Hydro Innovations Ice Box 8" for 4000w Cooled by Swimming Pool?

[rbahadosingh]

Im currently setting up a new grow room that is going to have 4 1000w lights. i was taking a look at the ice box water chillers and was wondering if i could succesfully use my swimming pool water to run through the ice boxes thus reducing the need for a water chiller and save energy. The swimming pool water is always cold. and i would be running the lights at night when the water in the pool is colder... also would the chlorine and other chemicals in the pool effect the ice boxes? anyone ever try this???

 

[rbahadosingh]

no opinions????

 

[newb.alance]

i would wager (though, not much money that it would be fine. just as there are metal fittings in the pool pump, the ice box water chiller likely wouldn't corrode too badly.

what ought to be interesting is if you are able to heat your pool with the excess heat from your grow lights!

 

[tea tree]

frickin lucky dude!

 

[rbahadosingh]

bump.................

 

[GPD.831]

Welll... swimming pools are extremely chlorinated. I would guess that it is toxic to plants to have that much chlorine, but I don't exactly know much about the icebox system, what it is, or how it works. As long as the pool water doesn't touch the roots you'd be fine.

 

[FileError404]

That's probably a question for the manufacturer. I'd just send then an email and ask.

 

[CookieMaster]

It seems like it would be fine. I was talking to a guy who had it hooked up at his store. It's pretty impressive. I asked him about a pool and he said it would work. He had one of those laser therm readers where you point and it reads the temp, and the temp was fine coming out of the other end. I say go for it. Nothing like a little trial and error right?

 

[aubud]

I think it would work...
Your talking about just using pool water to cool the lights right? i think it would work perfectly, i was going to use a constant flow of water from my appt building to coll one but i decided against it

 

[nemon]

It will work fine.

The chiller radiator is copper.Just don't mix Copper with Aluminum and you will not get any corrosion.

 

[captain insaneo]

Shit yes i used to cool a water cooled computer with one(a pool that is)

If you are concerned about corrosion you could build a closed loop system by getting an old car radiator and submerging that in the pool (near one of the jets for circulation) and then running a hose to the "ice box"

as you can tell I am a bit of a macguyver type myself and will post the question of why dont you diy one yourself. All you need is a heater core from say a 1989 ford f150 (my favorite for water cooled computer radiators) they were running about $16 from checkers a couple years back (my freinds liked ones from an old chevettes). then you just need to get a small plastic box that fits the heater core and your ducting?

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A2648&_nkw=heater+core&_dmpt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&_sop=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

or http://www.google.com/products?q=heater+core&hl=en&scoring=p

heater cores are awesome because they have very little resistance on both the water and the air.

What I dont quite understand is how is this supposed to work it seems like you would need like 2-6 of these to suck the heat out of the air from even just a couple of lights. let me know if it works!

 

[rbahadosingh]

Shit yes i used to cool a water cooled computer with one(a pool that is)

If you are concerned about corrosion you could build a closed loop system by getting an old car radiator and submerging that in the pool (near one of the jets for circulation) and then running a hose to the "ice box"

as you can tell I am a bit of a macguyver type myself and will post the question of why dont you diy one yourself. All you need is a heater core from say a 1989 ford f150 (my favorite for water cooled computer radiators) they were running about $16 from checkers a couple years back (my freinds liked ones from an old chevettes). then you just need to get a small plastic box that fits the heater core and your ducting?

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A2648&_nkw=heater+core&_dmpt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&_sop=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

or http://www.google.com/products?q=heater+core&hl=en&scoring=p

heater cores are awesome because they have very little resistance on both the water and the air.

What I dont quite understand is how is this supposed to work it seems like you would need like 2-6 of these to suck the heat out of the air from even just a couple of lights. let me know if it works!

well i would be using 4 of them. 1 for each light. i was wondering if the pool water would stay cool or would the temp raise significantly. obviously i need the water to stay cool.

 

[captain insaneo]

well it is a question of mass i am guessing that your pool is larger than 10,000 gallons which is 80,000 pints
a BTU is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 pint of water 1 degree F.
80,000 BTU is 23,446 watts (now you know why it costs so fucking much to heat a pool)
Which would mean that if your pool was in a vacuum it would only raise 1 degree every 6hours
but your pool is not in a vacuum and I am sure evaporation will more than cool that back down, as the sun doses out 10k watts per square foot and your pool isn't swinging greatly in temps between the day and night.

Also I wouldn't worry about corrosion.

 

[redi jedi]

I think this is a great idea. Wouldn't be hard to do either. Pumping the pool water directly through the iceboxes would be fine...it already goes through a similar heat exchanger, if your pool has a heater?

If you used two iceboxes cooling two lights each, as long as you pumped it through fast enough, the water being returned to the pool shouldn't be much warmer.

My question though, could you not cool four lights adequately with two 6" fans? Much cheaper and easier to set up? I could see needing that kind of cooling capability if you were running 8-10kw of lights. I like the idea I just think its a tad overkill for 4kw.....

 

[rbahadosingh]

well it is a question of mass i am guessing that your pool is larger than 10,000 gallons which is 80,000 pints
a BTU is the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 pint of water 1 degree F.
80,000 BTU is 23,446 watts (now you know why it costs so fucking much to heat a pool)
Which would mean that if your pool was in a vacuum it would only raise 1 degree every 6hours
but your pool is not in a vacuum and I am sure evaporation will more than cool that back down, as the sun doses out 10k watts per square foot and your pool isn't swinging greatly in temps between the day and night.

Also I wouldn't worry about corrosion.

the pool is 32,000 gallons. so i guess it would work ok.

I think this is a great idea. Wouldn't be hard to do either. Pumping the pool water directly through the iceboxes would be fine...it already goes through a similar heat exchanger, if your pool has a heater?

If you used two iceboxes cooling two lights each, as long as you pumped it through fast enough, the water being returned to the pool shouldn't be much warmer.

My question though, could you not cool four lights adequately with two 6" fans? Much cheaper and easier to set up? I could see needing that kind of cooling capability if you were running 8-10kw of lights. I like the idea I just think its a tad overkill for 4kw.....

yes i probably could cool them with 2 8" fans but i want the room completely sealed. no intake or exhaust.

 

[captain insaneo]

have you watched the video on their website they say the optimum flow is 250 cfm.

http://www.hydroinnovations.com/product3.htm

also I will introduce a new term related to heating a Therm=100,000 btu it would take you 2.5 therm to raise your pool 1 degree or the amount of energy your lights put out in about 2 days strait! you could also tap into the pool pump line so that it pushes the water in your system.

If not you should make the intake for your system at the lowest point in your pool.

 

[rbahadosingh]

have you watched the video on their website they say the optimum flow is 250 cfm.

http://www.hydroinnovations.com/product3.htm

also I will introduce a new term related to heating a Therm=100,000 btu it would take you 2.5 therm to raise your pool 1 degree or the amount of energy your lights put out in about 2 days strait! you could also tap into the pool pump line so that it pushes the water in your system.

If not you should make the intake for your system at the lowest point in your pool.

yeah i watched the video. i was going to use an a/c originally because the water chillers cost so much. but if i could run a system like that using my pool water to run through the ice boxes and keep my temps under control it would work out great. i wouldnt need an a/c or water chiller. i just want my temps to stay betwen 75 and 85. i will just buy a 1/4 hp water pump to push the water through the system. my pool is in the backyard so the water will have to run through a good 50-75ft of hose.

 

[captain insaneo]

Hell you could also get a car radiator (or 2) and hook that up to the system and suck the heat out of the room. I do like the manifold system they have in that video. I also have some issues with that vid like the infrared thermometer is measuring the iceboxes temp not the air temp. but somewhere he mentions that the rooms temp should be with in 10 degrees of the water temp.
Another insane idea is
http://www.geoexchange.org/
use the power of the earth, hell if you wanted tie that into your whole house system and have them run you some access lines to/near the grow area.
I would totally do this if building a house. the deep well method gives you a limitless supply of 56 degree water.

My folks live in the desert south west and they had a solar pool heater installed. The salesman said that in phoenix, people run them at night to radiate heat off the pool to bring their temps down. You could use one of those to cool your pool at night and get your 32,000 gallon reservoir slightly cooler.

hell speaking of panels put one of these in your grow room and circulate the pool water through it i am sure it will suck the heat out and put it into the pool
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=329828&pid=_Froogle&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=69120

 

[redi jedi]

yes i probably could cool them with 2 8" fans but i want the room completely sealed. no intake or exhaust.

You still need to push air through these things? Your still going to need a 1000cfm worth of fan(s) in addition to 2 or 4 iceboxes and another pool pump unless you can tie into the existing one.

My point is...they recommend 250cfm per reflector and one icebox per reflector...250 cfm is enough to cool one reflector burning a 1kw without an icebox? How frikin hot does it get where you live?

Never mind...I just figured it out...you can just circulate the air in the room through the hood and back into the room...duh...I understand what your trying to accomplish now.

 

[rbahadosingh]

just checked the water temp in my pool and its 45 degress..... i cant wait to get the ice boxes and water pump and see how good they work.....