Any updates on liquid lumens?

[maryj315]

water cooling is surely worth it....how many aircooled autos do you see driving around recently? No matter how much air you flow through an aircooled hood you will never reach the IR absorbtion of water....it is just impossible.....i think that heat management is the number one hurdle of growing indoors and one that some people never master. I am building a 2x1000 watt system now and will be using a hybrid air/water cooled diy hood that will be running on a closed cooling loop that runs outback to an ornamental in ground pond....water cooling works very well, and in my eyes is totally worth it.

That sounds cool it is the same watts i am running cooling is a bitch but manageable

I think the whole concept has been around a while and reports were sketchy
almost a hazard

Would be cool if people like you and others would post their grow shows so that system is not so foreign to us

Posting your shows would give, food for the eyes, undeniable proof that it is worth the extra money

I would like to see somebody post a grow using that system i would like to see it in action

 

[Onepunchko]

So my good friend that bought a LL hood and setup just had his explode! He came home to a tray full of water with the ends blown off of the hood and and the craziest part, the insides of the bulb were red hot sitting in the water! How that happend I dont understand, but it definately scares the hell outta me. The inner tube just completely shattered.

 

[mexilandrace]

water cooling is surely worth it....how many aircooled autos do you see driving around recently? No matter how much air you flow through an aircooled hood you will never reach the IR absorbtion of water....it is just impossible.....i think that heat management is the number one hurdle of growing indoors and one that some people never master. I am building a 2x1000 watt system now and will be using a hybrid air/water cooled diy hood that will be running on a closed cooling loop that runs outback to an ornamental in ground pond....water cooling works very well, and in my eyes is totally worth it.

Couple things, if you are running it outside to a pond you are gonna have some minerals in the water that you don't want in the cooling loop.

You aren't supposed to put water from the sink in your car because of the mineral build up that will occur.

secondly, if you have a pump failure you are FUCKED, air cooling is much more fail safe.


I would rather have an aircooled car, not because it is more efficient but because it has a lot less potential problems to deal with.

same reason I prefer 2 cycle engines over 4 cycle, the less chance for failure the better

 

[inefectualize]

i have thermal cut off switches on the lights and the cooling is on a closed system with R.O. water and pool chlorinator. In the pond is a liquid to liquid heat exchanger with a pump moving water over that. Thermal cutoffs will shut off lights in the event of fan failure. Also what i am building is a hybrid air/liquid cooling. I actually just got all of my parts today so tomorrow i will begin the build and can take temps of air cooled only and air/liquid cooled. It is going to cool 2 x 1000 watts

 

[inefectualize]

also if the pump fails it will still have air moving over the lamps, it also would be very easy to run two pumps for redundancy sake....the fan is a S&P 293 cfm...

if anyones fan goes out on their grow they are fucked....

i bet i can use far less watts and get far better cooling than anyone air cooling alone

 

[rr14]

that sounds interesting. ON the LL website a while back they mentioned that they were going to use a heat exchanger to cool the water a bit before it was returned to the res. Supposedly that makes a pretty big difference.

Cars use water to air when intercooling; it's much more efficent than air/air but there is always more plumbing and junk. Personally, I'd like to run one of these LL setups with a good sized res, air to air heat exchanger prior to the res (once the water comes out of the LL unit) and air cool the units too. I still need a fan for my scrubber so it woulnd't be much of a hastle to run the fan setup.

 

[beamx0r]

the article in maximum yield on these...
http://www.maximumyield.com/assets/pdf/back_issues/usa/vol9_num3_usa_pt2.pdf

another plus is no heat buildup= no thermal signature

 

[tgpfarm]

Has anyone ever thought of using geothermal energy to cool their heated water? Below the frost line the ground stays between 50-60F.

I saw on a computer cooling forum, a guy that used geothermal cooling to cool a room full of computers. All he did was coil about 200' of copper tubing in a 5' x 8' bed ~24" under ground. After the initial cost to put the system in, the only cost is running a pump. Which is nothing compared to running fans and water chillers.

Edit:
Here is a link to what I am talking about.
geothermal pc cooling

 

[maryj315]

Has anyone ever thought of using geothermal energy to cool their heated water? Below the frost line the ground stays between 50-60F.

I saw on a computer cooling forum, a guy that used geothermal cooling to cool a room full of computers. All he did was coil about 200' of copper tubing in a 5' x 8' bed ~24" under ground. After the initial cost to put the system in, the only cost is running a pump. Which is nothing compared to running fans and water chillers.

Edit:
Here is a link to what I am talking about.
geothermal pc cooling

Good link Tgpfarm had to favorite that one so i can take another look

Mj

 

[ooga booga]

also if the pump fails it will still have air moving over the lamps, it also would be very easy to run two pumps for redundancy sake....the fan is a S&P 293 cfm...

if anyones fan goes out on their grow they are fucked....

Not nearly as fucked as they are if the pump goes out, I imagine.

i bet i can use far less watts and get far better cooling than anyone air cooling alone

I bet I can use far less watts and get far better bottom-line results with air cooling than anyone using water cooling.

 

[inefectualize]

What percentage of your wattage is used for cooling?
what is your ambient temp? What is your leaf surface temp?
It is impossible for air cooling to be as efficient as water cooling. It's physics.
Running at full cooling capacity I can keep my room below 70 running 2000 watts without ac and with the room completely sealed. I am running an S&P inline fan on the "low setting" which is rated at 54 watts and a hydor inline water pump rated at 18 watts for a grand total of 72 watts of cooling for a 2000 watt light operation. So, less than 3.5% of my power is used for cooling.

and you?

now sure my cooling potential will decrease when it gets warmer outside but i think i will still be doing pretty good.

 

[inefectualize]

Not nearly as fucked as they are if the pump goes out, I imagine.


I bet I can use far less watts and get far better bottom-line results with air cooling than anyone using water cooling.

So i took the liberty of using your 6000 watt grow and breaking it down for you

2 X 185 watt for your 8" vortex
i looked at a couple 14,500 btu through wall ac units and it looks like they are pulling around 1300 watts, some more.

so you have 1,670 watts of cooling, 6,000 watts of light for a total of
7,670 watts.

21.8% of your wattage is used for cooling......

this my be high because i dont know what setting your ac is on and how often the thermostat kicks it on.

 

[inefectualize]

not to rub it in too much, but even with your AC out of the picture you are still using 5.8% of your electricity to cool....it is very easy to make the lights turn off automatically if inline water temps get too hot...my thermal cut off switches were about $1.50 each but they have nicer ones that are re-setable for about 5 bucks.....

 

[ooga booga]

Even if 218.0% of my wattage is used for cooling, I'll still bet I can result in a better bottom-line (and that's what counts to me, not how the percentages break down in a pie chart and look pretty and organized). What percentage of my grow would be used for cooling if I were to use liquid cooling? I would bet it's going to be a LOT more than 21.8%.

An A/C is needed regardless of whether I'm using air or liquid cooled lights. Less with liquid, but I don't think it's going to be so much that you'll gain anything that matters.

You don't think it'd be just as easy for me to turn the lights off if my room temperature got too hot? That's pretty weak-sauce logic.

What percentage of your growroom cost was the water-cooling system?

 

[inefectualize]

i maybe spent 150 dollars total, but had some parts already.....hey man it's your money....im just talking about energy efficiency and using energy the best way possible.....if you can control the environment more accurately with a lot less electricity and get the same results wouldnt it be worth it?

 

[inefectualize]

What percentage of my grow would be used for cooling if I were to use liquid cooling? I would bet it's going to be a LOT more than 21.8%.

No, i just broke it down about 3 posts up...

An A/C is needed regardless of whether I'm using air or liquid cooled lights. Less with liquid, but I don't think it's going to be so much that you'll gain anything that matters.

No, A/C is not needed....see above

You don't think it'd be just as easy for me to turn the lights off if my room temperature got too hot? That's pretty weak-sauce logic.

Yes, however you were the one speaking of the catastrophe if the pump failed. Do you have a thermal cut-off installed on your vortex? What is more prone to failure a fan or a pump? I have been running this pump for 2 years with not even a hiccup, and it is very easy to disassemble and inspect/replace all moving parts

What percentage of your growroom cost was the water-cooling system?

here is something else for you to try how man "usable" foot candles can you achieve?

Measure the distance from the bulb where you can record a temperature below 95 F .... roughly the place where photo-inhibition occurs ... now place a digital foot candle reader there and see what numbers you pull....

 

[ooga booga]

I really don't care what any sort of meters tell me... unless that meter is:

• An electric meter reading at the end of a grow, and
• A scale

 

[inefectualize]

ok....but i have illustrated how it conserves electricity and allows better control over the environmental parameters.....hey, if it just isnt for you that is fine, but you cannot argue that air cooling is more efficient....you just cant....

how many cfms are you pushing through those hoods? measure your air temp exiting the exhaust and now take a temp reading 6 inches under your hood.....a large percentage of your heat will radiate directly into the room no matter how much air you are flowing....not so with water cooling

 

[tgpfarm]

Hey inefectualize, can you give us a walkthrough of your light setup. How did you make the water cooled cool tube?

 

[maryj315]

Hey inefectualize, can you give us a walkthrough of your light setup. How did you make the water cooled cool tube?

You can buy them at your local hydro shop

Mj