Water Cooled Grow Rooms

phillipchristian

phillipchristian

New Member
Doer said:
yeah, just depends on the water temp. The fixture can be used to cool the room if the water is chilled.
But, I still get some ifrarred. What is different about the Ice Box, I wonder. I need to look into it.
I plan on going to 2000w by adding another fixture soon.
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Do you still use a fan when you are using a Fresca? I'm not sure but I don't think so. With an Ice Box you are using a fan and therefore exhausting that air out of the vent. Even the infrared and radiant heat from the hood. I was actually surprised myself when I first set up an Ice Box. Chiller water was 64 at the time till I later got the system down to 60 degree water by reducing the humidty and temps slightly in the room. This lowered my dewpoint and therefore let me lower my chiller. When I got it to 60 the air coming out was cooler than the ambient temp in the room. Not by much though. If you had 2 in a line I bet you would be adding some cooling to the room.

My buddies got 1 on an HPS in his flower room right now (8x8 tent) and he says the other one that is a spot chiller is never on. Maybe 5-10 minutes an hour. And he lives in a warm climate.
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
Oh, you gotta use fans. Exhaust and circulation fans. Bringing in pre-cooled air is the best way to go. The infrared radiates thru the air without heating it much. It illuminates all the surfaces and heats those. Then those heat the air.
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
phillipchristian said:
Do you still use a fan when you are using a Fresca? I'm not sure but I don't think so. With an Ice Box you are using a fan and therefore exhausting that air out of the vent. Even the infrared and radiant heat from the hood. I was actually surprised myself when I first set up an Ice Box. Chiller water was 64 at the time till I later got the system down to 60 degree water by reducing the humidty and temps slightly in the room. This lowered my dewpoint and therefore let me lower my chiller. When I got it to 60 the air coming out was cooler than the ambient temp in the room. Not by much though. If you had 2 in a line I bet you would be adding some cooling to the room.

My buddies got 1 on an HPS in his flower room right now (8x8 tent) and he says the other one that is a spot chiller is never on. Maybe 5-10 minutes an hour. And he lives in a warm climate.
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It's always been my hope I could use the Frescas to pull heat from the room, also. Just haven't got there yet. I had an old AC set up in the water,
but over bend a line and lost the Freon. Cheaper just to buy another one.
 
skiweeds

skiweeds

Active Member
phillipchristian said:
I wanted to start a thread on water cooled grow rooms. From cooling a tent to a large commercial grow. I've been doing it for a long time and I wanted to share my knowledge and experience with anyone who had questions. I know it's not for everyone and every climate but I am glad to help those out that are interested.
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your exactly the person i need. i have 4 600ws and a hydrogen pro co2 gen. drain to waste was using over 100 gals of water a day so i plan on recircing in a 55gal tank. i live in upper michigan so we get very cold winters which i love for grows, and very hot and humid summers, a growers nightmare when using as many lights as i do in a small room. my room is 8x9x8. i run natural gas so i dont worry about wasting co2. right now for my cold air i got a 6 inch inline fan that kicks on and blows in outside air anytime i gets too hot inside. when summer comes i was going to get an AC but im thinking of getting a chiller with some ice boxes. my hoods are all sealed. they pull air from outside my room and push it right outside. i have an exhaust fan run 15 minutes every hour to get rid of stale air. i want to keep my room in the high 80s to about 90F to prevent powdery mildew from forming. what size chiller would you think i need? i talked to a guy at hyro innovations and he said probably a 1hp should work but a 2 ton would definately work. he said maybe 2-4 ice boxes. he said its kind of hard to say to be for sure because i havent done a summer grow yet with this much heat being generated. i know you can put the ice boxes between your lights but since mine is just straight up exhausting outside would i really need them between lights? i was just thinking mounting on the wall or angle them up from the floor. i know you can even put one between your carbon filter and inline fan to save the cost of running a fan. thank you so much
 
phillipchristian

phillipchristian

New Member
skiweeds said:
your exactly the person i need. i have 4 600ws and a hydrogen pro co2 gen. drain to waste was using over 100 gals of water a day so i plan on recircing in a 55gal tank. i live in upper michigan so we get very cold winters which i love for grows, and very hot and humid summers, a growers nightmare when using as many lights as i do in a small room. my room is 8x9x8. i run natural gas so i dont worry about wasting co2. right now for my cold air i got a 6 inch inline fan that kicks on and blows in outside air anytime i gets too hot inside. when summer comes i was going to get an AC but im thinking of getting a chiller with some ice boxes. my hoods are all sealed. they pull air from outside my room and push it right outside. i have an exhaust fan run 15 minutes every hour to get rid of stale air. i want to keep my room in the high 80s to about 90F to prevent powdery mildew from forming. what size chiller would you think i need? i talked to a guy at hyro innovations and he said probably a 1hp should work but a 2 ton would definately work. he said maybe 2-4 ice boxes. he said its kind of hard to say to be for sure because i havent done a summer grow yet with this much heat being generated. i know you can put the ice boxes between your lights but since mine is just straight up exhausting outside would i really need them between lights? i was just thinking mounting on the wall or angle them up from the floor. i know you can even put one between your carbon filter and inline fan to save the cost of running a fan. thank you so much
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Hey bud, welcome to the thread.

I would say you are right in that you don't need them in between your lights. The only reason to do that would be if you want to completely seal your room. I'm going to be hones with you; getting Ice Boxes as an alternative to a/c in your case will actually end up costing you a lot more. And with the additional fans & pumps that you will have to run I'm not sure it will even be more efficient electrically. I'd recommend the a/c in your situation because a 1hp chiller is going to run you around $700 for a EcoPlus one and then $200-$400 in Ice Boxes plus fans, tubing, thermostat controllers, and a water pump. You are probably looking at around $1500. You can get a good portable dual hose a/c for $500.

If you decide to go the chiller router then it's hard for me to say as well how much cooling you will need for your room. It's always good to play it safe so I think you would be good with 2 8" Ice Box, 2 inline fans, 1 thermostat controller (have 1 Ice Box run all the time); a 30-50 gallon reservoir and a multiport 1/2hp pump. In this case I would say a 3/4hp chiller should be enough. If you are looking to expand in the future maybe or also run your Co2 generator and possible a nutrient reservoir coil then I'd suggest a 1hp unit.
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
I'm always after more reasonable prices than the cannabis or hydroponic outfits offer. I just found a trove of good stuff in Aqua Culture.

AquaticEco.com

All kinds of ideas in their catalog. I was just looking at an air dryer tube with rechargeable desiccant for $70
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
I have some Thermoelectirc gear I'm experimenting with. It's not that efficient but, very a very small and simple tech. I have an air intake pre-cooler w/160w TEC on a water block. But, I have to sink enormous heat. Much more than the Fresca. The TEC will heat that 100 gals to 90 degrees in about 2 hrs. But, just an experiment. It works much better in water like that Ice Probe.

In a res the I.P. will work better than in an Aquarium, if you insulate the res.
 
Godfather420

Godfather420

Well-Known Member
phillip... Setting up my dream grow right now. 12 600 watters. Debating between cost efficiency of and initial cost of 4ton chiller and air handler and 36,000 btu minisplit. installation of either is no bigs. running a sealed room right now with 80 degree ambient air outside and an 18,000 btu mini-split . I've got 3 lights turned off and I'm sitting at 82 degrees. I need more cooling.
 
ScoobyDoobyDoo

ScoobyDoobyDoo

Well-Known Member
Godfather420 said:
question is, you still got the hook up thru chill king?
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hey godfather. this is my new account. what kind of chiller are you looking for? compressorless? self contained? compact? etc... i can still point you in the right direction and get you a discount on one for sure. not sure if 4 tons will be enough for that many lights. will depend on how you are running them (i.e. air cooled, exhausted, bare bulb) and how you are setting the sytem up (i.e. matching water cooled air handler, ice boxes, other water cooled equipment, etc...). let me know.
 
KrAzY80

KrAzY80

Active Member
Just finished reading this whole thread and it is the most information I have found on water cooling in one thread. You all know your shit. I am a Hvac tech and have alot of equipment and the know how to set up just about anything but I lack creativity and I tend to over complicate things. I am going to throw out some ideas here and would love it if someone could push me in the right direction.

I been running my a 1600w air cooled grow for 2 years now circulating through my basement with no problems and no a/c. I am closing on a house in 2 weeks and I am going to build 2 sealed grow room within a room in the basement as soon as I move in. I would like to be operational within a few days and my bro is carpenter so that end is taken care of.
Equipment - 1000w hps flower sealed hood "optional 400w hps or mh addition"
- 600w hps veg sealed hood
- water cooled co2 gen and sensor "havent purchased yet in case I dont need water cooled

I am looking for the most efficient and simple method to cool these 2 rooms keeping them sealed. I have a 25,000btu commercial ice maker that I have turned into a chiller with a 35 gal rez. I just dropped the heat sink from the ice maker into the rez and it chills the water quick. I have ran a few test with a modified a/c coil and it has alot of cooling capability. So my question is what would I need to cool 2 4x4 rooms for veg and flower as far as ice boxes or heat exchangers. Everything I have read has been on a larger scale than what I am working with. I have made 2 heat exchangers out of a 2 ton air handler a/c coil to water cooled that I can use as well.

I am just not sure as what I will need to cool the rooms. I have been thinking of purchasing a couple of 6" ice boxes from hydro innovations for the hood and spot cool. My diy chiller has a water jacket condenser coil on it that connects to potable water to remove heat "drain to waste" and optional fan above it to cool so it can be located indoors but I dont like the idea of paying for water to cool my chiller.

I also have 2 portable 9000 btu air conditioners with the single exhaust at my disposal and a 18000 btu window unit at my disposal. I would prefer to use these portable units but having a sealed room is a must for me and dont see a way to use these without exhausting hot air without exhausting my rooms but they can be used as dehumidifiers to. I thought of maybe putting a 2x4 room in between flower and veg and circulating the hoods into their to cool them or using it as a lung room since they both will be using the same co2 burner. I can locate ballast, chiller, and co2 burner outside of these rooms without heat buildup being an issue especially since winter is on its way.

So with this info hopefully someone can give me some ideas on what is the best route to take to keep both rooms sealed and cooled to around 80 degrees whether it be using my a/cs or diy chiller. I have a intex sand filter pump for a 10000gal pool that I modified for the chiller as well. I am open to anything and I have about 1000 dollar budget for fans, controllers, heat exchangers etc. for the project as well.
 
S

subcool fan

Member
i built my system off of a thread on grasscity. i had no idea all of this info was out and about. so my video is a little bit presumptuous to say the least.... i was excited to finally have it running. anyways... here is a video on what to do and it works. i will probably be switching over to an air handler in the coming months. but this does work. 11k chiller cools 4200 watts with my hvac helping out. my goal is to go 18k and not have to rely on the hvac so much. but anyways... maybe this vid on how i did it will help you out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9A10GS_F_Nc
 
B

berkman858

Well-Known Member
This thread is great! I just got done reading it and have formulated some ideas that I would like to run by you guys.

Current setup:

  • (1) 5x5 tent with 1000 watt light
  • 4 bucket undercurrent hydro setup with ~17 gallon capacity
  • dehumidifier
  • CO2 from bottle (no heat issues here but I will probably want to change out to water cooled CO2 generator in the future)

My current temps are 88-90 degrees in the tent and with CO2 the plants seem to be doing fine but I know the temps should be cooler. I plan on setting up another 5x5 in the same area, my garage, and instead of buying a mini-split A/C I was thinking I could do better with a 1 1/2 HP chiller. This is what I am thinking.


  • 1 1/2 HP Ecoplus commercial grade chiller
  • 1 icebox for each 1000 watt light (2 total) - air is drawn from outside of tent and exhausted back outside the tent but I want to reduce the temperature of my garage
  • 1 wort chiller for each reservoir (2 total)
  • 1 icebox/canfan combo as spot chiller in each tent (2 total)

I only want to get the temps down to around 80-83 degrees so that plant transpiration stays high and works well with the enhanced CO2.
Do you guys think that a 1 1/2 HP chiller will be enough for this equipment? Also, what air temps do you guys usually aim for when running a sealed room with CO2?
 
S

subcool fan

Member
18 might be a little bit much. i dont like my chiller cutting off and on all of the time. it wears it out. and there is no way for it to freeze up unless that rez gets really low on water. my homemade almost 1hp unit with all of its flaws is able to keep up with 3k lights and have the room stay in the 78 to 80 range (depending on if hvac is on) with it being on 13 hours a day non stop. it works flawlessly. once the temps drop... there wont be near as much usage to keep the water (nutes) chilled. i assume you saw the video linked above your post.

my silicone is chilling right now in my 1.5 hp unti that i am building out. if you want. i will be doing a pretty detailed diy of how to to the big chillers on your own in a couple of days with lots of pics. i can also test out running only 2k lights and such so you can know exactly what it will do.

if i were you and in your situation.. i wouldnt go any bigger than a 1.25horse. if they make such a thing. if they dont then i would snag a 1hp. either one of those sizes will kee you at 110v also. using less electricity. and dont buy a 55 gallon rez. thats too much for it to keep up with. keep it at 25 gall. maybe even twenty. .<-- my personal opinion is, that is the leading cause of so many peeps failing with their chiller. but thats just me. i am sure there are others that feel differently. but keep in mind my setup defies everyones' formulas on how many btu you need. the formulas around here total me out to 42k btu. and i know i can do it for 18k. cause i am almost doing it with the 11k. now running 4200 wats in lights alone. also make sure you have one or two iceboxes at the end to cool the air down. its much more efficient than a normal a/c. if you are the diy type... i made my ice boxes for thirty bucks a piece. if you want info... its pretty easy. just ask.

be well,
-needa
 
I

ikickbutt

Member
"either one of those sizes will kee you at 110v also. using less electricity."
if using less electricity is something to consider, it's the amperage drawn you pay for. for example, a 110Volt unit may draw 8 amps, and a 208 Volt may draw 4, the 208 one will cost ya less money on your electricity bill. that applies to lighting as well. less amps= less money.
 
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