anyone use water-cooled a/c

[ugmjfarmer]

Holy crap I'm sold on that kind of setup.

SOG over at Rollitup also has a nice 12" heat exchanger that could be used along with these water cooling parts to make a room a/c.

 

[P-NUT]

dmt,so a water cooled a/c cant use a pool to cool its coils you need cool or cold water. so how cold does it have to be? could I buy a 1000 gallon plastic tank and bury it like 3 feet deep and have a pump to pump the water out and let it drain back in. Also, can you use the waste water for irrigation or will it be polluted with freon and copper. I mean on food crops not the green.

 

[Lazyman]

Pnut, yes you could use a large reservoir or pool, but the water should be below ambient to have a cooling effect, a chiller and outdoor heat exchanger may be necessary to achieve this. freon never touches the water inside, if it did it would be a dead chiller. Most have titanium guts nowadays, but copper contact is minimal even in copper chillers. Don't sweat it. I've searched pretty extensively but the most data I could find is a 2HP chiller can cool up to 6 lights, so do with that what you will. There will be trial and error involved in most cases.

 

[choch]

Copper is used in plumbing for drinking water, shouldn't be a problem should it??

 

[Lazyman]

Nope, exactly the point. If allowed to sit still for a long time yes it can go sour, but a quick flush fixes that.

 

[BlueHaze]

I would love to see more details running of a pool. Does the pump stay on all the time. I heard people running it of a well. Some pictures will help.

 

[Lazyman]

Pump would be best if tied to a thermostat, so it doesn't run continuously. The chiller would need a no-flow no go type switch on it too for this to work.

 

[mg75]

From what I have noticed on the UrbanGrower show... most closed room BC growers use 3 fan chillers which are about $1000+

A lot of the videos feature exposed (bare) hanging 1000 watt HPS lights.

 

[mg75]

anyone use these?

http://www.growpros.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=374

 

[Lazyman]

anyone use these?

http://www.growpros.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=374

Those look a lot like the exchangers at heatexchanger.ca, but the Canadanadian one goes up to 6 fans (but it's 12 feet long!) They aren't cheap.

 

[mg75]

portable ones...

http://standardequipmentco.com/blowers/Evaporative_Coolers.htm?gclid=COX9zJeRu50CFeFM5QodNxPLiQ

 

[juggernaut]

Nice....I have to figure this out 5k in lamps and i'm moving up tp 9.

I hate the thought of not growing or cutting back on lights for the summer.


I don't have any windows but am using a max exhaust fan at 1709cfm.


However everything has to work together thru my sentinal chhc-4.
AC(which one), heater for winter, CO2 and my exhaust fan.

Any help

 

[recirculator]

by the way, I think we all might still be confusing the terms swamp cooler. my understanding was there are three types of units:

1. swamp cooler (almost useless for our applications, basically a fan blowing air over wetted pads... used down in southern USA mostly im told)

2. water cooled heat exchanger (what you first described, the 2-3-4 fan units that use very little electricity but lots of water, but have a hard time keeping a room cool in summer when tap water temps rise)

3. water cooled a/c (thermoplus units. basically an a/c that instead of using an air intake and exhaust to cool the unit uses hot water, making it perfect for use in a sealed room or in a situation where its best for security reasons not to have vents blowing outside, or having a unit outside cycling on and off with a mini split)

and then you've got the mini splits, window units, portable air cooled, etc. etc.

correct me if im wrong anyone

You left out water source heat pumps.

This is the same as the water cooled AC except that it has a reversing valve to provide heat if you ever needed to.

Typically this is what you'd install in your house if you were setting up for geothermal heating and cooling. Since geothermal heating requires a high flow of coolant back and forth from the ground, you'll see specs from the manufacturers with high fluid flow like you referred to in your OP of about 3-5 GPM depending on the BTU/H rating of the unit. When set up for cooling with drain to waste, these units will have a water reducing valve installed on the outlet piping of the unit. This valve will do two things. First it will drastically reduce the water flow, and second it will turn the water on and off triggered by a thermocouple mounted on the compressor of the unit. As the compressor heats up, it turns the water on. when the unit shuts off it shuts off the water.

A water cooled AC on the other hand tends to have the valve on the inlet side of the water and will be actuated by a pressure sensor which is connected to the "high pressure" side of the AC. When the compressor turns on the valve senses the pressure and allows the water to flow.

you can see water source heat pumps at www.climatemaster.com (there are other manufacturers).

Hope this helps

Happy Happy