 4 " tube for air in, with another hole for exhaust. ( sealed against light ) The mixing of air, due to the AC fan inside the box, slowly exchanges with outside air. I've also used a vent fan on a timer, but it did not seem to benefit.

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if the room is that airtight your plants will die. if your using a window unit it will get its own air from the room cool some and send some hot outside along with the moisture.most of the new units go through a cycle of sucking air ,cooling it and blowing back in the room while venting hot air, then just a vent with fan cycle. i dont know alot about the new portables though other than the 8000 btu i'm using does not cool a 12 x 20 room very well

You can run a sealed room. If you can keep your CO2 up between 1300-1500 then your plants will be fine. Anything over 1500 is just wasting the CO2. Your plants will breathe in the CO2 and breathe out air so essentailly there is no increase or decrease in air. The other variable is the humidity factor, tends to get high in sealed rooms.

Most window A/Cs are not very effective in grow rooms since they exchange air. Split ACs work pretty well as they dont exchange air in or out of the room. They only cool or heat the air thats in the room. The prices are high for split ACs though. Most of them come with a dehumidifier which helps immensely. I have found that you will need about 3500 btu to cool an air cooled 1000 watter. So if you are running 4 1000 watters then you will need approx 14k or more to cool that room efficently. Always better to have more so that it can cool the other equipment in your room.

Hope this helps somewhat...good luck!

PS..Sealed rooms can run hotter than a "ventilated" room. CO2 is used most effectively around 85 degrees. Your plants will love you for it!

first of all co2 will be added so thats really not a problem. second when you run an air conditioner does it suck air from the back and push it into the room, or does it suck from the room and blow it out the room. I guess the part that was confusing me if it sucked from outside and then blows inside then eventually the air couldnt go anyplace. if it sucks from the room and blows it out to the room, it should be ok.

another question, how many plants can you have under a 400 watt hps/mh?
side note... also two 105watt cfl's for extra under growth...

i was thinking either 3 rows of 3
4 rows of 4 or could you do 5 x 5? granted there are 3 gal pots

clipse0 said:

first of all co2 will be added so thats really not a problem. second when you run an air conditioner does it suck air from the back and push it into the room, or does it suck from the room and blow it out the room. I guess the part that was confusing me if it sucked from outside and then blows inside then eventually the air couldnt go anyplace. if it sucks from the room and blows it out to the room, it should be ok.

another question, how many plants can you have under a 400 watt hps/mh?
side note... also two 105watt cfl's for extra under growth...

i was thinking either 3 rows of 3
4 rows of 4 or could you do 5 x 5? granted there are 3 gal pots

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Under a 400 watt HPS you can only have I think it was 6 ...that is if they are in a 5 gallon bucket. I ony have 5 under my 400 watt HPS but it feels like its still short on light. A 1k light you can put about 9 under there comfortably (5 gallon buckets that is). I think it all depends on how high you are planning on growing them. I would assume you could have more under one light the shorter your plants are.

As for the AC you have to be careful which one you choose. Its almost impossible to run a sealed room with a window or portable AC. The CO2 will go out with the hot air. They both have "exhaust" that will remove hot air from the room. Would be kinda hard to seal a room if you were running one of those. I havent used either of these ACs in my room so I cant help ya there. Maybe some fellow RIUers have exped with some of these and can post the pros and cons of such units.

Happy Growing!

caregivers said:

Under a 400 watt HPS you can only have I think it was 6 ...that is if they are in a 5 gallon bucket. I ony have 5 under my 400 watt HPS but it feels like its still short on light. A 1k light you can put about 9 under there comfortably (5 gallon buckets that is). I think it all depends on how high you are planning on growing them. I would assume you could have more under one light the shorter your plants are.

As for the AC you have to be careful which one you choose. Its almost impossible to run a sealed room with a window or portable AC. The CO2 will go out with the hot air. They both have "exhaust" that will remove hot air from the room. Would be kinda hard to seal a room if you were running one of those. I havent used either of these ACs in my room so I cant help ya there. Maybe some fellow RIUers have exped with some of these and can post the pros and cons of such units.

Happy Growing!

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i found this diagram and wanted to see what you thought

ice boxes work well in sealed rooms and keep temps cool too.

you want to get a portable with two tubes I think. That is all I know. The two tubes let you keep the sealed room sealed and just push all that hot operating air in and out of the back of the machine. They are like 400 at lowes. But window units are 100 or so so I would like to see it work.

I am about to set up co2. It cost only 100 for the regualtor and 50 for the tank!