Water Cooled Grow Rooms
- Thread starter phillipchristian
- Start date
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
No doubt, but I don't see how it needs water cooling?
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Another reason I'm sticking with water cooling is the HEAT.
SERIOUSLY! All that heat has to go somewhere, so why not put it to good use? With the air cooled chiller I've been using, I just stick it in the house and it keeps my whole place toasty warm all winter- saving roughly $200 in natural gas bills monthly for the six month heating season. That's paid for my chiller all by itself, not including the savings from improved efficiency.
SERIOUSLY! All that heat has to go somewhere, so why not put it to good use? With the air cooled chiller I've been using, I just stick it in the house and it keeps my whole place toasty warm all winter- saving roughly $200 in natural gas bills monthly for the six month heating season. That's paid for my chiller all by itself, not including the savings from improved efficiency.
ScoobyDoobyDoo
Well-Known Member
the fact that you are talking about 1/4hp chillers and fresca sold shows me that you really shouldn't be commenting on the advantages of water cooling. ask yourself why 90% of the high rises in the world use chillers as opposed to a/c units.
Doer
Well-Known Member
Well, that smarmy attitude leaves me to tell you to fuck off.
I can see why you are considered a well hated dick head of the internet.
But, to me however you are just another marginal personality with
a snotty ego attitude.
If you think you are here to have a following to adore you as you seem to desire...
Well, as I said. Fuck off.
I can see why you are considered a well hated dick head of the internet.
But, to me however you are just another marginal personality with
a snotty ego attitude.
If you think you are here to have a following to adore you as you seem to desire...
Well, as I said. Fuck off.
ScoobyDoobyDoo
Well-Known Member
just laughing my ass off. you claim to be knowledgeable about something you have no clue about and then get butthurt when someone points it out to you. i'd tell you to go fuck yourself but it would be a waste of my time.
and i'm sure you'll find a lot more people on here that DON"T think i'm the dickhead of the internet. quite a few have even come to visit.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Gentlemen, let's try to stay on the topic.
1/4hp chiller can indeed have an effect on the power bill, precisely because they're so small as to be only marginally useful, and therefore more likely to be constantly overloaded.
No disrespect intended, they can serve a purpose, but their limitations make installation tricky and benefits slim.
The solution I found was to size up the chiller, to take advantage of its ability to cool multiple spaces- AND finally attain a capacity large enough to realize real savings in environmental control costs. Basically, a minisplit with water instead of Freon lines. There are more advantages of course.
The big advantage I found more recently is its ability to pull a lot of heat from a room with only a small footprint. That has even more intriguing possibilities...
1/4hp chiller can indeed have an effect on the power bill, precisely because they're so small as to be only marginally useful, and therefore more likely to be constantly overloaded.
No disrespect intended, they can serve a purpose, but their limitations make installation tricky and benefits slim.
The solution I found was to size up the chiller, to take advantage of its ability to cool multiple spaces- AND finally attain a capacity large enough to realize real savings in environmental control costs. Basically, a minisplit with water instead of Freon lines. There are more advantages of course.
The big advantage I found more recently is its ability to pull a lot of heat from a room with only a small footprint. That has even more intriguing possibilities...
ScoobyDoobyDoo
Well-Known Member
just a side note...i started this thread under my old account.
the problem with smaller chillers is that they are not efficient at all. they are designed for chilling reservoirs and that's about it. they can't handle the work load of anything larger and end up overheating and consuming too much electricity for their size. I started with a 2hp chiller and then went to a 12hp which is still running along with a 7.5hp i have at my house. the larger chillers are twice as efficient as a/c units and use 30% less power. call chill king, hydroinnovations, or water cooled gardens and they will explain the same thing to you.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
Keesje
Well-Known Member
BUMP
I am not familiar with the chillers mentioned in this interesting topic.
In the past I worked with an OptiClimate.
For those who don't know it: it works as follows: The hot air in your room is sucked in at the backside of a box-shaped device... inside the hot air hits tubes with cold water (like a car radiator)
The water absorbs the heat, and the cooled off air leaves the device in the front.
The cold water gets in the device, coming from a normal tap, with a low temperature. It leaves the device (warmed up because of the hot air) and flows to a drain and into your sewer.
So there is no active cooling with special fluids. Just water that gets in because of the pressure of the tap. And hot air that is sucked in by a vent, and pushed out again, but much cooler.
In what way do the chillers mentioned in this topic differ from the OptiClimate?
I am not familiar with the chillers mentioned in this interesting topic.
In the past I worked with an OptiClimate.
For those who don't know it: it works as follows: The hot air in your room is sucked in at the backside of a box-shaped device... inside the hot air hits tubes with cold water (like a car radiator)
The water absorbs the heat, and the cooled off air leaves the device in the front.
The cold water gets in the device, coming from a normal tap, with a low temperature. It leaves the device (warmed up because of the hot air) and flows to a drain and into your sewer.
So there is no active cooling with special fluids. Just water that gets in because of the pressure of the tap. And hot air that is sucked in by a vent, and pushed out again, but much cooler.
In what way do the chillers mentioned in this topic differ from the OptiClimate?
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
I'm familiar with water chillers, they're basically an AC unit that cools water instead of air. You then send that cold water to a water cooled air handler in the grow room. There it cools the air and if the water you're sending it is below the dew point in the grow room, you get condensation and dehumidification.
I'm not sure how your unit works, can you explain in more detail?
Keesje
Well-Known Member
I will do my best...
In your room you place this unit
The hot air in your room is sucked in at the backside of this device.
Inside this hot air gets in touch with tubes with cold water
Looks like this. (like a car radiator)
This radiator has 1 entry and 1 exit.
A hose is connected to the entry. Cold water flows into the radiator through this.
The hot air is blown through the ribs of the radiator
This makes the ribs warmer. The cold water, however, absorbs the heat from the ribs.
The consequence of this heat exchanging is that cold air leaves the ribs. And the heated water leaves the radiator through the outlet hose.
The end of the hose disappears into the sewer.
Your room is being cooled. You can set the temperature precisely. If the room gets too hot, more water flows. If the room is cold enough, the supply of cold water will stop.
Ideal devices for growing with CO2. You do not need an inlet or outlet. Just the room, some CO2 and the OptiClimate. Oxygen will always find a tiny hole to get into the room.
The OptiClimate also functions as a heater. And also as a dehumidifier
You can read more here
http://opticlimateshop.com/en/opticlimate-10000-pro-3/12-opticlimate-10000-pro-3-16x600w-24x400w.html
There is now a model 4 that also dehumidifies when the lights are off.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
I read the web page you linked but it didn't tell me if it is an air conditioner with a compressor and refrigerant or how it actually works. It's a mystery!I will do my best...
In your room you place this unit
The hot air in your room is sucked in at the backside of this device.
Inside this hot air gets in touch with tubes with cold water
Looks like this. (like a car radiator)
This radiator has 1 entry and 1 exit.
A hose is connected to the entry. Cold water flows into the radiator through this.
The hot air is blown through the ribs of the radiator
This makes the ribs warmer. The cold water, however, absorbs the heat from the ribs.
The consequence of this heat exchanging is that cold air leaves the ribs. And the heated water leaves the radiator through the outlet hose.
The end of the hose disappears into the sewer.
Your room is being cooled. You can set the temperature precisely. If the room gets too hot, more water flows. If the room is cold enough, the supply of cold water will stop.
Ideal devices for growing with CO2. You do not need an inlet or outlet. Just the room, some CO2 and the OptiClimate. Oxygen will always find a tiny hole to get into the room.
The OptiClimate also functions as a heater. And also as a dehumidifier
You can read more here
http://opticlimateshop.com/en/opticlimate-10000-pro-3/12-opticlimate-10000-pro-3-16x600w-24x400w.html
There is now a model 4 that also dehumidifies when the lights are off.
Keesje
Well-Known Member
I have no clue either. Too technical for me.
But as I understand it, it does contain refrigerant.
The big advantage is that the heat disappears into the sewer. So you don't need an exhaust pipe where hot air blowes out. Warm air that is easy to detect with a heat detector, for example.
I think with a traditional AC, you have the outside unit that blows out the hot air.
I guess for a smaller room you could make a a watercooled AC yourself.
Like this guy:
He uses an icebox as a cooling liquid, but you could as well get cold tapwater, run it through the copper tubes and the water will heat up and disappear into the sewer.
You could also have a pump in your swimming pool, take water from there... run it through the tubes, water back in the pool. It takes a long time before you heat up your pool water. And during the night most pools cool down a few degrees (depending on where you live of course)
As pool owners know it takes a lot of heat/energy to get your pool just a bit warmer. So your pump could run for a lot of hours every day and still your pool might only be 1,2 or 3 degrees warmer. And during the night the temperature of the pool easily looses 1 till 5 degrees.
It would be a nice, fun DIY experiment.
But as I understand it, it does contain refrigerant.
The big advantage is that the heat disappears into the sewer. So you don't need an exhaust pipe where hot air blowes out. Warm air that is easy to detect with a heat detector, for example.
I think with a traditional AC, you have the outside unit that blows out the hot air.
I guess for a smaller room you could make a a watercooled AC yourself.
Like this guy:
You could also have a pump in your swimming pool, take water from there... run it through the tubes, water back in the pool. It takes a long time before you heat up your pool water. And during the night most pools cool down a few degrees (depending on where you live of course)
As pool owners know it takes a lot of heat/energy to get your pool just a bit warmer. So your pump could run for a lot of hours every day and still your pool might only be 1,2 or 3 degrees warmer. And during the night the temperature of the pool easily looses 1 till 5 degrees.
It would be a nice, fun DIY experiment.
Last edited:
jdee
Active Member
It's an air-to-water heat exchanger, there is plenty of info online how they work.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
It does not, in that brochure, explain if it uses a compressor to push heat from one medium to another. Are you an HVAC tech? If so, by all means do explain how it works. If not, why are you commenting on something you don't know about as if you're an authority?It's an air-to-water heat exchanger, there is plenty of info online how they work.
ttystikk
Well-Known Member
So it uses an AC compressor to move heat rejected from the air into the water, sort of a water chiller in reverse.
The swimming pool idea is great- and at $40k to build one I'm sure it's well within the budget of everyone! I'm teasing, of course.
It seems to be a decent unit built to solve a specific problem. Nothing wrong with that.