Helping a friend to do a growroom. 1 veg room of 3 x 1000 watt 8" xxxl magnum reflectors and a flowerroom next to it 4 x 1000 8" xxxx magnum reflectors. both rooms are 10x14. I have 2 vortex 8" fans. My first choice is to run a sealed room with iceboxes and a water chiller. The only problem is that I don't want to spend $2500+ on a water chiller right now(Got to get a whole house generator first). I don't want to vent anything cause it will look like the dryer will on 18 hours a day in the winter. This is a basement setup. Even if I run portable A/C's I will still have to vent outside and worry about odor and it will still look like the dryer is running all the time in the winter. Any help is greatly apprieated.
************Need Advice on COOLING 7 x 1000W*************
- Thread starter TMofo
- Start date
If you don't want to vent but don't want to spend money you are going to run into problems. I don't personally have any experience with this, but you could make a DIY chiller. I would think you could buy a large cooler and run your pumps and plumbing into some sort of heat exchanger inside the cooler submerged in Ice water. You would need a way to try and regulate the temperature but that may work for you along with the iceboxes.
Short of a water cooled system you will need a big A/C to keep that many lights cool. Doesn't necessarily need to be a portable one. But those are a lot cheaper.
Edit: another idea, vent to the attic if possible.
Short of a water cooled system you will need a big A/C to keep that many lights cool. Doesn't necessarily need to be a portable one. But those are a lot cheaper.
Edit: another idea, vent to the attic if possible.
cannabis420420
Well-Known Member
damnn exhaust those damnn lights. out of your house that should temp in check LOL
Thanks for the replys so far, I just want to see if anybody can come up with something else before he has to go get that chiller or A/C's.
Does anyone here grow in the winter time and exhausting outside? Does it really look like your doing laundry running the dryer where the outside exhaust is at?
Does anyone here grow in the winter time and exhausting outside? Does it really look like your doing laundry running the dryer where the outside exhaust is at?
Well I did somemore searching myself and came up with this Blog. Hope this helps anyone else that needs this info! Thanks to everyone who replied.
Water Cooled Lights vs. Air Conditioning
Gardening Tips — By admin on June 11, 2010 at 3:12 pm
By. The Guru
It’s starting to get warmer here in Southern Cali and your indoor garden is getting hotter by the day. You most likely had one of your best harvests of the year recently due to the cooler season of winter, but the cooler temps won’t last long. Soon you’re going to be battling the summer heat again, just as we growers do every year. Plants don’t grow very well in bad environments and that includes hot temperatures. If it is 85 degrees outside and you’re using an open loop system with outside air to cool your grow room, then it is physically impossible to cool your room below 85 degrees. If you want a successful grow room in the summer, you will need to cool your environment.
There are only two ways to cool an environment in an indoor grow room. One is to use an air conditioner and the other is to use water cooled devices. Both methods have their positives and negatives. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each to help you make an educated decision on the best way to cool your room. Remember, your lights and ballasts are also increasing the heat to high levels, and CO2 generators are the biggest sources of heat in an indoor grow room other than the lights themselves. Often times, temperatures are high enough to kill the plants or simply make it almost impossible to have a good harvest and yield.
First, let’s look at what we’re trying to cool and how much heat we need to combat. Each 1000 watt light produces about 3500 BTU’s of heat and a single 1000 watt digital ballast produces around 2500 BTU’s of heat. Let’s just take care of the heat from the ballasts first by putting the ballasts outside of the grow room. Now we’re only dealing with 3500 BTU’s of heat. So basically you need 4000 BTU’s of cooling to offset and cool each 1000 watt light. A 6 light grow room will require a minimum of 24,000 BTU’s to keep the room cool from the heat of only the lights. Then you need to calculate in the other pieces of equipment that might be creating heat and make sure you have enough BTU’s to cool everything. Considering that, about 4500 BTU’s of cooling per 1000 watt light is required to cool the lights and the CO2 generator.
Now let’s look at what’s involved in setting up a water cooled system and what equipment is needed to do this. In a 6 1000 watt light grow room you would need a 2 HP chiller at 25 amps @ 240 volts, 8 Ice Boxes, tubing, a large reservoir, a large pump, and a water manifold delivery system on the ceiling above your 1000 watt lights. A quality commercial chiller capable of doing the job costs $6000 to $7000, and the rest of the equipment could cost another $2000 or more. Total costs could easily be $9000 for a 6 light grow room. We can get a 2 ton 24,000 BTU AC for around $4000, and the power draw is only 12 amps, less than half of the water chiller and pump. A water chiller might run a little less, thus saving some power, but in my experience, it doesn’t run that much less and it is definitely much more complicated to set up and operate.
So which is better or more efficient? A water cooled system or an air conditioning system? Which system is right for you? Well, according to the leading manufacturer of water cooled devices for indoor grow rooms, Hydro Innovations, water cooled systems are more efficient than air cooled systems. The reason for this is that water thermal conductivity is 23 times greater than that of air. What this means is that a chiller using water will absorb and take away more heat in a quicker amount of time, making it more efficient and run for less time, in theory of course!
Here is my problem. A chiller is running almost all of the time that the lights are on, and so is an AC unit. If an AC unit uses 12 amps @ 240 volts to produce 24,000 BTU’s and is running most of the time, and a chiller uses 25 amps and produces 24,000 BTU’s at twice the amps, then is it really that much more efficient? While it is true that many industrial and commercial buildings use water cooled chillers, nearly every building in Las Vegas is cooled with air conditioners and not water cooled chillers. All I know is that in life, if you look at what the big boys are doing, you usually find the best and most efficient way to do that too.
Yet another drawback is that water and electricity don’t mix well together. Bad things can happen when they do, especially with 1000 watts of electricity right below your water lines. If a leak or break occurs in the water lines, and they do, then disaster is sure to happen if water leaks into the bulb. Besides that, the chiller still needs to go outside or in the window hanging outside so that the heat is not going into the grow room. And the chiller needs large amounts of fresh air to keep working properly.
I’m not saying that the manufacturer of the water cooled device is wrong, but I am saying that you need to closely consider what is involved in setting each one up. If you want something simple, then an AC unit is definitely the choice. A water chiller requires a lot more work to setup and install than an AC unit. Commercial, residential, and split AC units are all much more energy efficient than the small 4500 portable units, which are very inefficient. The upfront costs of running a water cooled system are much higher than that of setting up an AC unit. Also, an AC unit runs about half the amps.
All of these items are tools, and some tools are just easier and more efficient to use for most of us. Look at all the details involved before choosing the best cooling system for your grow room
Water Cooled Lights vs. Air Conditioning
Gardening Tips — By admin on June 11, 2010 at 3:12 pm
By. The Guru
It’s starting to get warmer here in Southern Cali and your indoor garden is getting hotter by the day. You most likely had one of your best harvests of the year recently due to the cooler season of winter, but the cooler temps won’t last long. Soon you’re going to be battling the summer heat again, just as we growers do every year. Plants don’t grow very well in bad environments and that includes hot temperatures. If it is 85 degrees outside and you’re using an open loop system with outside air to cool your grow room, then it is physically impossible to cool your room below 85 degrees. If you want a successful grow room in the summer, you will need to cool your environment.
There are only two ways to cool an environment in an indoor grow room. One is to use an air conditioner and the other is to use water cooled devices. Both methods have their positives and negatives. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each to help you make an educated decision on the best way to cool your room. Remember, your lights and ballasts are also increasing the heat to high levels, and CO2 generators are the biggest sources of heat in an indoor grow room other than the lights themselves. Often times, temperatures are high enough to kill the plants or simply make it almost impossible to have a good harvest and yield.
First, let’s look at what we’re trying to cool and how much heat we need to combat. Each 1000 watt light produces about 3500 BTU’s of heat and a single 1000 watt digital ballast produces around 2500 BTU’s of heat. Let’s just take care of the heat from the ballasts first by putting the ballasts outside of the grow room. Now we’re only dealing with 3500 BTU’s of heat. So basically you need 4000 BTU’s of cooling to offset and cool each 1000 watt light. A 6 light grow room will require a minimum of 24,000 BTU’s to keep the room cool from the heat of only the lights. Then you need to calculate in the other pieces of equipment that might be creating heat and make sure you have enough BTU’s to cool everything. Considering that, about 4500 BTU’s of cooling per 1000 watt light is required to cool the lights and the CO2 generator.
Now let’s look at what’s involved in setting up a water cooled system and what equipment is needed to do this. In a 6 1000 watt light grow room you would need a 2 HP chiller at 25 amps @ 240 volts, 8 Ice Boxes, tubing, a large reservoir, a large pump, and a water manifold delivery system on the ceiling above your 1000 watt lights. A quality commercial chiller capable of doing the job costs $6000 to $7000, and the rest of the equipment could cost another $2000 or more. Total costs could easily be $9000 for a 6 light grow room. We can get a 2 ton 24,000 BTU AC for around $4000, and the power draw is only 12 amps, less than half of the water chiller and pump. A water chiller might run a little less, thus saving some power, but in my experience, it doesn’t run that much less and it is definitely much more complicated to set up and operate.
So which is better or more efficient? A water cooled system or an air conditioning system? Which system is right for you? Well, according to the leading manufacturer of water cooled devices for indoor grow rooms, Hydro Innovations, water cooled systems are more efficient than air cooled systems. The reason for this is that water thermal conductivity is 23 times greater than that of air. What this means is that a chiller using water will absorb and take away more heat in a quicker amount of time, making it more efficient and run for less time, in theory of course!
Here is my problem. A chiller is running almost all of the time that the lights are on, and so is an AC unit. If an AC unit uses 12 amps @ 240 volts to produce 24,000 BTU’s and is running most of the time, and a chiller uses 25 amps and produces 24,000 BTU’s at twice the amps, then is it really that much more efficient? While it is true that many industrial and commercial buildings use water cooled chillers, nearly every building in Las Vegas is cooled with air conditioners and not water cooled chillers. All I know is that in life, if you look at what the big boys are doing, you usually find the best and most efficient way to do that too.
Yet another drawback is that water and electricity don’t mix well together. Bad things can happen when they do, especially with 1000 watts of electricity right below your water lines. If a leak or break occurs in the water lines, and they do, then disaster is sure to happen if water leaks into the bulb. Besides that, the chiller still needs to go outside or in the window hanging outside so that the heat is not going into the grow room. And the chiller needs large amounts of fresh air to keep working properly.
I’m not saying that the manufacturer of the water cooled device is wrong, but I am saying that you need to closely consider what is involved in setting each one up. If you want something simple, then an AC unit is definitely the choice. A water chiller requires a lot more work to setup and install than an AC unit. Commercial, residential, and split AC units are all much more energy efficient than the small 4500 portable units, which are very inefficient. The upfront costs of running a water cooled system are much higher than that of setting up an AC unit. Also, an AC unit runs about half the amps.
All of these items are tools, and some tools are just easier and more efficient to use for most of us. Look at all the details involved before choosing the best cooling system for your grow room
wonderblunder
Well-Known Member
Nice read there
ENDLSCYCLE
Well-Known Member
you should look into exhausting into the exhaust off of the furnace in the basement......mine has a "y" fitting in it with a cap....that was going to b my plan for exausting this summer but was able to kinda keep the temps down so didnt have to.....just exhaust it upstairs.......its cheap heat....IDK??
You really have to watch exhaust with a furnace chimney if the furnace is using the same chimney. If you get a backdraft and you have a natural gas furnace you can have a melt down, ask me how I know. Furthermore with 7 lights running, what do you plan on doing with the exhaust ? It has to go out and fresh air has to come in. No way around it to do it successfully. Exhausting into the house will cause major hunidity problems through the whole house. And by the way, scrap the 8" ducting, it's just not big enough. 10" MIGHT get you by, 12" is preferable. I know it's big but it's not overkill, it's called efficient.
ENDLSCYCLE
Well-Known Member
LOL..thats crazy...can you explain exactly what happens when you use this for an exhaust...thats why i told him to look into it...i had no idea.....glad i didnt have temp issues this summer cause i was contemplating on giving it a shot.......wow......and as for exhausting into the house...i was using 1 400w(not 7 1000s) when doing this and never had a prob.......guess i shouldnt of even posted
