1st Grow Bomb Bagweed

[Munki]

Stully, for future reference I am posting a schematic for a simple DIY cooler/chiller. Not to difficult to build and would give you chilled air for as long as the ice last (1-2 days). For what it is worth, maybe it can help.

Good little pic here. Remember, that the heat well or dump doesn't need to be an ice chest. Depending on your particular location, you may be able to access the outdoors where underneath the ground is perpetually cool soil. I've heard of some one cooling a heat source inside simply by pumping a closed loop of water into a large oxygen or CO2 container buried into the ground. This guy lived in England where the earth was always damp and cool. He utilized the earth itself as the heat dump. That is free cooling folks.

Another guy found his concrete garage floor to be always cool so he ran several dozen feet of copper pipes back and forth along the floor and pumped the coolant water through that.

Now if you are growing in your bedroom closet, few options are available. I'm just saying consider the possible natural and free cooling options that may be untapped near you.

Here's to growing the green in a green way!


I was reading back on this thread. You are in a basement. Lay down on the concrete floor. Is it nice and cool? How bout the ground outside one of the basement windows? Try digging a hole nearby a few feet down. Being in Michigan, it should be cool and damp. Now, being broke sucks. But, if you do get some funds together, you should be living in the right place for some good environmental cooling.

 

[GMT1975A]

Munki, exactly, just a smaller portable version of a heat pump. Ice shouldn't be a problem if your freezer can keep up. If you owned the property, you wouldn't need permission to lay pipe under the cement slab. But alas, I am renting, albeit from my brother, so major changes must be cleared first. And in my case, we have central air, just don't want to turn it on for $ sakes. As for a source of cooling, if you had a small lake or stream nearby, that would work also for chilling. Same principle, just run the pipes near or on the bottom and it will work also. Ground temp is inverse of air temp. Takes all summer to warm the ground or lake up, and all winter to cool it back down. ^5's bro.

 

[Munki]

Munki, exactly, just a smaller portable version of a heat pump. Ice shouldn't be a problem if your freezer can keep up. If you owned the property, you wouldn't need permission to lay pipe under the cement slab. But alas, I am renting, albeit from my brother, so major changes must be cleared first. And in my case, we have central air, just don't want to turn it on for $ sakes. As for a source of cooling, if you had a small lake or stream nearby, that would work also for chilling. Same principle, just run the pipes near or on the bottom and it will work also. Ground temp is inverse of air temp. Takes all summer to warm the ground or lake up, and all winter to cool it back down. ^5's bro.

Agreed though I think you will find soil temps to be remarkably stable once you get down a few feet. Streams and lakes are wonderful heat dumps if they are available to you. There is a reason many power plants, especially nuclear ones, are near large bodies of water or rivers.

As to the concept of heat, many people do not consider that all they can do is move the heat around, it cannot be destroyed. By using ice from your ice maker, you just included an additional step to removing heat from your house. Grow room makes heat that is dumped into the ice water. The ice has to be replaced with new ice made in the freezer in your home. That was made with a phase change refrigerant that made the ice by extracting the heat from the source water and dumping the heat into the surrounding air of your house. That in turn needed to be cooled by your house AC which dumped the heat outside. Each cooling device generates its own heat along the way as nothing is 100% efficient. So, getting the heat to the outside or earth with the minimum of steps is best.

I guess it is confusing to call things coolers when they really are heat movers or concentrators in their function.

Oops, I think I'm going offtopic from the threads intent and threadjacking a bit as well. Sorry!

 

[stully]

hey no such thing as threadjacking on my thread. Any conversation is open and welcome. great post. What is a transmission cooler and where do I get one? Or two. What type of tubing is used. Copper?

 

[stully]

Am I reading you thermometer wrong or is it 110 degrees under those floros?!? I must not be seeing that right.

No it was about 85 hard to read inperson as well. You gotta cross your eyes and uncross them and then squint by that time you have such a bad headache, you really don't care anymore.

 

[Munki]

hey no such thing as threadjacking on my thread. Any conversation is open and welcome. great post. What is a transmission cooler and where do I get one? Or two. What type of tubing is used. Copper?

I recommend reading up on PC overclocking on the web with a focus on water cooling. There is great stuff already out there that just needs to be tweaked a bit for use here.

Transmission cooler is a smaller radiator typically mounted to the front of the main engine radiator in the front of a car. They can still be rather big though. Something else to consider are heater cores. They are small radiators that are mounted into the dashboard area of the cabin in a car. The engine coolant is pumped through it to heat up the air in the cabin. You can buy them new at a car parts store or if you have the time, can be pulled from a car in a pick-a-part yard. You can get them for around 20 - 30 dollars.

The connections between the components in the closed loop cooling system shown in the picture will be a very low pressure system, so expensive tubing will not be required. Just pick up some flexible tubing at the hardware store but only after you have the pump and heat exchangers so you will know what diameter tubing to get.

 

[GMT1975A]

Stully, the transmission coolers are addon units you can get at any local automotive store. As far as tubing, stick to plastic as you aren't dealing with anything super hot. I would suggest that with this closed loop system, instead of plain water to transport the cool water, that you could get by with adding some radiator coolent as it will be much more efficient for that purpose.

 

[GMT1975A]

Munki, ^5's bro. Good ideas. Excellant suggestions.

 

[stully]

Thanks guys great info.

 

[stully]

Somebody had a diy thread for a veted hood. Anybody remember what it was called. Or have a link to the post.

 

[Munki]

Stully, the transmission coolers are addon units you can get at any local automotive store. As far as tubing, stick to plastic as you aren't dealing with anything super hot. I would suggest that with this closed loop system, instead of plain water to transport the cool water, that you could get by with adding some radiator coolent as it will be much more efficient for that purpose.

Actually, coolants like ethylene glycol are not as efficient as water in heat retention. I do agree that he should add some coolant though as it will prevent things from growing in the coolant loop. Also, the coolant helps to protect against corrosion.

Oh I forgot to mention that when buying the heat exchangers, make sure that you get ones of the same metal type. That is, they should all use aluminum tubing or copper tubing in their construction. Don't use both types in the same loop as this will result in what is called galvanic corrosion. Dissimilar metals connected by conductive fluid are the components to a battery and will oxidize the metal that is acting as the anode.

A quick demonstration of this effect can be done if you have metallic fillings in your mouth. Take a piece of aluminum foil or the metallic foil wrapper off a piece of gum and put it in your mouth. The resulting pain and taste comes from that reaction.

 

[Dat Doud]

any updates on those nice lookin plants

 

[stully]

So i was at home depot today buying the materials for my A/C hood. After like 30 min I looked in my cart and did a quick total cost. So it came to like $78 (remember, I was starting from scratch I had to get tin snips, rivet gun, rivets and all other stuff/materials needed) so I'm like f that I can buy one already made for like 84.99. So I abandoned that idea. Aint worth the time to save 5 bucks.

Anyway, the light are out right now in the GR and the temp has fallen to 78. Kim has recovered almost 100%, the other smaller plant is showing some signs of recovery. I'll get some pics up in a few minutes. I did pick up a 6" inline booster and 25' of flex duct. So when I should be in the cabinet within 2-3 weeks. until then, I just have to try to deal with this heat the best I can.

 

[stully]

Some update photos. The lights have neen back on for like 40 min and the temp remains at 78 I added the window fan again.
The beaster or BC bud whatever you prefer

Kim looking better( the water and superthrive did her right, plus she got a rest from the heat).

still looking pretty bad, but slight improvement

Oh and jan brady is still growing

 

[GMT1975A]

kewl beans bro, glad to see they are surviving. Way to go.

 

[Ms.Fox]

Very nice!

 

[stully]

Thanks for the encouragement everybody. They are really looking better, but I fear the same problem will be back tomorrow. My temps are back up again. I am thinking about shutting the hps down until I can get the cabinet done. Temp issues suck.

 

[Dat Doud]

nice lookin herb man

 

[GMT1975A]

Stully, got another idea. Everyone in the house goes nekkie until the herb finishes. Then you won't have to use the laundry. Just think of the savings bro! :0 Hope the weather gives you a break soon. Keep up the good work.

 

[stully]

i'd got to work nekkie if I could, but last time they made me pay a fine. The kids would love it. Yeah the weather sucks, maybe we should get a break here in a few weeks. Looking a little better today. seems like I'm gonna have to water almost every day. Did a little LST on Kim last night, post pics later when she wakes up.