I have a ~4'x4' insulated (paneling outside, R13 between studs, R3 reflective roll insulation as an interior "wall" with duct tape over all seams) grow room, built inside of an uninsulated outdoor storage shed. I run two HLG 100 v2's and a tabletop fan.
I have a BN-Link temp controller watching heat (small ceramic heater in the room) and cool (7k BTU portable AC unit outside of the grow room, with a manifold and ducting routing cool air in the room). I also have duct that goes from inside the room to outside the building.
Not sure if I call this room a "sealed" grow room or not. Even with my duct taping all seams, I know there are still light leaks around the door.
With the temp controller set to 75F, the room still gets up to 80 before the AC's preset compressor lockout turns off and the freon actually starts flowing and cooling the room.
Right now that outside ducting is just sitting there...but should I hook up an exhaust fan to it to pull hot air out and try to maintain temp? Or will I just be causing the AC to kick on more since all that new/cool air will be leaving?
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I hear ya, the problem is your plants also need a fresh supply of CO2 which is why you need to continually suck in fresh air and blow out the stale cool air.
You should always be exchanging the air in your grow room for fresh air. So yes, you should be using something like an inline fan to pull the old air out of the grow room causing negative air pressure that sucks fresh air in.
Some of the new ones like the AC Infinity can be programmed to only come on when needed to help save electricity cost.
They're just seedlings at this stage.
However my concern is reducing energy costs, and I feel as much insulation as I've put in for such a small room that it should be more efficient than it is. Trying to find the ventilation balance.
How are your plants growing? Seems like they'd be slow growing from lack of c02 unless you are adding some.