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Counterflow Air Chiller and Dehumid

sunnydog

sunnydog

Drip King
Veteran
Hello All. Here is a refinement of a design I thought of many years ago_Originally, I ran 50 feet of 8 in alu. flexi duct in a cold attic with inlet + outlet in the room. this allowed the hot grow room air to heat exchange with winter air via the alu. duct, but keeping in my CO2 and also will also dehumidify(remember to slope the ductwork or it will fill with water,it happend to me at first !) Control the blower with a thermostat.

Diagram shows an improved design borrowed from homebrewing technology,the counterflow chiller.The pic tries to show a length of 6in duct inside a lenght of 12in duct. The potential advantages I belive are many.blowers are MUCH cheaper to run than ACs or dehumids. CO2 is retained,outside pests are not introduced to your room.Bringing cold outside air in is ok,But is usually too humid, so the dehumid has to run,heating the air , and starting the vicious cycle again. Obviously, the outside air must be cooler than the room air to work.

I hope this helps somebody, any questions,please ask,I'll try to help.


 
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sophisto

sophisto

Member
Pretty interesting idea indeed....The only thing is if the air outside is'nt cold enough than AC is th only viable solution.

I wonder if a cooler full of ice with duct flanges attached to it would work into this idea in warmer places???? Just a thought???
 
Y

yamaha_1fan

You would have to have a big temperature differential to cool that air as you dont have alot of time where the hot air is in contact with the cool air.

I wouldnt bother with it but I hate experimenting.

Dont they make heat exchangers for houses that allow fresh air to come into the house while using the exiting air to heat it. Couldnt something like this be used in reverse?
 
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DIGITALHIPPY

DIGITALHIPPY

Active member
Veteran
so your going to make a ducting size intercooler to recool the hot air and dump it back into the room?
 
sunnydog

sunnydog

Drip King
Veteran
DIGITALHIPPY said:
so your going to make a ducting size intercooler to recool the hot air and dump it back into the room?
Click to expand...
Yes,Pretty much.
Yes you do need a reasonable temp.diff. A good cold attic works well.
"You would have to have a big temperature differential to cool that air as you dont have alot of time where the hot air is in contact with the cool air."
It gets contact time by using a long lenght of duct(30-50 ft)I ran mine around and around in attic roof supports.Gotta do it so all the moisture will collect in one spot(there will be alot) and have a collection bucket.

This is CMEMORY. Use little power(compared to running air AND de-humid)
It is also VERY QUIET
This WORKS WELL.
It cools AND de-humidifies.
I have done this.
Sorry for not getting back to this.
 
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sunnydog

sunnydog

Drip King
Veteran
sophisto said:
Pretty interesting idea indeed....The only thing is if the air outside is'nt cold enough than AC is th only viable solution.

I wonder if a cooler full of ice with duct flanges attached to it would work into this idea in warmer places???? Just a thought???
Click to expand...

The way to do that is pump ice water through a car heater core,(a small radiator) and blow into the space. I did this with a small cab set up once, worked GREAT!
 
Daemon

Daemon

Member
^^Can you go into a little more detail on that?

Neat idea, though it wouldn't work in the summer, for me anyway.
 
sunnydog

sunnydog

Drip King
Veteran
Daemon said:
^^Can you go into a little more detail on that?

Neat idea, though it wouldn't work in the summer, for me anyway.
Click to expand...
Hi, Daemon.
Take a coleman type cooler.
Put a little giant type pump in it.
Pump water through heater core sealed in rubbermaid type tub.
Move hot cab air in on one side of tub,through heater core,out other side of tub and back into cab.
Control pump and blower with a themostat.
This works really well.
I ran a 400 in a cab with no other ventilation.
Use frozen 2 liter bottles in ice chest.Two in the morning, two at night.
This WILL WORK in summer!
The first one will only work in winter this will work in summer,too.
Keeps co2 in cab.
Much condensation will build up in core box,as this will de-humidify,also!!
Sorry about crappy diagram, any ???, just ask!

 
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DHarvester

DHarvester

Member
sunnydog said:
Hi, Daemon.
Take a coleman type cooler.
Put a little giant type pump in it.
Pump water through heater core sealed in rubbermaid type tub.
Move hot cab air in on one side of tub,through heater core,out other side of tub and back into cab.
Control pump and blower with a themostat.
This works really well.
I ran a 400 in a cab with no other ventilation.
Use frozen 2 liter bottles in ice chest.Two in the morning, two at night.
This WILL WORK in summer!
The first one will only work in winter this will work in summer,too.
Keeps co2 in cab.
Much condensation will build up in core box,as this will de-humidify,also!!
Sorry about crappy diagram, any ???, just ask!

Click to expand...


I like this idea...but I LOVE this diagram!!! Much love and respect...just enjoying a good ghetto giggle.
 
J

jackjo

New member
If your in a cold climate an air-to-air heat exchanger like yamaha was talking about would probably work better... I just installed one in my home. They work by taking the warm or cold stale air (warm/cold depending on season) out of your house and bringing in the warm/cold fresh air (again warm/cold depending on season) from outside... The exchanger has a box inside the home that all the ductowork goes to and the fan is also kept their as well. Inside the box the air is kept seperate but because it's in the same box on either side it in the winter takes cold air from outside and gets warmed by the hot stale air from your house going out. Hope that explanation made sense and air-air exchangers aren't to costly and would be a much more efficient way of doing this type of thing if cost wasn't an issue. Mine with a 70cfm fan i think was 300 dollars keep in mind that was specifically for residential home use.
 
jtk707

jtk707

Member
Iv seen somthing like this done in a snowy location air went through the roof ran on top of the roof <where there would be snow all winter > and back in the garden . Way to think outside the box and your diagrams are good too:joint:
 
BesideHimself

BesideHimself

Member
Hey sunnydog killer layout on that cab cooler. Going to consider putting it into effect.

Also OP, I like the idea. But I'm wondering (as someone above was) if there is enough time for the air to properly chill. If one lives where it's balls cold most of the time, probably worth a shot.
 
sunnydog

sunnydog

Drip King
Veteran
BesideHimself said:
Hey sunnydog killer layout on that cab cooler. Going to consider putting it into effect.

Also OP, I like the idea. But I'm wondering (as someone above was) if there is enough time for the air to properly chill. If one lives where it's balls cold most of the time, probably worth a shot.
Click to expand...
When I did this originally (albeit a far less efficient single tube version) I think I used 2 pieces of the alu. stretch tubing (maybe 30-40ft total?) in an attic on the east coast.

In the improved, counter flow design above, I know a MUCH SHORTER length would work.

I have been thinking about this again.
The thing to do is get say, 25' (one box) 6-8" insulated flexiduct, 2 Ts , 25' of non- insulated alm. stretchy duct, and some expanding foam, and a big box.
Run the small duct inside the big duct.
Put Ts on ends.
Pull small tubing thru straight end of Ts, and foam shut against T.
Coil this inside a nice sized box.
You will have to make a drain tube at the bottom of the small alu. tube, as it will condense tons of water.
Essentially, look at top diagram coil it up, and put it in a box! Hides it too!

Maybe if some is good at making diagrams they could draw this up, as my diagram skills clearly suck!

I wonder if this could be efficient enough to use say, chilly basement air to cool a tent or box grow.
REMEMBER- the key points here are;
-100% retention of CO2
-Quiet
-low power consumption
-it's kinda cool!
 
N

nekoloving

sunnydog said:
When I did this originally (albeit a far less efficient single tube version) I think I used 2 pieces of the alu. stretch tubing (maybe 30-40ft total?) in an attic on the east coast.

In the improved, counter flow design above, I know a MUCH SHORTER length would work.

I have been thinking about this again.
The thing to do is get say, 25' (one box) 6-8" insulated flexiduct, 2 Ts , 25' of non- insulated alm. stretchy duct, and some expanding foam, and a big box.
Run the small duct inside the big duct.
Put Ts on ends.
Pull small tubing thru straight end of Ts, and foam shut against T.
Coil this inside a nice sized box.
You will have to make a drain tube at the bottom of the small alu. tube, as it will condense tons of water.
Essentially, look at top diagram coil it up, and put it in a box! Hides it too!

Maybe if some is good at making diagrams they could draw this up, as my diagram skills clearly suck!

I wonder if this could be efficient enough to use say, chilly basement air to cool a tent or box grow.
REMEMBER- the key points here are;
-100% retention of CO2
-Quiet
-low power consumption
-it's kinda cool!
Click to expand...

hey whats up man - was looking through this and i think you missed something that might be REALLY easy. first your diagram for clarity:

16370cooler_dia_gram.jpg


http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cach...+two+stage+overclock&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

basically your doing the same thing as them - extracting heat.

in your diagram just put a aquarium chiller and make that a second res. the cooler you keep that res the water comes from to the radiator/heatsync the cooler the rest gets. and i've no doubt that cold water could have the needed 20-30° differential from the warmer air in the grow.
 
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