LED/T5 Veg, 400W HPS Flower SCOG Cabinet

OK Here are the results of my DIY water chiller.

As you know I tried the portable cooler. Low wattage thermal electric cooler.



I ran seven loops of tube inside and back to the res.



I realize this is with no insulation and I probably could get better hose but I wanted to see what it would do.
It got maybe 2 degrees cooler.

After I got the new small refer home I realized it was different then the DIY I had read.
The evaporator or grid was not on the back. I figured it was just inside the back panel.

I disconnected the thermostat



Then used my disk grinder to cut because I didn't have a cutting blade.



Then basically peeled back the case to find the coils were ran around the fridge.
(looks blue because I am under a blue canopy)



I looked at it and thought "how the hell am I going to get this to work" I went this far, Might as well finish.



After cutting a hole for the cooling unit I slid everything out the front and left the system intact.



The lost my shade so I took a break until sundown. It was 97 degrees.

Then I took the res and set it inside the system and carefully bent the cooling tray inside.
It was still about 93 degrees outside but no direct sun.



Here is the back



I let it run with the thermostat set in the middle for about an hour.

It cooled about 4 degrees. The thermostat was under water and I didn't know if that made any difference but
I drained about a gallon of water so it set in the air. Then I realized I didn't have anything to compare it to so I
got a home depot bucket and filled it with water too. I set a thermometer it that as well.
I turned the thermostat all the way up, kept the circulating pump on and left them until noon today.

Todays outside temps are 101 degrees.
Here is the uncovered bucket of water temp 84 degrees





I really didn't think this was going to work, well I looked inside,




Then checked the temp. 58 degrees.





AWESOME! 26 degrees cooler without any insulation!
I am circulating the res with a small 180 gpm pump.

Now that is worth working with. Now I need to figure out out to insulate it.
I am thinking about sandwiching the coils between Styrofoam and venting the compressor somehow in the cabinet.
It is a sealed system so I cant extend the tube to the cooling unit and set it outside the cabinet. Unless I cut a 4x8 inch
hole in the side of the cabinet to fit the cooling unit through and then it is not very stealth.

But for those of you who have a grow room this will work well.
My guess would be in say a 10x10 room you may see a 5 degree increase in ambient temps.
But in my 2x4 cabinet with 2 foot height in the bottom I am afraid It will be more like 15 to 20 degrees.

I guess there is only one way to find out...




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Thanks guys,

I think its cause I am out of work and got nothing else to do but enjoy my harvests, collect unemployment and think about growing. There are no jobs out there right now so I might as well enjoy the summer and tweak on the cab.

Not to bad really. But the problem is not solved. That thing puts out way too much heat to put in the flower cabinet. I think I got it though.

I am going to bleach out the old cab and set it next to it. The lower shelf will house the res, the cooler and the ballast. I will just plumb it through the back of the cabinets. The old cabinet is only 18" deep this one is 24 plus I added two inches with the window box so i got 2 inches to turn a 1 1/4 PVC pipe. Sounds do able. Besides there is a vent hole cut already in the side of the window box. for "future applications"

In the Summer I just vent it out, In the winter I use the upper shelf for clones and starting seedlings. I will just be doing it a little sooner then i thought, and I have to get rid of a recliner.

Anybody looking for a "like new" recliner?

Well thats the new plan. If I can just bend those coils enough I think it will work.

Lets see what happens tomorrow.

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Forgot pics of the kids.









They are all caught up.
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Ha! That was my favorite show back in the day. I loved the things he came up with. I tried a few and they worked!

Anyway, went to Orchard today and got fittings to extend the plumbing.

I also got a package Black Flag foggers for the old cab. I got the deadliest shit I could find. It said not to use in room 5x5 or smaller without the door open so I figure thats what I will do, let it go in the yard a couple times with the doors cracked open. This heat is making me lazy.

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I took a short video, Lets see if this works

[youtube]E5WKN3BErew&hl[/youtube]


Cool it works,

I think I may have a problem with them though.
See how much they are stretching?


edit:
Just in case someone sees this and wants to post there own it really not that hard.
If you can take a video and upload it to youtube all you need is the video number in the script.

Its the green type.

Then you put it between forum tags
Example, Once uploaded you see the embed code. Looks like this:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FQb-a-ogKJE&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FQb-a-ogKJE&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>


Then you make the link: cut and paste the green letters between the tags

[youtube..] FQb-a-ogKJE&hl[/youtube...]
^^with no dots or spaces..

Post that last line by itself and bingo! You got a video.

( I found this here on another post.)
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Thanks man, I figured out how to do it a while ago but forgot.

Well, Today I bombed the cab with the raid.




Man, That thing has so many holes its like swiss cheese. I removed two shelves, cut
five 4 in holes and two one inch holes in the back. Cut four one inch holes in the shelves,
a 2x8 in hole and a large 16x20 hole in the bottom shelf and a small 2x4 in hole in the top.
13 holes and 2 shelves. LOL

I got three in the pack. I got one on the lower shelf and one on the upper shelf.




Here she is smokin away...



I closed the doors when I saw the smoke fading out. I figure I will
wipe it down with water and bleach in a couple hours.

That ought to kill them
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Hi, The girls are for the most part doing fine.
We feed every other watering. Now its getting hot we water every other day. Fox farm nutes.






All the haze has passed the screen. We got some clips so no more weaving.
The widow sure is getting tall. I didn't think it would get this tall.






The short Widow on the left has spider mites.
Being so close to all that other growth we have lots of insects.
I hope mother nature takes care of them.

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Well I think I am ready to install, I shot off all three foggers and wiped it down today.
Looks like I will have just enough space to put the res in there with the compressor and coils. I went to home depot today and picked up a tube bender just in case.

Hows your grow going?

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Hey Growth,

Pull up a chair. Yea this thing works great for recording things. My memory isn't what it used to be and I just come back to it when I forget. I guess that what good genetics will do for you.

Thanks for the compliment, please feel free to make any more comments or suggestions especially if they are like that one.

"If at first you dont succeed fuck the world and smoke some weed"

Ha! Thats how I figure shit out!

Welcome Bud.


Oh yea, I am almost there. Got some holes cut and the plumbing in.
Drain works fine but I got a leak on the fill line.



Looks like it will all fit. The lower shelf is just the right height and I got like 4 inches to spare in width.
I figure I can make like a garage with styrofoam and enclose the coils.

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OK got it done.

There is 4 layers of 1/2 with foil back insulation and an extra 1 inch in the center separating
the coils and the res. One layer of 1/2 in goes up to the bottom of the upper shelf to
divide the two areas.



I wrapped the res in that foil bubble insulation. For now I will let it vent up. I plan on venting
the lower section next to the compressor and using the shelf above as a cloning area.
The top is for veg or mothers. I not sure yet.




After the first 12 hours of testing at the max I had the res at 42 degrees. space around the res was 69 degees.
The right section with the coils was 96 degrees. This was with an room temp of 85°



Yep thats cold enough alright. Now I turned the thermostat down and I am running the pumps.



The water is distilled. Thats five gallons. I added 2 more but thats the max for this res.

So here is what I got.




Once it is running I think I will have two mothers in the upper right cabinet in hydroton, clones lower
right in bubbler, flower upper left aeroponic and drying rack lower left.




Turns out, it is quieter then I thought. I am happy with it.
Now lets see what I can do with it.

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