UptheDownstair
Well-Known Member
Aloha,
I posted a thread earlier in the week about the problems I was having with my skyrocketing So Cal temperatures and am happy to say that I have now reached a safe and steady level...both temp and humidity. I would like to explain how and perhaps help another grower cool his or her small cabinet.
Sorry, its a bit of a read.
!!!WARNING!!! First, this is HIGHLY dangerous and I am only doing this because I have no regard or respect for the dangers of electricity. I laugh at the face of death and if I electrocuted myself from this dangerous experiment, at least I would go knowing I was doing it for something I love...growing my favorite herb.
Seriously, Im not putting down born for his legitimate, yet hostile concern in Doobieus' thread. What Im doing is seriously potentially unsafe (as is basically EVERYTHING related to growing weed indoors) UNLESS you have common sense and are careful.
So, if you decide to attempt this method of cooling down your grow room, have common sense and be careful, thats all Im saying.
So now that Ive said that, there's no reason to mention that what Im doing is potentially unsafe and can kill me...yada yada.
What I have going is 5 misting nozzles connected with 1/4" PE tubing and T fittings to whats called a diaphragm pump used in RVs for pumping water to the faucets and toilet ect. It's basically a high-pressure DC supplied water pump. You can get them on eBay for around 40 bucks shipped. If anyones interested I can tell you more about the one I have so you can find one for yourself.
Anyway, this pump is hooked up to a 12VDC transformer to power it. Here's the key to the temperature control...
In between the -12V power supply cord and the -12V pump cord is a 120VAC DPDT Relay. This relay turns the misting pump on and off only when the temp rises above the point set on the thermostat I have in place.
See, normally a thermostat is meant to turn on a HEATING device when the temperature DROPS below the desired level. Like in a reptile cage, when the temp on your lizzards rock drops below 90F, the thermostat turns on a heat lamp untill it's nice and warm again.
But for us MJ growers, we are dealing with wanting to COOL temps that are RISING, therefore we have to reverse the process of the thermostat.
That's what the relay is for.
A thermostat has a temperature control, a sensor, and a set of outlets to connect whatever heating devices you want to use. When the temp drops, the thermostat switches on and applies power to the outlets and to the heating devices.
So for us, instead of connecting heating devices, we connect a relay.
This relay has connections for a COIL (the electromagnet that throws the switch), COM (the common connection; for the power supply line of your cooling device), NO (Normally Open; we wont use that one) and NC (Normally Closed; connect the line from your cooling device, with its polarity corresponding to the polarity of the power line we connected to the COM connection i.e. negative power to negative line on the pump).
Just to be as safe as possible, we'll use the negative line. Therefore, we would have both COIL connections of the relay connected to leads from an outlet on the thermostat. We would have the Negative lead from the 12VDC power supply connected to the COM connection on the relay. And finally we would have the Negative lead from the misting pump connected to the NC connection on the relay.
Now we hook up the misting nozzles and water reservoir. I used 5 nozzles for my setup, which seems just about right. I have the pump drawing purified Reverse Osmosis water from a 5 gallon water jug (filtered or distilled water is a MUST here because misting nozzles get clogged quickly and easily with hard, unfiltered water).
When arranging the nozzles I tried to point them away from the plants so the leaves wouldnt be getting soaked every time.
Some of the water gets sprayed on the 120VAC leads connecting the CFL sockets. This is where there could be a safety issue I suppose. Oh well, it works amazingly well so Ill risk it I guess. I could also adjust the nozzeles to avoid hitting the sockets.
For now, this is the point of this thread:
I have brought my temp/humidity levels from 95F/28% to 79F/75%-85F/50%. The misting is automatic and the pump runs for about 20 seconds at a time, about 1-3 times an hour depending on the ambient temperature of the house.
A couple importiant points...
1) the thermostat sensor should be placed directly in the path of one of the misting nozzles. This will ensure the sensor is cooled quickly and the pump turns off as soon as possible (only a little mist is needed to lower the temp and raise the humidty)
2) air flow is critical! Air flow is what evaporates the mist and cools the cabinet. Also, if you dont have enough air to dissipate the high humidty and circulate stale, moist air, the plants will become weak to mold and fungus. in my cabinet, everything is DRY again in a matter of minutes after a misting.
3) dont direct the misting nozzles onto your lights or they could explode from rapid cooling (opposite of pouring boiling water into a chilled glass mug)
Here are a few pics. Let me know if you want more info or pics. Good luck and stay cool.
Peace.
I posted a thread earlier in the week about the problems I was having with my skyrocketing So Cal temperatures and am happy to say that I have now reached a safe and steady level...both temp and humidity. I would like to explain how and perhaps help another grower cool his or her small cabinet.
Sorry, its a bit of a read.
!!!WARNING!!! First, this is HIGHLY dangerous and I am only doing this because I have no regard or respect for the dangers of electricity. I laugh at the face of death and if I electrocuted myself from this dangerous experiment, at least I would go knowing I was doing it for something I love...growing my favorite herb.
Seriously, Im not putting down born for his legitimate, yet hostile concern in Doobieus' thread. What Im doing is seriously potentially unsafe (as is basically EVERYTHING related to growing weed indoors) UNLESS you have common sense and are careful.
So, if you decide to attempt this method of cooling down your grow room, have common sense and be careful, thats all Im saying.
So now that Ive said that, there's no reason to mention that what Im doing is potentially unsafe and can kill me...yada yada.
What I have going is 5 misting nozzles connected with 1/4" PE tubing and T fittings to whats called a diaphragm pump used in RVs for pumping water to the faucets and toilet ect. It's basically a high-pressure DC supplied water pump. You can get them on eBay for around 40 bucks shipped. If anyones interested I can tell you more about the one I have so you can find one for yourself.
Anyway, this pump is hooked up to a 12VDC transformer to power it. Here's the key to the temperature control...
In between the -12V power supply cord and the -12V pump cord is a 120VAC DPDT Relay. This relay turns the misting pump on and off only when the temp rises above the point set on the thermostat I have in place.
See, normally a thermostat is meant to turn on a HEATING device when the temperature DROPS below the desired level. Like in a reptile cage, when the temp on your lizzards rock drops below 90F, the thermostat turns on a heat lamp untill it's nice and warm again.
But for us MJ growers, we are dealing with wanting to COOL temps that are RISING, therefore we have to reverse the process of the thermostat.
That's what the relay is for.
A thermostat has a temperature control, a sensor, and a set of outlets to connect whatever heating devices you want to use. When the temp drops, the thermostat switches on and applies power to the outlets and to the heating devices.
So for us, instead of connecting heating devices, we connect a relay.
This relay has connections for a COIL (the electromagnet that throws the switch), COM (the common connection; for the power supply line of your cooling device), NO (Normally Open; we wont use that one) and NC (Normally Closed; connect the line from your cooling device, with its polarity corresponding to the polarity of the power line we connected to the COM connection i.e. negative power to negative line on the pump).
Just to be as safe as possible, we'll use the negative line. Therefore, we would have both COIL connections of the relay connected to leads from an outlet on the thermostat. We would have the Negative lead from the 12VDC power supply connected to the COM connection on the relay. And finally we would have the Negative lead from the misting pump connected to the NC connection on the relay.
Now we hook up the misting nozzles and water reservoir. I used 5 nozzles for my setup, which seems just about right. I have the pump drawing purified Reverse Osmosis water from a 5 gallon water jug (filtered or distilled water is a MUST here because misting nozzles get clogged quickly and easily with hard, unfiltered water).
When arranging the nozzles I tried to point them away from the plants so the leaves wouldnt be getting soaked every time.
Some of the water gets sprayed on the 120VAC leads connecting the CFL sockets. This is where there could be a safety issue I suppose. Oh well, it works amazingly well so Ill risk it I guess. I could also adjust the nozzeles to avoid hitting the sockets.
For now, this is the point of this thread:
I have brought my temp/humidity levels from 95F/28% to 79F/75%-85F/50%. The misting is automatic and the pump runs for about 20 seconds at a time, about 1-3 times an hour depending on the ambient temperature of the house.
A couple importiant points...
1) the thermostat sensor should be placed directly in the path of one of the misting nozzles. This will ensure the sensor is cooled quickly and the pump turns off as soon as possible (only a little mist is needed to lower the temp and raise the humidty)
2) air flow is critical! Air flow is what evaporates the mist and cools the cabinet. Also, if you dont have enough air to dissipate the high humidty and circulate stale, moist air, the plants will become weak to mold and fungus. in my cabinet, everything is DRY again in a matter of minutes after a misting.
3) dont direct the misting nozzles onto your lights or they could explode from rapid cooling (opposite of pouring boiling water into a chilled glass mug)
Here are a few pics. Let me know if you want more info or pics. Good luck and stay cool.
Peace.
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