DIY Icebox.
- Thread starter fatfarmer34
- Start date
cowboylogic
Well-Known Member
Great idea, nice DIY, but in the end. You will probaly create more heat from the motors, pumps fans ect... than you can actually exchange with this setup. Thermo-Dynamics are a tricky business. Most small scale units such as this are just part of a too small thermomass space.
Like I said, nicely job and well done. Just not sure what sort of heat exchange you will see from this. Sometimes its just easier to move more fresh air.
digitalliquid
Active Member
indeed it would be easy to move fresh air but if your from the shouth the air is usually dry and hot so moving that air isnt going to help cool anything. this method produced little heat compared to the amount of cooling. in my situation it braught my tent from 85-90 to 70-75 thats not bad considering i am going to run the fan regardless but all i had to do was add a chiller.Great idea, nice DIY, but in the end. You will probaly create more heat from the motors, pumps fans ect... than you can actually exchange with this setup. Thermo-Dynamics are a tricky business. Most small scale units such as this are just part of a too small thermomass space.
Like I said, nicely job and well done. Just not sure what sort of heat exchange you will see from this. Sometimes its just easier to move more fresh air.
LoudBlunts
Well-Known Member
Great idea, nice DIY, but in the end. You will probaly create more heat from the motors, pumps fans ect... than you can actually exchange with this setup. Thermo-Dynamics are a tricky business. Most small scale units such as this are just part of a too small thermomass space.
Like I said, nicely job and well done. Just not sure what sort of heat exchange you will see from this. Sometimes its just easier to move more fresh air.
water cooling is way more efficient than air conditioning would ever be.
check out my previous post
Run the water right out of the chiller in to the ice box your cooling numbers triple or maybe more im not sure really.
My chiller runs on a sump for my reef tank so its cooling 50 gallons down like 5 degrees if that makes any sence?
So the water coming out of the chiller directly is prolly cooler then the 50 gallon sump. And most of those chillers info comes off of people who run sumps for aquariums to cool the whole tank so they are giving you that info.
This is just what im thinking aswell considering they are the same chillers with the same info so truth be told they are prolly 3 times better for cooling lights then cooling aquariums because it you can push the water right out of the chiller into the icebox and not into a sump witch is a big tank of water that its cooling witch is how they get the info considering these where made to run with sumps for reef tanks thats the 5 degrees they are talking about they temp of the water leaving the chiller itself is alot cooler then 5 degrees under room temp the sump(tank) will be 5 degrees under room temp is what they are talking about.
If that made any sence to anyone I dont know lol. Just trying to help out when a chiller says it cools water 5 degrees under room temp what that really means.
LoudBlunts
Well-Known Member
i have no idea what you are talking about.
chiller size is directed at how many btu of heat you want to remove from the room. there are about 3.41 btu per watt
you will want to get a chiller that has enough btu power to remove whatever heat your ballast and lights (btu) are giving off.
water is water, just as watercooling is watercooling. it doesnt matter if you are using it for aquariums, horticultural lighting, or overclocking of PCs... It doesnt matter what situation you are using it for, you must account for btu's. Its like choosing an a/c unit. You dont get a 6k btu window a/c for a 25x25 room. However with a powerful enough chiller that is accounted for light wattage and supplemental btu will chill that same 25x25 no problem. a 6k btu a/c would not stand a chance.
it all boils down to efficiency of water removing more heat than traditional air cooling.
"Water has a thermal conductivity of 0.6 W/ (m*K) which is much higher than the thermal conductivity of air which is only 0.03 W/(m*K)"
that is double the capacity.
this is math. this is how things work, not a guess.
chiller size is directed at how many btu of heat you want to remove from the room. there are about 3.41 btu per watt
you will want to get a chiller that has enough btu power to remove whatever heat your ballast and lights (btu) are giving off.
water is water, just as watercooling is watercooling. it doesnt matter if you are using it for aquariums, horticultural lighting, or overclocking of PCs... It doesnt matter what situation you are using it for, you must account for btu's. Its like choosing an a/c unit. You dont get a 6k btu window a/c for a 25x25 room. However with a powerful enough chiller that is accounted for light wattage and supplemental btu will chill that same 25x25 no problem. a 6k btu a/c would not stand a chance.
it all boils down to efficiency of water removing more heat than traditional air cooling.
"Water has a thermal conductivity of 0.6 W/ (m*K) which is much higher than the thermal conductivity of air which is only 0.03 W/(m*K)"
that is double the capacity.
this is math. this is how things work, not a guess.
I was more of asking how they got the math just didnt know how to lol.i have no idea what you are talking about.
chiller size is directed at how many btu of heat you want to remove from the room. there are about 3.41 btu per watt
you will want to get a chiller that has enough btu power to remove whatever heat your ballast and lights (btu) are giving off.
water is water, just as watercooling is watercooling. it doesnt matter if you are using it for aquariums, horticultural lighting, or overclocking of PCs... It doesnt matter what situation you are using it for, you must account for btu's. Its like choosing an a/c unit. You dont get a 6k btu window a/c for a 25x25 room. However with a powerful enough chiller that is accounted for light wattage and supplemental btu will chill that same 25x25 no problem. a 6k btu a/c would not stand a chance.
it all boils down to efficiency of water removing more heat than traditional air cooling.
"Water has a thermal conductivity of 0.6 W/ (m*K) which is much higher than the thermal conductivity of air which is only 0.03 W/(m*K)"
that is double the capacity.
this is math. this is how things work, not a guess.
Like the temp the chiller can get the water based on BTUs (?) below room temp?
I dunno I confused my self but it makes sence kinda. Like the water before it goes into the chiller is room temp but when it comes out it is what temp based on btu of the chiller? I know you could pump the water threw the chiller at different rates but could you do the revurse and pump slower on weaker chiller and get same results?
Makes sence now? I wasnt saying you where wrong I was trying to understand it better sorry for being slow.
fatfarmer34
Well-Known Member
The pump and chiller are kept outside of the grow room and do produce hear but it's nothing your HVAC system cannot handle. The only real flaw with this system is dealing with the condisation and a simple catch basin and drain line would handle that.
digitalliquid
Active Member
got my chiller in today but now i need to find a power supply for it , its the 4 pronged molux connection ( i think its called molux) that you would connect to your Motherboard to run your CPU fan does anyone know what these are called or where i can buy one?
cowboylogic
Well-Known Member
radio shack
digitalliquid
Active Member
radio shack didnt have it i checked there first , i ended up just splicing the cables
Hulk Nugs
Well-Known Member
finished mine , parts were about 40$ and the duck tape was unnecessary but i just wanted the piece of mind that there would be no air leeks (or at least minimal) also it looks crocked in the picture but its not
I was thinking of making one of these but just to place on my intake for the room. I already have cooltubes with lots of fans but i still can not get the temps down since the rooms in the middle of the house. Was going to make the copper tubing around the fan but i think this is a better method. The house temps are always above 78 so in the room its always above 80 with no lights on, so no reason to turn the lights on since its just going to get hotter. Well this is holding me up cant move forward tell i figure out a solution to this problem, i wish i could just pull fresh air in there would solve all the problems but that means more holes and more ways to get noticed. Just seeing any feed back on the people that have built one and are using them how are they working, any problems to think of while building one, do you think it will help cool the room 2wx6Lx7h, ?? Thanks for any help and feedback.
digitalliquid
Active Member
biggest thing i ran into was that you still need a chiller to use this effectivy. theres alot of diy chillers but they are ugly and take up alot of space. i figgure a chiller is about 400$ this cost me about 50$ and then the pump and comes out to about 600$ and this isnt bad considering it would take care of alot of heat problems for alot cheaper than a portable ac. but i started to think for about 600-700$ i could buy an led panel and hot have to worry about it.
fatfarmer34
Well-Known Member
The DIY chiller made from a water cooler looks promising, you can get one for less than $50 on craigslist in my area.
Hulk Nugs
Well-Known Member
Alright i have been thinking of different ways of cooling my room,
right now with the temps 70 -90(outside) the grow room gets 74-78 with lights off and i have been testing the lights, with lights on it goes up about 10 degrees in the room with the cooltube setup. So thinking that in the summer the outside temps are 85-100 the rooms going to get really hot.
I don't really want to go buy a chiller for this small room and i already went through a few portable ac's so i don't really want to spend 150 or more
So getting idea from all these threads i was thinking of doing something like this.
10' - 3/8 flex copper - buy $15
6' - 3/8 freezer tubing - buy $ 10
pump - already have one
normal Tupperware would work for this - already have allot
mini fridge - already have one
Using the copper i will make the spiral for around the 6'' intake fan opening, then hook that up to the freezer tubing, that runs into the fridge to the pump, in the Tupperware with ice and water ........
..... the fridge should keep the water cold so i do not have to replace the water and add ice all the time. Only thing i do not know is if the pump will work in the cold water in the fridge!!! any one know ???
Trying not to waste time or money but sometimes trial and error is the only way.
Thanks for any input or ideas i am all ears.
right now with the temps 70 -90(outside) the grow room gets 74-78 with lights off and i have been testing the lights, with lights on it goes up about 10 degrees in the room with the cooltube setup. So thinking that in the summer the outside temps are 85-100 the rooms going to get really hot.
I don't really want to go buy a chiller for this small room and i already went through a few portable ac's so i don't really want to spend 150 or more
So getting idea from all these threads i was thinking of doing something like this.
10' - 3/8 flex copper - buy $15
6' - 3/8 freezer tubing - buy $ 10
pump - already have one
normal Tupperware would work for this - already have allot
mini fridge - already have one
Using the copper i will make the spiral for around the 6'' intake fan opening, then hook that up to the freezer tubing, that runs into the fridge to the pump, in the Tupperware with ice and water ........
..... the fridge should keep the water cold so i do not have to replace the water and add ice all the time. Only thing i do not know is if the pump will work in the cold water in the fridge!!! any one know ???
Trying not to waste time or money but sometimes trial and error is the only way.
Thanks for any input or ideas i am all ears.
budleydoright
Well-Known Member
Here's my DIY chiller made for 100 bucks from a wal mart window ac. Pulls this 100 gallons down w/ 1k hps fresca to 65f no problem. It can actually freeze the top layer of water. I think I could do 4 1 ks in the winter and 2 or 3 in the summer. Could also get a bigger ac unit for more.
Attachments
squarepush3r
Well-Known Member
this guy makes a chiller from a window air conditioner, which you can find for basically free
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=15831
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=15831
fatfarmer34
Well-Known Member
Nice link thanks!
I should point out though if anybody is going to make something like this, that if you are going to use it to cool your hydro reservoir also, to make sure no copper comes in contact with the nutrient solution, it can kill plants.
budleydoright
Well-Known Member
That's correct. I just pump the cold water through tubing in the hydro rez and back. Going to get a piece of titanium for this soon.
This system works great. Mines been running flawlesly for almost a year. Couldn't afford a commercial chiller, plus the reef tank chillers everyone is selling just doesn't seem up to the task. If mine fails a quick trip to walmart and 100 bucks and I'm whole again.
Love your ice box. Going to have to try this. I may cool my room this way as well. You should be able to capture the condensation, re-use it. it's distilled water.
The water out of my dehumidifier is 0 ppm 6.2 ph.
This system works great. Mines been running flawlesly for almost a year. Couldn't afford a commercial chiller, plus the reef tank chillers everyone is selling just doesn't seem up to the task. If mine fails a quick trip to walmart and 100 bucks and I'm whole again.
Love your ice box. Going to have to try this. I may cool my room this way as well. You should be able to capture the condensation, re-use it. it's distilled water.
The water out of my dehumidifier is 0 ppm 6.2 ph.
fatfarmer34
Well-Known Member
I plan on putting it in a small plastic tote with a drain line, just have to many other things cooking right now but when I get around to it I will post it.