Water Cooled Growers Unite!

[itisme]

Great sections to have.

 

[itisme]

Pics of my modded a/c way more efficient with water .

Can somebody tell me what I am looking at here??? Any help is appreciated

 

[+Vibes]

hey itsme, overbudjet took the heat exchanger(radiator) of a normal window mount ac and submersed it in water. i'm not sure how the water itself is kept at a manageable temp, but it does look like there are other in/outflows. similarly, my diagrammed concept could use a wall mount ac to cool the water, then used that chilled water to lower the temp of the entire room. for some reason i think a water chiller would be quite a bit more efficient at cooling the water but for a higher initial cost.

what i can't really wrap my head around:
1/4 hp chiller pulling 360watts/3amp with @ ~3000 BTU
or a 12,000BTU window unit will usually pull +1000watts

i don't have experience with either but even if your chiller is chugging hard 24/7 to keep water temps down, you're still saving a lot of energy right? key here would be venting the chiller heat, ie bulb/room heat...

 

[itisme]

Thanks Vibes.

 

[RedRain]

1.5HP 230V Chiller Specifications:
* BTU: 18,000 BTU/h
* Amps: 8.8
* Flow Rate: 960 - 1,420 gph
* Inlet / Outlet Size: 1"

well a 1.5hp chiller that g33kdro draws 8.8 amps @ 230v, plus the power that your fans run to duct the air around. I think your kWh of your chiller is almost double of what a mini split will run.

a 1 ton mini split will only use .95 kWh, when cooling, and that is a 18 seer fujitsu, I am sure they come in a higher seer rating as well, which will increase efficiency. Its simple and effective, and efficient.

I dont see how efficient it is to use a 1.5 hp chiller to cool 2800w.

+Vibes- g33kdro uses 1.5 hp not 1/4 hp to cool just a mere 3000w.

Generally you can cool 3000w per 1 ton or 12000btu's of cooling.

I have found when you eliminate a chiller and just drain to waste water, water cooling is efficient. Or you can use a full AC condenser, which has a large surface area to transfer the heat from the water back into the air.

Water is great and normally the temperature of city water is 55F, but when it gets hot in the summer, depending on where you are, your city water may get warmer, robbing you of BTU's.

Only when you eliminate the power consumption of a chiller, do you really start to get efficient cooling. Other than that Air - to -air is simple and effective and efficient. I still dont see any proof that using a chiller to w/c a room is more efficient than air to air cooling. Geothermal is really cool and interesting, its definitely the future, but the costs to start up are crazy!

 

[Rednick]

Can somebody tell me what I am looking at here??? Any help is appreciated

Sorry that is wrong.
What he is doing is using the evaporation radiator submerged in flowing water...So that the exothermic reaction to cause phase change from vapor to liquid goes through a solid (radiator metal) to liquid (water) to transfer the heat...As opposed to how a window AC normally transfers heat which is solid (radiator) to gas (atmosphere).

He is pumping heat INTO the tub.
No need to make an AC box or mount the AC outside.
Probably has a chiller hooked up to the tub, or runs water to waste, ?????...Never tried that.

The smaller radiator on the front is where the cool are blows from.

 

[Rednick]

Geothermal is really cool and interesting, its definitely the future, but the costs to start up are crazy!

Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP) are the way to cool if using water chilling and no replenishable source of cool water that enters back into the water table unadultarated.

But yes costs are high, and the info is scarce.

Int'l GSHP Assocation (IGSHPA) http://www.igshpa.okstate.edu/
Has Class w/ materials $1700
Materials $300

Books on the subject range from basic $50 to textbook $100-300.

Haven't been able to get any in to knock down too many constants.

On the farm there is a thread "Any Thermodynamic cooling pros out there?"

Too much work to repost that info.

 

[RedRain]

Sorry that is wrong.
What he is doing is using the evaporation radiator submerged in flowing water...So that the exothermic reaction to cause phase change from vapor to liquid goes through a solid (radiator metal) to liquid (water) to transfer the heat...As opposed to how a window AC normally transfers heat which is solid (radiator) to gas (atmosphere).

He is pumping heat INTO the tub.
No need to make an AC box or mount the AC outside.
Probably has a chiller hooked up to the tub, or runs water to waste, ?????...Never tried that.

The smaller radiator on the front is where the cool are blows from.

sorry but you are wrong, well u have the wording mixed up. On an AC system,the evaporator coil gets cold, and the condenser coil is warm/hot.

the condensor coil is in the back where the warm vapor refrigerant is condesned back into a gas. The Hot condensor coil is in the back of the AC where all the heat is dispursed. The front coil of that window shaker AC is called the evaporater coil, which gets cold and transfers the heat from the air into the refrigerant.

It looks like that guy has successfully made a window shaker AC into a super stealthy unit. This AC will now cool and the heat will be transfered into the water, instead of blowing air over the coils dispersing the heat into the air. This will create a very stealthy system, where you do not have to vent the air and potential leak stinky air.

You can also place the evaporator coil into water, and chill water. And you would also be able to place the condenser coil into water to displace the heat as well.

A little extra solder, copper, a recovery pump, and a 2 way refrigerant holding tank, and you can do this too. Dayyuuummm has this got me thinking!!!!

 

[toohighmf]

Wow. This threads still alive. Amazing! I don't see an instant payoff, but it could cool a res w s/s wort chillr for a res with w a 1/4 HPchiller for that wort chiller and 1 icebox to help reducing AC size n cycling. I love mini splits , as long as I don't have to use it much..
water and recirc or mini split.

I often wonder how to dehumidify cheaply and cool from a remote OD. Until i can find simple cheap efficient use ill post up.

 

[Rednick]

sorry but you are wrong, well u have the wording mixed up. On an AC system,the evaporator coil gets cold, and the condenser coil is warm/hot.
!

Thank for clearing up that, it was late last night.

 

[Mizzafishkilla]

I have a 10X 20 grow room going in. It is physically attached to my well/pumphouse which sits upon a 3000 gallon in-ground concrete tank/reservoir(lots of cold water!). I have a 100 gallon diaphragm pressure tank that provides plenty of pressure. So, pressure and GPH are not a problem...

I'd like to use these exchangers for cooling. I'd prefer NOT to be dumping/wasting the used water. Do you have familiarity with the materials used on these exchangers? Are they safe to pass water through these that will be consumed (drank) at some point later?

RedRain, thanks for bringing these to my attention...!

These are super popular all over BC, Fraser Valley Green House, Jons Plant Factory sell em.

simple and effective.

2.1 amps draw per fan motor@ 120v

large double, quintuple, triple core radiator = more surface area to dissipate heat

solenoid to only open when there is a call for cooling, so no water is wasted

thermostat with temperate probe for accurately maintaining temps, and controls solenoid.

1 Fan 2 Coils thick = 7000 BTU's
1 Fan 4 Coils thick = 14,000 BTU
2 Fans 3 Coils thick = 24,500 BTU
3 Fans 3 Coils thick = 35,000 BTU
4 Fans 3 Coils thick = 45,000 BTU

these numbers are with 55F input water (tap water from city), the colder your water the greater the BTUs. Its all about surface area and a large rad to pull the heat from the air and transfer it into water. Not to mention they pull moisture from the air, since the water supply is a closed loop system.

you can use a chiller to chill a res of water and feed it to this heat exchanger, but it really defeats the whole purpose of water cooling, efficiency. When you have to deal with the heat and power consumption of a chiller, you are better off using an air-to-air split. Keep it simple!!



water cooling rocks!!!

 

[skunkbear]

I wonder if we could water cool like they do with computer cpus and the like?

 

[Rednick]

I have a 10X 20 grow room going in. It is physically attached to my well/pumphouse which sits upon a 3000 gallon in-ground concrete tank/reservoir(lots of cold water!). I have a 100 gallon diaphragm pressure tank that provides plenty of pressure. So, pressure and GPH are not a problem...

I'd like to use these exchangers for cooling. I'd prefer NOT to be dumping/wasting the used water. Do you have familiarity with the materials used on these exchangers? Are they safe to pass water through these that will be consumed (drank) at some point later?

RedRain, thanks for bringing these to my attention...!

You will want to test your water, cost you anywhere from $100-$250 usually to get the kind of tests you want. Mainly you want to see the dissolved solids/metals content of your water...As you are talking about an 'Open Loop Re-Injection' system, in the world of geo-thermal or ground source heat pumps.
Two issues: 1) Will your water cause scaling, leaching and other damage to the equipment? 2) do the components in the unit pose contamination/leaching risk? What if something breaks/leaks?

I am unfamiliar with those units, but I bet a good place to start is to contact the manufacturer with those questions. Let him know you will be running it as an open loop reinjetion system, using potable water.

 

[Mizzafishkilla]

Thanks RedNick, I didn't even think about scaling, etc and damaging the equipment...I have an email into the manufacturer..
Thanks Again....

 

[christen23]

bump, Looking into water cooling my new 8k room, found the thread but gonna read it another time.

 

[THriveCompany]

Cool read.. lots of good info .. how do the water cooled air exchagers work. cold water goes into and cold air out..? sorry im no hvac pro. Trying to ditch this 24500 btu ac for something more steady.. any info would be great thanks

 

[BlueHaze]

Let say i have a 5ton water cool unit. A bin with 100 gallon of water. 2hp water chiller to keep the water cool. Is it possible that it works? I been using the water cool unit with a pool but for future knowledge would like to know if 2hp water chiller with a 100gallon bin be able to keep up.

 

[Rednick]

The 'Search' tool is your friend.

P.S. If you want I can start assigning 'Homework' to see that you are all actually reading the book.

 

[watercooled@]

Let say i have a 5ton water cool unit. A bin with 100 gallon of water. 2hp water chiller to keep the water cool. Is it possible that it works? I been using the water cool unit with a pool but for future knowledge would like to know if 2hp water chiller with a 100gallon bin be able to keep up.

No!

 

[budleydoright]

Here's my .5hp window shaker converted to a proper chiller. Used it for 18 months as a submerged coil chiller. Coil started to desintagrate. Total cost under 200.