budleydoright
Well-Known Member
Those Ecoplus chillersr eally can't be compared to the chill king. I believe they are really more of an aquarium duty chiller than an industrial duty.
Buy a stainless wort chiller coil off of ebay for 50 bucks. Made to fit inside a 5 gal bucket.
Those Ecoplus chillersr eally can't be compared to the chill king. I believe they are really more of an aquarium duty chiller than an industrial duty.
After some serious thought on finding a DIY low cost way to provide chilled water to use in applications for a grow room I came up with this idea. Tell me what you think.
I take my chest freezer which has a molded plastic inner shell as most of them do, Fill it with enough water to cover 3 or 4 of those Wort stainless steel coils coupled together with short pieces of garden hose. Set the freezer temp control to a setting that would get the water in the freezer compartment very cold but not frozen. If the stock thermostat can't do this then replace it with one taken from an old refrigerator. I would hope that when the sytem is up and running the heat coming back from the room would be enough to keep the water in the freezer from freezing. Even if it did you could use antifreeze in a closed loop system. You really can't hurt those stainless coils. I know someone is going to say " what about a leak. My answer is, if you use good materials and pressue test the system like all closed loop cooling systems in the commercial world, then leaks won't be a problem. There are all types of risks you take when growing, This is one risk vs reward for cheap cooling I would be willing to take. of course the freezer sits outside the room and if stealth is a concern and your room is in your garage it looks very natural. Dual zones for hydro systems could be a bit tricky, but for those of us using soil this just might do the trick.
Finally I read alot of posts concerning condensation, the answer is insulate the water lines as the do in the commercial world. cheap insulation for piping is available at all the home improvement stores.
I'm very intrested in feedback on this idea, Thanks in advance!
Your right to a point, but it would depend on the heat level coming back. In my case I have 8'x16' room. 5-400 watt lights the intake and output are vented outside the room. The ballast are also outside the room. No co2 no dehumidifier yet. I would only use for ambient room temp. During the peak of summer I would only have to lower the room by 10 or 15 maybe 20 degrees. Having a window ac mounted in a room in the garage is a dead give away when seen from the street. Although I'm legal I have always operated with stealth in mind. I thought posting more infomation on my room might help. Probably would not work for a larger operation with 4 or 5 1000 watters and other associated gear. I currently have the ac window in use but people have already asked me whats going on. I just tell it's a recording studio or a wood working shop but I'm not sure there buying it.
Instead of all of that buildout; and since your lights are already vented; why not just get a portable a/c and just vent the exaust. If you ONLY need to cool the ambient temps in the room then that will be a lot easier and probably cheaper. You can get a 12,000btu one for like $400.
I agree with Budley on this one. If you are trying to cool 1 light or maybe some reservoir as well then go for it. Anything more than that and you will be putting too much load on that compressor and it will fail eventually. The design sounds great and I don't think you'd have any problems with freezing but those freezer compressors are not meant for heavy loads.
As far as you idea about condensation and pipe insulation. It doesn't work; especially in a grow room. If you are running water through your pipes that is 45-50 degrees and using that foam insulation then you are going to have severe condensation build up and mold problems. That insulation will also turn literally to mush within 2-3 months max. I use Rubatex which is a thermal nyplon/plastic insulation fitting that is considerably more expensive and I still don't run my chiller below 55 because it has led to problems.
I was speaking about an insulation product we call armaflex, my contact at work would supply this at little to no cost. I'm sorry, I was probaly misleading you a bit, fiberglass insulation would not work and I'm not sure they even sell Armaflex at the box store. For the sake of arguement let's scrap the insulation idea and change the design a little. Would mounting the condenser just inside the room with only 12 to 18 inches of exposed water lines help with condensation maybe use a drip pan to collect it?
Hey bud. I've never really thought about it. I would think that putting the dehumidifier down low would push the exhaust from it to the ceiling and then force the more humid air down to be dehumidified. Also, I always recommend having your a/c push air to the ceiling if you have a window unit. It will cool and dehumidify your room more efficiently.
For cooling the intake side of your lights I still think you are gonna need a chiller or another portable a/c. With those types of temps and that much lighting you really don't have much of a choice. Chiller being the more expensive upfront cost but more efficient and the portable a/c being the cheaper quick fix which will cost you a little more every month in electricity.
hey huckleberry i got some extra parts lying around and can get a hold of refrigerant.. how do i go about pressurizing the system after i add my pipes and make my new bends and what not? is there a bleeder valve on the compressor? can i hand pump? what kind of gauges do i need? i have a couple that where given to me free a long time a go that still work or i can but a new set or borrow some from a friend
There isn't many people I trust for info. So I'm lucky to have you to bounce ideas off of. Thanks
Thanks bud for the post I do have a couple of ac window units and refrigerators laying around maybe I could take the compressor out of one and see if it's feasible to solder/braze it into the freezer.