lights that are cooled?? HOW.........

The research I did when makeing this thing said clear glass has very little effect on lumas, and having the light so much closer more then makes up for any loss. Yes the reflctor sucks since that pic I added about 7" of wing and had to adjust the light for this last grow. my last grow was by far the best to date. here is the last pic with the light all freaked out. not the way I like to have it set up. I like this cooltube setup it has worked well for me.

glad its working for you, it is nice to have the light close to your plants.

you say that your temps dropped 10 degrees.... what did u have before the tube?

Temps could get to the mid 90's in a 4x4 semi-sealed room before the tube never over 80 with it. I need a bigger fan atm the first fan i had gave up and I had to go to one about 1/4 the size. only thing I can say about the tube the more air flow the better. the cfm now is around 70-90 the first fan was 240. It's about 140.00 to replace it. this would be the replacement fan. or something close to it.

stumps said:

Temps could get to the mid 90's in a 4x4 semi-sealed room before the tube never over 80 with it. I need a bigger fan atm the first fan i had gave up and I had to go to one about 1/4 the size. only thing I can say about the tube the more air flow the better. the cfm now is around 70-90 the first fan was 240. It's about 140.00 to replace it. this would be the replacement fan. or something close to it.

View attachment 547546

Click to expand...

your the best

what i meant to ask was: did you have a air cooled reflector b4 you got the cool tube?

i'm wondering if it is the actual cool tube thats cooling it 10+ degrees or just the fact that you got a air cooled light that happen to be a cool tube?

just the reflector and a bulb

what about a chiller box??

whats up with the red box dj budlove?

what about a chiller box? not sure what you mean?

hahahahahahahahaha

I could see a chiller box working. If you want a closed system. But I think to make it work it would have to be large and very cold. Seems like a waste when you can push ambient air and reduce heat from your light by?? I don't know the % my guess 50-80% depending on air flow.

stumps said:

just the reflector and a bulb

Click to expand...

yea, i bet you could have gotten very similar cooling results, with waay better reflecting results with a cool sun 2 or something similar... but if it works it works and thats all that matters.

i wrote that and then looked at all of the posts on this thread....my bad!!!! red box is from mods getting mad because i think classifieds should be open to all!!

there is a ton of info about chillers on here and they work ...

you need a 1/3 hp chiller per 1000 watt reflector. you also need a ice box on each reflector for them to work proper...

and a fan with 250 cfm min

what else ?

DJ BudLover said:

i wrote that and then looked at all of the posts on this thread....my bad!!!! red box is from mods getting mad because i think classifieds should be open to all!!

Click to expand...

ewww, ive only heard about the red boxes, i didnt think they were real...

better slow down

jberry said:

mihjaro, i'm lost...i dont understand.

Click to expand...

You're right. I guess I wasn't too clear.

I was thinking of more of a hybrid air/water cooled system. So, you would have one path for air cooling the lights. This intake would consist of outside air (from outside the building or from the attic). This air would be ducted through the light/hood and ducted back outside.

Outside Air > Insulated Ducting > Sealed Cool Sun XL 8" with Heat shield > Insulated Ducting > Outside Air

This pathway would get rid of alot of the heat from the bulb and keep that heat out of the room.

Then, inside of the room one would have one of the Ice Boxes with a fan recirculating the air inside of the room. This should provide cool air in the room and provide some dehumidifying of the inside air as well.

I suppose one could use this setup in either a sealed, CO2 enriched room or use ventilation to provide fresh air for the room. In the sealed room one would have a carbon filter cleaning the air right inside of the room and in the ventilation scenario attaching the carbon filter to the exhaust fan.

The ultimate goal of this idea is to use cheap outside air mass to eliminate as much of the heat from the light as possible so as to minimize the size of the required chiller.

See I knew I wasn't retarted when I was thinking about doing my set-up like this....but when I contacted a company that sells the iceboxes and all the other stuff you need to go with it, this was his responce; "- you are applying the "air-cooled" model to water-cooling. You do NOT need to vent anything outside the tent like you are doing. You do not exit the air out of the iceboxes outside the tent. It can operate as a sealed environment, that is the point. You are recirculating the air inside the tent by pushing the hot air from the bulb through the other side of the reflector, where it exits through the icebox as cool air. Does not make sense to do all that venting, especially if you are using CO2. It is not the air-cooled model - the inside environment will be nice and cool, and you are supplementing with CO2 so no need to vent. Easier, cheaper, less complicated." This was from a guy @ watercooledgardens.com.....check out their site, shit is expensive!! He did make sense though how he descibed the set-up, which I could still do, as I will be using CO2, and the scrubbing method for my exhaust fan via my filter....

But the way you described it and what i was gonna originally do, (see post #141, pg 15) seemed to make sense to use the cool air exiting to cool the surrounding room...which way is better?

**EDIT, will use 8" iceboxes, 8" reflectors and 8" fans instead...more air! more cooling....!

mihjaro said:

You're right. I guess I wasn't too clear.

I was thinking of more of a hybrid air/water cooled system. So, you would have one path for air cooling the lights. This intake would consist of outside air (from outside the building or from the attic). This air would be ducted through the light/hood and ducted back outside.

Outside Air > Insulated Ducting > Sealed Cool Sun XL 8" with Heat shield > Insulated Ducting > Outside Air

This pathway would get rid of alot of the heat from the bulb and keep that heat out of the room.

Then, inside of the room one would have one of the Ice Boxes with a fan recirculating the air inside of the room. This should provide cool air in the room and provide some dehumidifying of the inside air as well.

I suppose one could use this setup in either a sealed, CO2 enriched room or use ventilation to provide fresh air for the room. In the sealed room one would have a carbon filter cleaning the air right inside of the room and in the ventilation scenario attaching the carbon filter to the exhaust fan.

The ultimate goal of this idea is to use cheap outside air mass to eliminate as much of the heat from the light as possible so as to minimize the size of the required chiller.

Click to expand...

Ok, but here is a responce I got from the guy at watercooledgardens.com who clams he is a good friend of the owner of hydro innovations, (the makes of the iceboxes, ect) who he discussed my set-up with..;
"As for the chiller size, sorry -but 1 hp is what you need.(that's if i'm gonna use 2 1000hps in my 56'x56"x78.75" tent!) Anything less and it just won't cool and you'll be unhappy. Yes, it isn't cheap - but once you pay for it is done, and you will get paid back pretty quick if you know what you're doing gardening-wise... gotta pay to play! We have had people buy cheaper chillers or aquarium ones and call us back saying "the iceboxes don't work" - when it was the CHILLER that was the problem. That is why we only sell custom-designed ChillKing ones made exclusively for water-cooling and indoor gardening. You get what you pay for. "
so my question again, will that one on ebay work? opposed to buying their $1,600 1/2hp one? If i just use 1 1000hps...

fatfarmer34 said:

I would suggest 1/4 HP chiller minimum but here is a 1/2 HP on ebay for $375 and they are in FL. http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-1-2-HP-CHILL...d=p3286.c0.m14 . next to an AC vent would be nice to help keep it cool.

Click to expand...

question answered? but that one on e-bay or their Chillking? they both are 6000btu's...the only diff is thir's is window mountable, which is a plus!!

jberry said:

A 1/2 hp chiller should be able to cool your single light no prob. But make sure you get a big enough rez. And pump.

Click to expand...

and that is what I will get! (if using only 1 1000hps....) I was told if I do run 2 lights in my tent, then I would need the 3/10hp pump with same size res..

jberry said:

Here's what the pros recommend for YOUR set up...

Min. pump size : 1/6 HP Submersible Pump (1470 GPH)

Min. rez. size for 1/2 HP chiller: 25 GALLON

Click to expand...

and this is where I am confused man...as my comment above states; both that 1/2HP one on e-bay & their 1/2HP window mount one has the same amount of btu's...BUT THEIR'S COST WAAAAYYYY MORE!

jberry said:

im no chiller expert but its a 6000 btu chiller, 6000 btu isnt much, but for one light it should work fine.

it blow hot air.
it can be kept in any vented area, the more vented and cool that room is the better5 the chiller will work.

Click to expand...

OK, BUT IN THIS COMMENT YOU STATE THAT U ARE USING HOMEMADE ICEBOXES AND A 600HPS AND KEPT IT AT A DECENT TEMP WITHOUT A CHILLER, BUT, IS THIS WHY YOU ARE RECOMMENDING THAT CHILLER ON E-BAY?? (SINCE YOUR USING A 600HPS & DIY ICEBOXES?) REMEMBER I WILL BE USING 1000HPS, WITH INDUSTRY MANUFACTURED ICEBOXES...

fatfarmer34 said:

I don't see why not I made two homemade iceboxes hooked one up to my 600w hps reflector in a sealed 3x5x7 room ran 65 degree tap water through it and it kept my room at 80 degrees. I plan on getting that chiller from eBay soon, if I had that on a reservoir temps would be very easy to control.

Click to expand...

Well said my friend!

jberry said:

you dont think a A/C could chill a light better AND you think the method that does work better (chiller/icebox) is a waste of money?? If it works better how could it be a waste? I dont get it?

and yes, the system is designed for the exhaust to release into the room...that is the whole point.

you can use it in a sealed co2 enriched room (recycling it), or you can draw fresh air into your room, and threw your light reflectors/ice boxes and out into your room...
(this way you only need one fan to cool your lights AND your room at the same time!)...
To answer your question, that is why it matters that the air leaving the exhaust is 58 degrees, (because it is entering into your room and acting as your a/c as shown in the video)

so IT ELIMINATES ONE FAN AND YOUR A/C UNIT and provides more cooling in a more efficient way.

all anyone has to do is watch the youtube video that is posted all over this thread... anyone who watches that and still doesnt get it, is never going to get.

not everyone needs this type of system, it is for people with heat issues,it is not so you can get your lights a few inches closer, BUT as a bonus, i bet the chiller /icebox method would allow you to keep your lights closer to the canopy that any other method would (as long as you had more than one light and/or more than one ice box).

and yes they cost more but they work better. stuff that works better usually costs more.

u can also chill your nutrient tank, your hot exhaust leaving your co2 burner, and your hot exhaust leaving your dehumidifier, and all of your lightbulbs and reflectors, and have as many A/C vents as you want blowing in any areas you want, and you can do all of that off of one chiller and one pump!!!! Try doing any of that with a A/C.

i dont know why people are having such a hard time with this?

Click to expand...

uptosumpn said:

See I knew I wasn't retarted when I was thinking about doing my set-up like this....but when I contacted a company that sells the iceboxes and all the other stuff you need to go with it, this was his responce; "- you are applying the "air-cooled" model to water-cooling. You do NOT need to vent anything outside the tent like you are doing. You do not exit the air out of the iceboxes outside the tent. It can operate as a sealed environment, that is the point. You are recirculating the air inside the tent by pushing the hot air from the bulb through the other side of the reflector, where it exits through the icebox as cool air. Does not make sense to do all that venting, especially if you are using CO2. It is not the air-cooled model - the inside environment will be nice and cool, and you are supplementing with CO2 so no need to vent. Easier, cheaper, less complicated."

But the way you described it and what i was gonna originally do, (see post #141, pg 15) seemed to make sense to use the cool air exiting to cool the surrounding room...which way is better?

Click to expand...

The folks at hydro innovations had an article in a recent issue of "The Indoor Gardener Magazine" (sorry but they don't have online edition that I can find so no link) that made me think that the author has a slight misunderstanding of thermodynamics. When talking about their upcoming product, a water cooled ballast fitting, they claim that 1000w ballasts produce 3500 BTU and this is not correct. A 1000w lighting system (ballast/bulb) creates that much heat, not the ballast. I like to look at every component of a light setup as being a source of heat. The power cord, ballast, lamp cord, and bulb all produce heat.

When I look at the company's youtube videos for their air cooled products (the heat shields) it seems that they always are exhausting air from within the room to the outside and not using an isolated path for the air which is cooling the lights.

So, which one is better? To me, that depends upon the efficacy of the air cooling system. If we measure efficiency by BTUs/watt then it's a question of how many BTUs from the light can we remove using the power of the fan in the isolated air cooling pathway vs. how much does it cost to run a chiller and remove the heat of the light using water.

Certainly, in a hybrid system like we are talking about there will still be heat from the light in the room as (we all know) fans can't get rid of every BTU using an isolated air cooled pathway. So, there will still be a need for some sort of cooling inside of the room. This is the delta in cost. How much does it cost to run the chiller to just cool the leftover heat + the air cooled light vs. cooling all of the heat from the light.

This is the way I see it anyways. I could be wrong.

That's what i was thinking as far as the ballast btu/heat subject.....didnt sound correct...but as far as the hybrid system we're talking about, maybe his way is the best...

[using the 1 icebox to "cool" + re-ciculate air, not vented, (best if using CO2) and use another icebox with it's own fan attached outside the tent to act as an A/C for surrounding room which all can be ran off the same chiller, lines, manifold,pump ect......that way you can cool everything in your tent and cool everything else outside the tent...(ie; ballast, ambient temp of room, and chiller, if the chiller is in the same room, of course]

Because as you mentioned, there will still be heat leftover in the room, (tent) if you have a isolated air cooled pathway just to remove the bulb heat. There will still be heat from intake fan, exhaust fan, lamp cords, fan cords, and dehumidifier, (which I will have in tent, I may vent that heat from it out the tent via the 4" opening on bottom of tent?...going for 35%-45% margin during flowering! I should be able to accomplish that with the initial cool air from the icebox & dehunidifier going..) BTW, I will be using 2 8" Iceboxes, 8" reflector, (either Radiant 8 or 8" Cool Sun XL) and 2 8" TD-200 S&P inline fans, (538CFM)(Using this type because they make less noise than most fans out there! LOW SONES!) with 1 1000hps and 1000 lumintek ballast, 25 gal res., (with some insulated material around it) 1/6hp submersible pump, and a 1/2hp water chiller, {JUST DONT KNOW WHICH ONE OR WHAT BRAND TO GET BESIDES THOSE "ChillKings"<<EXPENSIVE MAN!!

Ps: I was gonna go with a 2 light system,(which would require 2 ballast, 2 reflectors, 3 fans, 3 Iceboxes,[1 icebox per reflector, 1 fan per reflector,] ect) but because the damm chillers are so expensive I have to dial down my system for now...Although it would make sense to by a bigger hp chiller now as I can upgrade lights and more Iceboxes in the future, BUT DAMM, HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRICE FOR THOSE ChillKings!!????

mihjaro said:

The folks at hydro innovations had an article in a recent issue of "The Indoor Gardener Magazine" (sorry but they don't have online edition that I can find so no link) that made me think that the author has a slight misunderstanding of thermodynamics. When talking about their upcoming product, a water cooled ballast fitting, they claim that 1000w ballasts produce 3500 BTU and this is not correct. A 1000w lighting system (ballast/bulb) creates that much heat, not the ballast. I like to look at every component of a light setup as being a source of heat. The power cord, ballast, lamp cord, and bulb all produce heat.

When I look at the company's youtube videos for their air cooled products (the heat shields) it seems that they always are exhausting air from within the room to the outside and not using an isolated path for the air which is cooling the lights.

So, which one is better? To me, that depends upon the efficacy of the air cooling system. If we measure efficiency by BTUs/watt then it's a question of how many BTUs from the light can we remove using the power of the fan in the isolated air cooling pathway vs. how much does it cost to run a chiller and remove the heat of the light using water.

Certainly, in a hybrid system like we are talking about there will still be heat from the light in the room as (we all know) fans can't get rid of every BTU using an isolated air cooled pathway. So, there will still be a need for some sort of cooling inside of the room. This is the delta in cost. How much does it cost to run the chiller to just cool the leftover heat + the air cooled light vs. cooling all of the heat from the light.

This is the way I see it anyways. I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

Hey there uptosumpin. I wish I could give you a definative answer, but until I get the chiller it would be irresponsible of me to say for sure that it would work. It looks like a kick ass chiller to me, but may be junk, they claim it will cool like 400 gallons by 30 degrees, and with the iceboxes how good they work depends souly on how cold the water is. So in a 80 degree room your reservoir for the icebox system would be around 50 degrees, in my sealed room using 65 degree water I was able to maintain 80 degrees with a 600w hps but that was me. I would imagine a smaller reservoir like 30 gallon range would be even easier for a chiller to keep cold dunno though.