Hey gang
I live in the desert and am struggling with the in between months between summer and winter where my central ac is not running. (I know the answer is just dont grow during those time periods but..... )
I am looking for a way to automate my environment's temperature and humidity.
I have 4 tents inside a sealed room which I am exhausting with an inline fan.
I have a portable ac unit and a portable heater which are both controlled by their own thermostat and a humidifier also digitally controlled.
All tents have fans exhausting them into the room.
Looking for something that will regulate my temps and humidity along with the room's exhaust fan.
Also let me add that I am not to tech savvy.
I was looking at inkbirds products for temp and the rh controller as well but the ones I have seen only control 2 devices.
I think I am trying to find a controller to control ac, humidifier and exhaust just for the spring and fall months.
Also just pick up a few exhale bags and gonna give these a shot.
Running the ac when it gets to warm seems like the simple answer but yet I know that its not. My rh drops very low.
Well take this weekend for example, in my room it crept up about 80-82 at its warmest part of the day and in the tents it crept up to 85-86 at some points with an rh of around 60%.
I am trying to keep my tents between 78 and 82ish with rh of 60%-65% which would put my vpd at 1.2-1.5. I use these number because I notice my garden's vitality in these ranges and it seems to be the best with the last few runs.
Under normal (and I dont even know what normal is lol) circumstances I have no problem achieving this.
Unless I am home all day every day being able to make slight tweaks here and there its extremely difficult to remain within those parameters.
I am looking for something that will be able to adjust and manipulate my environment to keep all the controllable controlled.
So when it gets too got you are exhausting air? Why not have the AC kick on and cool the room instead? The portable AC should stabilize the room really well without having to exhaust.
I am struggling because of VPD swings that are hard to control. My current monitoring system (me and temp/hygrometer gauges) are playing a reaction game versus a set it forget it and just keeping an eye on it.
Maybe even indoors I am still having to work in tandem with mother nature.
I only exhaust the room when its too hot... for instance this weekend is gorgeous, 80 degree weather but the room can reach 90 if I dont open the door and exhaust but then I lose my humidity.
VPD is a bitch for me
And no I have not tried C02 yet.
Have you considered running CO2 and not exhausting at all? You have AC for cooling, a heater for heating, and a humidifier to increase the relative humidity already. I assume you're struggling because you're also exhausting from the room. Is that correct?