Air Conditioning for Fish Room Question?

[ReefWaters]

I have a small "sun room" attached to my house. Its approximately 9'x12'. I call it a sun room because there is no AC in the room and the walls are almost all window. It has always been used for growing house plants and not much else.

Im working on plans (getting my thoughts together) to renovate the room. Im going to replace the windows, add tile, etc, and turn it into a fish room. I dont want to add this room to my central AC unit because of all the windows. I also want to be able to control the fish room temp separately from the house.

So my question is if you guys think its better to buy a window unit or one of the "in wall" style units you can buy these days? The ones similar to motel AC units. Also, does anyone know where I could find one of these "in wall" units?

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sidewinder770]

Mini-split. Much more efficient and looks a lot better and you can mount it anywhere you want. You can try online @ a place like www.genieac.com. That's where I got mine from and I wouldnt do it any other way.

 

[enamdjd]

I agree, mini-split is the way to go.

 

[ReefWaters]

Okay, thanks guys. I found mini-splits on genieac.com. I'm a little confused though. They don't give a lot of information other than specs.

Does one part sit inside and the other outside? If so, what goes through the wall? Just a couple of pipes and wires?

Or do I have to cut a big hole in the outside wall like I would with a motel style unit?

 

[sidewinder770]

There is an inside part and an outside part. Wires and freon lines run between them. Electrical only needs to be at the outside unit. Be sure you get a "line set" for the distance you are going between the inside and outside units. They come precharged for 15' of line but will work farther than that and the prefabed line kits already have the connectors on them. Very DIY- you can install and hook up everything pretty easily. When you are done hire an A/C guy to evac the system and add freon if your length is over the 15'- that's it very quiet and comes with a remote to set the temp in case you want to mount the inside unit high up. The line sets with insulation on them would need about a 1" dia hole for each (there are 2) and one 3/4" hole for the electrical feeds between them.

 

[Nanook]

I went with the Mitsubishi 12,000 BTU unit over a chiller for my fishroom. The unit is absolutely quiet and pretty damn efficient.

dave

 

[ReefWaters]

Alright!!!!! Now we're talking. I didnt even know these things existed. But this is actually perfect for what I want. I really didnt want to have to cut a BIG hole (box) in the side of my house but a couple of holes is no problem at all.

Nanook, by cooling the air around your tank your able to get away with no chiller at all? Or are you using one in addition to the AC unit?

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[ReefWaters]

Oh yeah, Im still looking at units online but are they heat AND AC or just AC?

EDIT: ............ I found it. :smokin: You can get them that heat and cool. Sorry, I got post happy.

 

[Nanook]

My Mitsubishi is installed, but the tanks are still empty

I figured out how much heat and evaporation were generated by pumps, lights, heaters, etc and sized the split for that. This will really alleviate a lot of problems with evaporation as well...it all goes down the drain. I had an engineer from a reputable company help me size the unit for my fishroom. I also saw a few other people on here with large fish rooms using the split AC units successfully.

dave

 

[ReefWaters]

Nanook, is that the same room you've been working on for almost 2 years now???? Ive seen pictures of those tanks sitting there empty for years now???? :eek2:

Do you have a thread explaining all of this?