I dunno about you, but my main issue with growing indoors is temperature.
I live in tropical Australia, and it’s HOT (and humid), ambient temps are between 25°C (night) and 35°C (day), and humidity is between 65 and 80%.
Growing under these conditions is not easy, and now that there’s a few companies out there making specialised grow equipment for us stoners, there are solutions!
I blame @WildBill and @Hope2grow for this really. Boys and their toys….
First Hope got me onto AC Infinity and their wide range of kit. I got one of their basic Temp/RH/VPD monitors (CloudcomA1).
I was shocked at the temps in my tent, and the effect it had on my VPD.
Here’s how things looked last week….
Looking at the temps in red, you can see a max of 39.7° and a min of 35°C, oscillating between hot and hotter.
VPD ranges between 1.52kPa and an eye watering 3.5kPa.
Here’s just one (moderately hot) day….
At 8am temps rise, peaking at a scorching 39.7°C at 4pm, then as night draws in, it ‘cools’ to a raging 34.7°C!!!
Wild Bill was trying out another AC Infinity product called Thermoforge… a heating unit. Obviously that’s the last thing I need, but while checking it out on the AC Infinity site, I spotted this wonderful air conditioner for grow tents called Terraform.
They have 3 models to choose from (US prices and availability)….
The two all in one units (Terraform 8 and 12) have only one duct, which makes me think that they would be pumping hard all day, converting boiling ambient temps into cool air.
The Terraform 7 recirculated the air in the tent instead….
That’s a fair bit of ducting!
It costs AU$1275.00 from one Aussie growshop, but it turns out that none of the Terraform units are allowed to be imported into Australia because of refrigerant regulations.
Then I stumbled on another product, this time made by Vivosun…. AeroLush
The AeroLush CO8 Intelligent AirConditioner has 4 functions… Cooling, Heating, Dehumidifying and Fan.
It promised 8000BTU of cooling, so it was on a par with the Terraform 7 AND was available in Australia AND it was cheaper. Less ducting too…
It’s more of a closed system, so you still have a separate extraction with a carbon filter, but it’s now on the lowest setting.
All the growshops were selling it for AU$999.00, but Vivosun were offering a AU$150 discount AND free delivery. I live way out, delivery would have been between AU$50 and AU$100.
I called my usual Growshop and they matched the offer! Cheers!
It arrived yesterday, and I cracked open the box immediately. Nicely packaged…
There’s all the bits and pieces you’ll need to set it up…
There’s 3 rolls of ducting with adaptors, an air filter, some hose for the dehumidifyer, a thermal wrap for one of the ducts, and a window ducting kit.
Front and back views…
It’s a reasonable size, 69cm high x 34cm wide x 33cm deep.
It weighs 20kg and has castors. 780W input and 2050W cooling capacity.
It took me less than half an hour to set up…
More on the bucket and saucer later!
I set it for 25°C and this is how it worked….
That red line shows the hot spikes on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, right at the max heat of the day, it just dropped!
And it stayed like that last night and into today….
I’m very happy, it’s really cool in the tent, as well as the room that it is in. The window ducting kit worked really well and is reasonably discreet from outside.
The unit pairs with the Vivosun phone app so you can control it remotely, and that works quite well. Unfortunately the app also has a shop tab and a forum tab, neither of which I have any care for. I don’t want them sending me messages for products or joining their community, and I’m sure it will happen.
Another problem is the cooling duct that brings cold air into the (lower level of the) tent is soaking wet due to condensation….
That’s why they provide a quilted wrap for that duct, which I didn’t attach.
Here’s how it looked this morning. The bucket at the back is the drain from the condenser and the saucer at the front is to catch the condensation dripping off the ducting….
The only other issue is the ducting that they provide…. it’s pretty thin, so as the cooling duct enters the tent, light shows through…
Minor gripes though.
I have a greater concern, and that is humidity. It is dehumidifying as it cools.
From the data you can see the humidity drop as well as the temp…. from 58% down to the low 40’s.
It looks like I might be forced to buy the Vivosun solution… the AeroStream Intelligent Humidifier.
I’ve already noticed that I need much less volume of nute to feed them, the heat before made the top dry in less than a day, this morning, it was still damp from 2 days ago!
I am sure this will bring new challenges, but that’s what makes this pastime such fun!
In general, I’m very happy with the AeroLush. My air is indeed, Lush!
Come and see how this affects my growing on Teetee's Sawney Bean & Dutch Passion treats
