Sup fellas, and lady’s of the DGC family, I’ve got some question about tent cooling and I wanna run this by y’all before I go all in an potentially ruin some stuff. So I’m currently in a 4x4x8 grow tent in a secluded windowless bedroom that shares a wall with my apartment managers bedroom, im running 1 single 600w HPS bulb with a tube for air cooling, carbon filter for the stench and a constantly running can fan to not only keep the smell down but keep that heat away. At this time I absolutely cannot cut any holes in walls to run ducting to get that heat away from my tent so I’ve just been dumping that warm air into my bedroom (where the tent is). Over the winter this was great an that extra heat was lovely but now that the sun is out an the temps are rising, I’m melting away. So I’ve been thinking about making myself a homemade ac but with a twist. Because I’m really not wanting to up my power consumption anymore the idea came to me to build an inline homemade air conditioning system using my exhaust air from my tent. We’ve all seen the video of the Russian guy who builds a small cooler with a small desktop fan, 5 gallon bucket, an some ice. I’m thinking if I add extra duct to my exhaust I can run it in and out of a decent sized Wal-Mart cooler filled with ice. I’m thinking that would help chill the exhaust air an not super heat my bedroom… But here’s my twist, what if I run the exhaust from that cooler back into my tent an used a mixture of dry ice instead of regular ice inside the cooler. I know dry ice puts off CO2 when it evaporates witch in theory could be useful to my plants. So if this works I would literally but adding no more power use to my system everything would run off my exhaust can fan that’s pulling threw the carbon filter, threw the light, out the tent, into a cooler, threw the dry ice and then back into my tent. I’m wondering if anybody has used anything like this an if it works or if I’m just being crazy. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and I’m thinking I gotta do something or I’ll have to stop the grow. Help me out y’all tell me what you think . Much love yall.
Homemade Recirculating Dry Ice Air Conditioning?
by whiteyoshi88 | May 9, 2019 | Grower Questions | 4 comments
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I’d be very very hesitant to put something that expands by a factor of 500-600 when going from a solid to a gas in my bedroom. Especially since that gas starts to have toxic effects on humans at about a 0.2% concentration (2000 ppm). For reference, in a sealed room 10’x10’x8′ with no plants, 1 lb of dry ice would raise the ppm of CO2 when it’s converted to a gas by about 1000 ppm or 0.1% of the air. Plus whatever you produce, minus what the plant consume. Maybe if you had really good ventilation to outside, but in a windowless room like you’re describing … that sounds kinda hazardous to me.
What about running small amounts of dry ice mixed with regular ice. At like a 10:1 regular to dry ratio that would in theory stop the air in my bedroom from becoming toxic to me. ??
Once you find a safe level I’d be curious how long it lasts or how often your required to refill it. Do you have an attached bathroom with a vent maybe pushing the air in there.
Through the years I’ve seen people suspend dry ice above their canopy by placing small amounts in compost tea bags/stockings and hanging them from the ceiling/tent. The idea is that the heat from the light system will react with the dry ice, releasing Co2, which then blankets the canopy. Not sure how much effect it will have on temperature, but if you’re only needing a few degrees of cooling, it may be a viable option. Good luck, love the innovation!