A/C vs. IceBox & Water Chiller

Stonefree69

Stonefree69

Member
Thanks BEECH. I do have a Mastercool evap cooler that literally puts out ice cubes from April to early July here in AZ. ;) I just run that and hook up a fan/ carbon filter to one of my 12" upducts.
 
SOMEBEECH

SOMEBEECH

Well-Known Member
Need any advice on central PM as ive been doing this all my life and im 50 now and live in TX,lol so plenty of Doing WERK had 70plus days over 100f last yr.
and a Heatstroke.
BEECH
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
budleydoright said:
Frescas are nice but I wouldn;t buy into the 100 gallons per 1k myth. Maybe if it's real cold outside, my 1k could bring 100 gallons to over 100 degrees within a 12 hour cycle. Still works great and removes tons of heat though.

Also, while it is possible to run a 1k in a fresca a few inches from the plant tops without starting a fire, You will fry your babies. They still need to be kept at the recommended distance less 6 or 8" to offset the loss from the water and glass. Trust me on this one. I thought the same thing, I put 2 1ks in frescas with a chiller and 60 degree water in the magnum reflectors. Even 12" off the plants and they are pale ass yellow in 2 days. There is such a thing as too much light. I also noticed focused bands of hot spots with my frescas. Let me know if you experience the same thing.

I still own 3 units and a 1/2 hp homemade chiller. I certainly won't say I'll never use them again, but it just became to complex for my dyslexic brain.
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Well, a lesson learned is too close will just burn up the plant. It looked fine, but as it cured it turned to a brown, almost like it was lightly pre-charred. Many mistakes in the first run and I count that as one of them. I'm keeping a journal here. There is a list. :)

This time, I re-set the entire thing, insulated and put in a 1/4 hp chiller. The light is keep no closer than 30 inches. Water 63, air 75, light res maxed out at 90 F but it was 65 again the next morning.

So, I'm having no problems with 100 gal in the North shade of the house. But, 95 is a rare, hot day indeed.

I have this idea to run a heat exchanger in the rdwc, easy enough. The chiller can do both for me, I think. And in the heat zones, Texas, a 1/2 hp would do it.

I got a 1000 gph pump in the pond for circulation. And I have a high capacity 1/2" CPU radiator from Danger Den, sitting around.

I was thinking to plumb the 8" x 8" x 2" radiator core in line after the light heats it. Put that in the main pump bag in the control bucket. The pump is always drawing the heat from the radiator before it cycles back to the chiller. That way I can also take advantage of the natural heat shedding at night, 300 days of the year. YMYV.
 
Red1966

Red1966

Well-Known Member
MOON SHINER

MOON SHINER

Well-Known Member
Great info here! Really helping me decide on which way to go, running into some issues now that summer is at its peak where I am.
 
Red1966

Red1966

Well-Known Member
Todesengel said:
I'm gonna throw the BS flag right here. I have a 1/4hp JBJ Artica chiller, and they are not designed to cool below 20 degrees below ambient. Infact, most 1/10hp to 1/3hp can only cool 20-25degrees below ambient RUNNING THE COMPRESSOR 24/7! I spoke with JBJ tech support and they informed me that in any low end chiller, the compressors is a tropical compressor and not a cold water compressor. Using a low end chiller is not efficient in ANYWAY possible.

I am running an 8" Icebox, an 700cfm fan, 50gallon cooling res, and the 1/4hp chiller. With my 1000w bulb, ambient temps in my sealed 7x7 closet hit 81 degress with 85% RH. Keep in mind the chiller compressor was running 24/7 too.

Long story short, I am ditching the icebox for a portable AC unit and I will just have to deal with the c02 loss through the venting. Unless I can find a 3/4hp chiller for cheap somewhere, but I don't think its gonna happen.
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You can seal a window unit and duct the air to your tent much cheaper. Modern window units exchange very little air with the outdoors, You can seal some of them completely, but you'll need to add a drain for condensate.A puny 5,000 BTU window unit is more than adequate to cool a 4 x 8 tent. You'll also need to add two inline fans, but you may need to do that with a portable, too, because the hoses are 5' or less. Some portables are easy to seal, also, but some are not seal-able at all. Bear in mind modifying any of them will void the warranty, so test them before you make any alterations.
 
angryp

angryp

Member
Really need some help on water cooling..... On my 3rd grow now and have decided to switch from a/c to water cool. I run aeroflo 60 only using 3 tubes and 15 sites, indoors with orca film on walls and floor, 8" raptor hood, 1000 watt phantom ballast, cyclone chiller for nutes, 4' can with 750 cfm fan, and with switching to a to water cooling ditching a/c and all vents. Live in socal desert so hot as hell, here. Ok so I bought a 11x10 titanium heat exchanger with copper fins used in the food industries, 1/4hp hydrofarm chiller, 55 gallon drum (res), aapw1000 active aqua pump (submersed), general hydroponics tnc 1/4hp pump, insulated 1/2" line and grozone TV2 controller. Run the pump aapw1000 in the 55 drum and out to chiller and back, the gh tnc pump is drilled into bottom of drum outside feeding the heat exchanger hooked to the raptor hood at one end and the other end has the 750 cfm fan hooked to the TV2 controller. Can't seem to keep the room in themrange im looking for 76 night and 79 - 81 daytime. I've tried this in every configuration I can think of;
1) aapw1000 to chiller to heat exchanger and back
2) aapw1000 to heat exchanger to chiller and then res
3) put two pumps as stated above
4) Adjusted fan speeds up and down
5) adjusted aapw1000's intake from max. to min.
6) Ran 3/4" pvc from the tnc pump up and over to heat exchange and then back to the 1/2" insulated line.
7) pulled instead of pushed air through the hood
8) Went from 25 gallons in drum upto 50 gallons (per hydro innovations technical support)
9) 1st attempt at thismwas the reason I spent $675 on the titanium copper coiled heat exchanger was so I could hook upto hood run straight down to my nute res (standard 40 gallon aeroflo 60 res) and back down to it using a secong tnc pump in the drain port ( for you guys that know gh aeroflo 60). Problem there was the 1/4hp cyclone chiller cannot keep up, with heat exchange and would raise res temps to 74-76 didmt want to risk root rot. Soooo I scraped that and bought the extra chiller and pump just for the heat exchanger.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated, seems like this is definitely the way to go and there seems to be some guys on here thst really know there stuff. Respect
 
Ladyganj024

Ladyganj024

New Member
SOMEBEECH said:
Need any advice on central PM as ive been doing this all my life and im 50 now and live in TX,lol so plenty of Doing WERK had 70plus days over 100f last yr.
and a Heatstroke.
BEECH
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Hey if you have the time..i am new on water cooling and you stated that you were available for info..
 
visajoe1

visajoe1

Well-Known Member
Ladyganj024 said:
Hey if you have the time..i am new on water cooling and you stated that you were available for info..
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that post is about 5 years old fyi. but to answer your question, forget a chiller. use bennies in your rez, and you're golden like grahams
 
Ladyganj024

Ladyganj024

New Member
visajoe1 said:
that post is about 5 years old fyi. but to answer your question, forget a chiller. use bennies in your rez, and you're golden like grahams
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Bennies?? Do you mean beneficial organisms sorry? And does that really help with temperatures almost at 100
 
visajoe1

visajoe1

Well-Known Member
Ladyganj024 said:
Bennies?? Do you mean beneficial organisms sorry? And does that really help with temperatures almost at 100
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Yikes! thats hot. ya, you'll need a chiller if you're water is getting that hot. yes, i mean beneficial bacteria when i say bennies. are you running dwc/rdwc?
 
Ladyganj024

Ladyganj024

New Member
Oh you are funny. The first grow room I had I had my central air pumping in my wall unit at 5000 BTU and a portable at 14000 BTU however my ventilation knowledge was limited. it was a crash course. I I think I got it down to where if I have enough air flow coming through. I have a picture of I think it would be a hot air extractor and thought about building a box around that and venting it into a split to run down two lines.

I am switching to LEDs and obviously I'm trying to save money. I thought about the do-it-yourself on the bottom of the air extractor and seeing how that works but my other option is to split with a 6-inch or 8 inch in beginning and 8 inch pulling it out of the room into the ceiling. I have a design that actually increase the square footage of my girl and decrease the lights so I'll just have two lines. And this has to worker is do or die on this one and I don't have room for error
I put my foot down no more micromanaging I'm doing it my own way seem to have a pretty good outcome when everybody leaves my ladies alone
 
xmatox

xmatox

Well-Known Member
Ladyganj024 said:
Oh you are funny. The first grow room I had I had my central air pumping in my wall unit at 5000 BTU and a portable at 14000 BTU however my ventilation knowledge was limited. it was a crash course. I I think I got it down to where if I have enough air flow coming through. I have a picture of I think it would be a hot air extractor and thought about building a box around that and venting it into a split to run down two lines.

I am switching to LEDs and obviously I'm trying to save money. I thought about the do-it-yourself on the bottom of the air extractor and seeing how that works but my other option is to split with a 6-inch or 8 inch in beginning and 8 inch pulling it out of the room into the ceiling. I have a design that actually increase the square footage of my girl and decrease the lights so I'll just have two lines. And this has to worker is do or die on this one and I don't have room for error
I put my foot down no more micromanaging I'm doing it my own way seem to have a pretty good outcome when everybody leaves my ladies alone
Click to expand...
Lol The impression given was that your reservoir temps were 100, not temps in your room. If you want to do something right, do it yourself. Good luck
 
C

cjcooper

New Member
can someone please explain this water chilling business, I always thought the idea was to heat your water to like 18C so you don't shock your plants ?
 
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