Hi fellow OGers,was surfing the web for a cheaper alternative of a cannatrol,something that will help me harvest two medium sized plants since my temps are in the 86+F and my Rh varies from 50 to 70 depending on the moments of the day.
I have an AC in my room and wondering if It would be more expensive than setting up some smaller wine fridge or cigar fridge.
What I already have Is Inkbirds controllers and some fans.
What I want to avoid Is botritys for the 3rd time.
Thank you
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I use a 4x8 tent with a stand-up AC unit and a dehumidifier in it. Spent probably 800 on everything, which isnt cheap, but still 1/2 price of the Cannatrol. Midea Cube dehum, LG stand up ac unit that vents into an adjoining bathroom with the exhaust fan running, and the cheapest 4x8 tent I could get at the time
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My AC does have built in dehumidifier function and puts out cool air.Problem Is the room where I live Is big and keeping It on all the time for days Is very pricey with all the other stuff in the house turned on
@VAhomegrown
If it’s in a tent, it only has to cool the inside of the tent, which happens pretty quickly. Mine doesn’t run all day long
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I built one basically the hardest way possible.
There’s a lot of debate about what “magic” the Cannatrol has. I talked to David/his salesman about his machine at Cannacon here in Albuquerque and noted the differences and similarities to what I’ve been playing with.
Last season I dried using a constant-VPD method based on independent thought and research about how to best dry plant material. This essential controls the “rate” of water removal. Cannatrol uses a slightly different method of fixing the dew-point, or absolute humidity. This controls the end state moisture of the product but less so the rate of water removal. If both setups are stable, they function equivilently when programmed with the same settings, although the two techniques differ slightly in reality.
In general I noted that his targets are a bit more aggressive than what I used (VPD=0.7kPA), resulting in predictably shorter drying times.
This season I’m going to modify the software to accomodate a two-stage drying/curing process. Initially, I’m going to dry the buds using constant-VPD (0.6-0.8kPa), say for a week. For week two I’ll transition to fixed absolute humidity (8-9g/cubic meter).
You can do all this with Inkbirds, although if you want to accomplish the cannatrol goal of fixed absolute humidity (this is the real meaning of dewpoint - the same as saying “controlled dew point”) you need to adjust the two settings based on each other. For example, if your drying space is hotter, you need a different RH setpoint.
Cannatrol you set a dewpoint. It’s easy to make a calculator that tells you the RH setpoint for a given temperature and dewpoint (or absolute humidity).
Here’s my machine.
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I Had a brief Reading,and kudos for you work!Basically I want to go higher in rh with higher temps to hit the VPD target of 0.7?
@FieldEffect
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This is where that technique can be dangerous - you could wind up creating a mold situation. I allowed that only below 70% RH, which meant I needed to stay below about 70F, and yields a high finished moisture content.
That’s the crux of the hybrid approach of fixed VPD with a bound on absolute humidity. The Cannatrol at a setting of 70F with a DP of 50F is roughly 49% RH.
The goal at the end is to achieve stasis at about 9g/cubic meter absolute humidity. I want to get there slowly at a controlled rate slower than the Cannatrol. Cannatrol could achieve the same thing by changing the parameters mid-cycle. But I am having fun taking my own road.
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I made a drying tent for the same reason built from:
1x 2’ x 2’ x 5’3" tent (Mammoth brand)
1x 6" AC Infinity Raxial duct fan (mounted outside the tent)
1x 6" Carbon Filter (outside the tent, at the end of the ducting)
1x Disco Ball Motor holding a pair of stainless steel “sock drying racks”.
1x 6" Hurricane fan (keeps the air moving)
1x AC Infinity Cloudforge humidifier T3 (piped into the tent, maintains RH within 2%)
It’s a lot of fucking around but I can scale it up to a 2x4 if needed but I can also remove the drying racks and put in a 6x tray mesh herb drying rack instead which still works with the disco ball motor.
Here’s an example of the rack:
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It seems the best option Is using my 2*2 tent at the moment,AC in dehumidifier mode and Just let the room closed
@Pigeonman as always thanks for your input 
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I’m a sucker for wanting to see a friend succeed in their efforts! 
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Does the portable a/c cause any issues with too much air flow around the drying plants?
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Nice one!
I put in a small dehumidifyer on a inkbird and it works great.
I named mine “Sandeltroll”
Here you find the how-to :
So yeah…Just a wine cooler @Jetdro 
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Yes,It looks like the best budget way
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…and the inkbird has an app.
I have a VPD Sensor controlled by my HA Hub in there and it does exactly what it should.
I’ve made a few in last year and mostly spend around 150 bucks per unit.
And ten of them for the price of one cannatrol sounds fair to me 
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Just make a hole for the dehumidifier cable and then?
@CaptainNemo
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Nothing more, if you have a fitting dehumidificator…#
Most have this auto-stop, when the tank is full, but you can take the tank off and change the wires.
It’s very simple and with second hands parts really cheap 
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I have a Little One like yours,yes.Basically I Need a cheap wine fridge,the cheapest maybe
And After the cure,I can store Them in grove bags?
@CaptainNemo
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There are plenty of second hand wine fridges!
Thats exactly how i’m doing it.
Works great! It was a big upgrade with the sometimes unstable clima up here in the mountains 
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