Peltier Heated Veg Cabinet With Water-Cooled 110W Of COB

[tobler]

Thought i'd post my progress on a Peltier heated Veg Cabinet that I've finally got around to assembling.


The light is made up of 50W full spectrum , 50W warm white with 10W of 660 and 665nm LEDS on a 80mm water cooling block.


This is an outdoor Cabinet (4mm polycarbonate) living on total watts of 185W lights on. The peltier takes about 50W up to 24 Deg before it ramps down.
So far overnight external temperature of 8Deg, internal temp of 20Deg.

There is a 80mm radiator on the air intake not shown.


As you can see 360mm radiator for internal circulation.

The two seedlings are G13 BLUE OG and G13 BLUE VENOM

29th Aug
(Emerged 15Aug and living in 100 liter Cabinet on 75W in very chilly conditions)
Now in the Veg Cabinet.

Where will this lead who knows.
The idea i'd like to share is heat recovery in cold climates. The Peltier recovers some heat from the exhaust while adding heat in the process.
The heat from the light is also in the water circuit.
So far i'm getting good air exchange and a stable lights on temp of between 25 an 27deg. (Cabinet is not very big).
The arduino slows the fans at lower temperatures and turns off the intake fan if the internal temperature falls to 19Deg.

Where this Journal will end up who knows. time is so limited. :-(

 

[Pbass]

This is awesome! I love the cold, and I grow in winter, albiet in a temp controlled area, but man this is cool! I am in for the ride for sure! Cheers @tobler, luck to your grow!

 

[tobler]

Thanks for stopping in PB.

To start the weeks update.
Here are the stars at 3.5 weeks.


For those considering using these type of LED COB's with integrated driver, it seems both active and neutral needs to be switched.
Otherwise they stay slightly lit, when only one leg is off.


Temperature control, I was hoping for a little more.
Overnight 8 Deg low with lights on, cabinet at 21 Deg Celsius.
Have changed some of the values on the fans which will reduce air exchange and I still have to upload the changes plus modify the wiring to fully switch off the lights.

Midday after the lights have been off for 3.5hours.

Temperature reasonable, but i'm guessing 12 hours off at night will beyond a 50W Peltier "heater". Just have to use auto's over the true winter.(next year.)

 

[tobler]

Picture of girls from half a hour ago 22nd Sep.

G13 BLUE OG left ,G13 BLUE VENOM right.

Last week reported into their final homes and beginning of quadlining.
Seems the BLUE VENOM did not like the quadlining, or it just might be she is sitting next to the fans or is getting more of the full spectrum LED photons.
Other difference is I left the BLUE VENOM with the lowest two fan leaves, snubbed out the nodes though..

Soil is compost and potting mix with vermiculite. Each pot got 5l of 800ppm dutch grow nutrients with root stim. A few days ago just water as no time to mix up a batch.

Cabinet got a code update to try and keep temps up, but have yet to find time to address the wiring.
External temperature is 8 Deg and the Cabinet is at 20 Deg with lights on, lights off around midday to keep min temperature reasonable. Plan to add a 100W Aluminum PTC Heater to the mix which will come on at lights off.
Do I really need to resize photos down to 1280 pix?

 

[Pbass]

Not sure on the pics, mine seem to resize themselves. Very cool operation!

 

[tobler]

Not sure on the pics, mine seem to resize themselves. Very cool operation!

Thanks PB.
A little too cool, but spring is nearly here.

 

[tobler]

This sunday's update.
The Blue venom continues to languish in comparison to the Blue OG.

The Blue OG is big enough to begin shaping.


Kind of good that these are girls are a bit slow as my flowering space is yet to be created.
Will be a 1200X60X1200 tent on a 20cm wooden base with a 400W MH. Also exposed to outside temperatures.
A few ideas up my sleeve, but time to implement with a 11 month old bubs and lots of other balls in the air. Will see.

 

[tobler]

Well 55 days of veg has got the Blue OG to....


I'd flip to flowering about now but i'm about to replace my decking, and the planned flower space will lurk below.
The timber is late, so i'm a bit stuck.
So if I can find the time tomorrow i'm going to fix up the existing veg space.
Which requires.

1. adding another 80mill radiator (and fan) to lose heat from the water when the ambient temperature increases.had a 24deg day which pushed the cabinet past 31Deg + a code revision
2. adding 100W heater for the night and switch so it does not run in summer.
3. adding IR flash led driver
4. adding a lead to power a humidifier.
5. changing the 360mill radiator to a 240mm because I want the 360mm.

Sigh
Next winter think i'll add another two COB's (3 bucks each inclusive of led driver) as the whole show needs more heat.


Blue Venom day55 veg, a lot tighter nodes than the Blue OG.

Should be more of a build journal.

 

[TorturedSoul]

If it's outside anyway, can you dig a hole and set your cabinet in it, then maybe cover it over? That'll help with temperature extremes. Some people choose to live underground so that they can minimize heating/cooling costs.

 

[tobler]

Thanks for stopping in TS. I'm 1585km from Coober Pedy, where they hang out under ground.
Under the deck i've moved 15cm of soil to get clearance for the tent, that's quite enough of that kind of action for me.

 

[tobler]

Managed to find the time to do mods today. Rough and speedly done. Heater is bolted to top left fan not in the air flow ,too bad and no switch added

Extra vent fan added to blow off heat when required.

No time to load the code so the 12th I hope will be day one of flower..

 

[tobler]

Nothing too exciting to report.
Flower began 14th Oct with a few teething problems with the code.
Set the timing to 10/10 with a 5min IR flash at lights out. Same as what I did here.
Getting a few warmer days, so it was good to see the additional vent fan kicking in when it was supposed to.
The blue venom has finally started to get a move on and tied it down today to open it up a bit. Will need a bit more grooming.
Next water is water then onto bloom.

 

[tobler]

It feels like a while since I have sat down with some time.
The blue OG grew past the light over a week ago.
The deck material arrived late so have just managed to get the two girls into their new home 1st Nov.

The veg cabinet arduino kept locking up. Changed the code a few times and eliminated some niceties. Suspect it is the I2C LCD and noise on the power feeding it. Plan to remove the LCD and add an ESP8266 so I can wifi the status to the PC.
Anyway have some time on that one now.
Hopefully 10 months from now it will be cooking a couple of autos to perfection.

All things considered, light leaks and 10/10 schedule with lock ups not expecting a bumper yield.

Pic of Blue OG in new home, sorry about crap purple light. I'll add some white at some point, currently the light is as per my profile pic. 7bands with either white/blue or red leds in series for about 200W of consumption.