A Medicinal Refrigerator

[jsgamber]

OMG, I'm wiping the tears away. This thread made my week!!!

 

[Danielsgb]

You guys are hilarious. Have to keep a positive attitude. This week has been pure comedy to me too. Thanks for following everybody.

On to Business.

FrigiDare 2 Indica



Here's the next one. This one will work perfect for 1 plant. It's 22" X 27" or 4.125 sq. ft. Or 4 & 1/8 sq.ft.
I'll use that 250W CMH so 60.6 W/sq.ft. for it's Main Light, then I'll add some T5's for side lighting. Haven't even planned it in yet, but idea's?
I put the RubberMade Tubs in to see how they fit. Oh and to see you guys try to lure me to the Dark (hydro) Side again.

This Frigidaire has a lock on the door. The back is empty too.
I traded in the Amana, so the HG will let me get a different one later. I didn't love that Amana, and modding it for this goal would have been a PIA. I'm thinking a stainless Steel Viking.
Daniels

 

[gumball]

thats some good space there daniels. sucks you put that work into the amana, but at least it wasnt a lot.

 

[Danielsgb]

thats some good space there daniels. sucks you put that work into the amana, but at least it wasnt a lot.

It was only a couple hrs of tinkering, and I know how one more is made. Even more importantly I know what Amana's will do. Loved that name though.
Daniels

 

[gumball]

yeah, it was cool!

 

[macdadyabc]

a couple of the larger cfl's like the 125 or 250's worked great for me in my fridge. Ventilation is a pain in the ass when it comes to fridges because of all the insulation(if it isnt gutted). Youd need a fan for a cooltube and one for the plants. good work/luck

 

[gumball]

no, the insulation is in your favor depending on your ventilation. as long as your ventilation is down, the fridge should be easy. oh wait, daniels was easy for him anyhow

 

[1mikej]

i wonder if you got a frige that worked still and used a bunch of 2ft t5's instead of a hid. and dont vent it. would it syay cool enough?

 

[Danielsgb]

i wonder if you got a fridge that worked still and used a bunch of 2ft t5's instead of a hid. and don't vent it. would it stay cool enough?

No, it would definitely need venting.
Daniels

 

[1mikej]

have you tried it 10 t5 dont get hotter than 110degess in a sealed closet thats in a room thats 80degrees. a frige is a ac unit remember... i think its time for an exsperiment

 

[1mikej]

i think you should look into that because i live in florida and i have a fridge at work next to my paint booth. it well over 100 all summer and the bitch keeps shit frozen. rember ac only can go down to about 64 degrees but your freezer will go down to 20

 

[cowboylogic]

i think you should look into that because i live in florida and i have a fridge at work next to my paint booth. it well over 100 all summer and the bitch keeps shit frozen. rember ac only can go down to about 64 degrees but your freezer will go down to 20

The chilling systems in freezers and refrigerators are designed to keep things cold. Not continually cool things down. I have my doubts they could keep up with the heat created by HID light. Even CFLs for that matter. Its a great notion in theory. But in practice I doubt it would work.

 

[Danielsgb]

The chilling systems in freezers and refrigerators are designed to keep things cold. Not continually cool things down. I have my doubts they could keep up with the heat created by HID light. Even CFLs for that matter. Its a great notion in theory. But in practice I doubt it would work.

I agree, and that's why I don't use it for that. Condensation, and other factors makes me skeptical. Would it come on for 2min. to get from 80 to 55? How long till it comes on again? The power? It needs to breathe, and a sealed system causes even more issues. See where we are going, and why I don't like that idea? I'd love to see someone try it, but I think of them as a pre-built cabinet, that I can clean to a sterile level. Also they can be stealth in the garage.
Daniels

 

[1mikej]

a refrigerator is nothing more than a small room with a built in ac. im no apliance guy but i do know a thing or 2 about ac cause i am licenced to repair car ac units. all the components that make up your central air/ car ac or a window unit is also in your frig. a frig will run constantly if it has to inorder to keep shit cold. the mechanical stuff in frig is heavy duty cause it can freeze shit you house ac can only produce air 15-20 degrees colder than the entering ac and it cant freeze a thing. now i'm not saying it will work but it is worth looking into. a sealed room is optimum cause now you can add and contol co2 levels. im thinking you take a frig with a freezer on the top. you cut a hole in the floor of the freezer seal that hole with a piece of glass, one on the floor of freezer and another on the roof of frig. when done you will have a window that alows you to see whats in freezer when you are in the frig looking up. now put cfls or floro or led light in the freezer shining down into frig. a hid would get to hot but the freezer could keep cfls or floros cool, might not freeze them but it shoud keep the temp low enough to grow in. a good frig will have moister contol to keep humidity down. lol i dont think the frig could cool things down to 55 with lights on inside but when the lights go of thing could get real cold fast so you would need to turn the setting down all the way. as far a condensation goes i dont think it would be a problem because the temps wont go low enough to reach dew point when lights are on so condentation cant form. one of us needs to put 400 watts of cfl or floros in their freezer with a thermestat and see what happens. i would not put the resivour in frig i would put it next to frig a drill small holes and run the feeding tubes through the holes. omg im going grazy with idea, put a hid light in freezer with a cool tube from right to left and cut a 6" holes on each side of freezer and get a can fan to cool light to take some of the load off frig so that the cooling abilty of frig will keep plant cool. i need to draw a plan and show you what im saying. like i said i dont know if it will work but i also dont have a solid believe it cant. we wont know till someone tries it. if you do get some condentation i wonder if you can get it to drain into the plants pot and water plant. my grow room is air tight and i have a duel hose ac in the room. this ac units creats alot of water. this water is draing constantly draining into my resivour. that water is a perfect ph of 6 and is pure and i have an over flow. so basically i never have to add water my ac does it for me. i think you could do the same in frig.

 

[1mikej]

hey i did some research and your average refrigerator has @750 btu of cooling so it has more than enough cooling capacity to be a self contained grow room exspiecaily if you use floro/cfl. and enough if you cool tube/ can fan a 400 watter. my growroom has a 650 btu ac and itkeeps room at 80 if i have all 2500watts of mh/hps on. im talking 2 x 1000 watt lights in cool tubes and a 400 watt hid without a hood or cool tube and @100 watts in t5 lights. with just the 2 x 1000watts on the room is at 75degrees. the lights are cooled with 1 8" can fan using 90+ air from outside. for every 10 degrees cooler the outside air is the room drops by 5 degrees . all my temps are taken 6-8 inches from the 1000 watt lights. it been over 95 everyday here for 2 months now.

 

[1mikej]

danialsgb i think you might be on to the ultimate stealth grow room. condentation is a valid worry and so is how to adjust temp controls but i think it can be resolved. i tried putting a light in my freezer but the door wont seal with electric cord in the way, i need to drill a hole for cord but not on my kitchen frig lo i need to find a used unit and exsperiment.

 

[macdadyabc]

you can make it work in a fridge without using the actual refrigeration, u just need ventilation. a fridge already uses about $100 worth of electricity a month, and thats when its "running" . Lets say (correct me if im wrong) that the compressor runs 8 minutes every hour on average. It would be running nonstop with an hid in there making the annual cooling cost around $1200, thats alot. Now add in the lights, fans, ect. It adds up quikly. Plus, plants need alot of fresh air and co2 to grow efficiently, which they wont get in a closed off, cooled fridge. I gutted mine, and added two holes for intake and two for exhaust; for air cooled lights and, seperate, cooler air for the plants to breathe

 

[1mikej]

you can make it work in a fridge without using the actual refrigeration, u just need ventilation. a fridge already uses about $100 worth of electricity a month, and thats when its "running" . Lets say (correct me if im wrong) that the compressor runs 8 minutes every hour on average. It would be running nonstop with an hid in there making the annual cooling cost around $1200, thats alot. Now add in the lights, fans, ect. It adds up quikly. Plus, plants need alot of fresh air and co2 to grow efficiently, which they wont get in a closed off, cooled fridge. I gutted mine, and added two holes for intake and two for exhaust; for air cooled lights and, seperate, cooler air for the plants to breathe

750 btu = 750 watts thats the convertion, so your numbers are a little high. my grow room is air tight all i need to do is open the door every other day and it gets all the air it needs i get co2 tank when flowering and im getting 3 lbs dried sellabe and 1lb dried for hash in a 6x7x8 exbathroom . the frige wont be running nonstop only when lights are on. if your frig is costing you $100 a month its broken. google usage it should be like $30. remember you only can fit 1-3 small plants in a frig so the amount of air needed is not so hard to get, a simple pc fan or 2 venting the frig would be enough. growing high end weed is not cheap cooling is the hardest thing to achieve. you would have absolute contol if you use a sealed room. it cost me @ $1000 in electric each harvest, 3.5 months. $150 in nuts and misc.

 

[Danielsgb]

I think you're right on a fridge being $30 neighborhood. $100 can't be right. It would be interesting to see someone try it. I get enough air flow to keep my temps under 85, and within a month it will be easier. Sounds like you got a good system going.
Daniels

 

[Danielsgb]

iCMH out of this Mac. I got this 70W CMH Ballast in the Mac. I used the power cord, and it's plug in wired to an extension cord female end. I can connect the power strip with a timer to it. I'll connect power supplies to the timer.