fatman7574
New Member
That form of cooler is about about 1/10 as efficient as a cheap window air conditioner costing the same amount. For the cost I would just buy a seras $100 window air conditioner take thefan out and wrap some tubing around the heat exchanger (evaporator) and use a small pump to circulate water through it. Use a Ranco Temperture controller: http://www.etcsupply.com/ranco-etc111000000-digital-temperature-controller-p-86.html The small Coolworks Ice Probe just transfers heat to the air right outside the reservoir. It was made for removing heat from electronics not water reservoirs. It has since been foolishly adapted for and sold for cooling minature reef tanks. The Coolworks Ice Probe just means heating the plant room and thereby reheating the reservoir. It also has teissue that it by rules of physics is suppod sedto remove heat from a hotter area to a cooler area. Usually a reservoir has nearly the same water temperature as the growing area where it is sitting. This makes it even less efficient. Moving heat from ana rea at the same temo ps is not a design fetaureof a Peltier (thermoelectric) cooler. That is why it has the extra fan and large numerous fins to try to take davantage of even the slighest temp difference from the hot side to the cool side. Try to get one of these expensive toys to try to pump heat from a reservoir lower than the room temp. It will work backwards.For my dwc res with 15 gallons of water, I use the CoolWorks Ice Probe. It works VERY well, Chills the water to 10 degrees below the air temp (the air is about 80, and the water is just under 70). It is cheap, efficient, and easy to install. I was able to augment the unit's cooling ability to taking an additional clip fan, and pointing it at the heat sync. This additional airflow helps the unti chill more effectively. I'm planning on insulating my tub, and that should further increase the chilling effect. Here are some pictures:
View attachment 911981View attachment 911982
Without a thermostat the iceprobe runs continously. The amount of cooling it does while running is adjustable but that just means if you adjust it for removing a set anmount of heat while the lights are on it still runs at that same rate while the light are out. You can crudely adjust for that by running it off your light timer.