How much cool power could I harvest from this?

[Bennyweed1]

Hey again.

I grow in a basement. My basement floor is a constant 58-62 degrees year round.

I want to take 50' of 1/2" copper pipping and run in on the floor making a heatsink. I want to connect it all together with a 50gallon reservoir running water through the copper pipe so the heat can be absorbed into the floor.

I'll then hook up a heat exchanger inside my tents similar to the hydro innovations ice box.

I have a total of 350cu.ft. I would like to cool and a total of 1200w max of lighting.

I dont know how I will control the condensation coming off the copper pipes though....any thoughts? Maybe a fan setup blowing air over the top surface of the pipes? Seems like that method will raise my overall RH% Id imagine.

Going to home depot tomorrow to budget a supplies list.

I know I can get 10' of 1/2" copper pipe for $9.57 a piece. I have just about everything else I will need including the pumps. Might need to invest in a better resev though. Something metal preferably.

What do you think? Think this could work?

Simple sketch:

 

[grow_right]

in order for the piping to absorb the heat from the floor, it needs to be buried or covered some way.

 

[grow_right]

er i mean heat absorbed into the surrounding ground.

 

[fungzyme]

Is it a full basement, or do you have a crawlspace area that you could run (and hopefully bury) the copper pipe? Were you planning on building a platform floor above the pipe to walk on?

 

[NotaProfessor]

I agree with grow_right, the piping needs to have better contact with the floor than just lying on it.

If you're on well water you can just pump well water thru your heat exchanger, then water the lawn with the output. Well water will be that 55-60° you are looking for.

 

[Rocky Mtn Squid]

55 degree F water will not be cold enough to cool down your grow. To get any real chill effect by using hydronics and geothermal, you need to have at least a 30 - 40 degree difference between your room temp and your chilled H20 temp to make it work.

 

[GrinStick]

i thought you wanted to heat the floor...

 

[NotaProfessor]

55 degree F water will not be cold enough to cool down your grow. To get any real chill effect by using hydronics and geothermal, you need to have at least a 30 - 40 degree difference between your room temp and your chilled H20 temp to make it work.

I'll tell that to the Honeywell plant in Minneapolis that air-conditioned all their offices using well water. For a place that was bent on saving money, they said that the well water beat running chillers by a mile. "Only energy cost is to is run the well pumps and the fans."

To be most efficient a high temperature differential is best but that does not make systems with a lesser differential useless. (Besides, in an 85° grow room you get a temp differential of 30 degrees with 55° water...at the lower end of what you consider adequate.)

 

[Bennyweed1]

Well I dig all the responses.....

I built the heat exchange loop. It is not a finished product by any means. I used a lot of stuff I had around the house like pumps, and the reservoirs. I want to see if it would work.

IT DOES!

So things I plan to buy to make it a more solid system are:

(2) 35-40g steal reservoirs with smooth full contact bottoms.

2 real pumps that can give me some head and pressure.

A real heat exchanger for inside the tent (something like Hydro Innovations Ice Box)

I first want to spend some time researching, trying to find something I can either build or something larger than the Ice Box.

I only ran 20ft of copper heat loop on the floor. I wanted to see what kind of results I would get.

Here is my simple, inexpensive, effective, and virtually free liquid cooling system.......

Resev. 1. This resev. runs the ground floor heat loop.

I placed all my soil bins on top of the heat loop for better contact. They are mostly full of cooking organic soil.

Its also modular. I can add more heat loops if I need too which I plan adding 30' more for good measures.

 

[Bennyweed1]

Resev. 1 with the return line coming off the heat loop. 120gph pump.
Also the coil in Resev. 1 is being used to chill Resev. 2

Resev. 2 with a 120gph pump running water through the coil in Resev 1.
Also a float valve to refill it automatically. Its all RO/DI water which I also use to water everything.

And here is the make shift/ghetto heat exchanger in the tent placed above a cooling fan. Once I figure out a permanent solution this coil will replace the plastic coil I have running into Resev. 1 cooling Resev. 2.

Here is the static temp. of both reservoirs combined after 4 hours of running 42.3F. Both Resev. are filled with 35g each of H20. 70g total.
The ambient basement air is about 59-60 F year round also.

And here is the temp inside of the tent after 4 hours of running. 69.8F w/65% RH (too high!). I have to figure out a way to regulate the flow of water, or get a fan speed control thermo stat so I can raise the temp.

The cool thing about this system is I plan to run Co2. So once I get the equipment, ill need to raise the temp to about 82-85F. There will be no problem maintaining that temp.

Also, now since this is a closed loop system my humidity is jacked up! Ill have to invest in a dehumidifier but would like to know if anyone has experience using small Thermoelectric dehumidifiers? Like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Eva-dry-Edv-2...W6KQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1335413751&sr=8-5

I only want to dehumidify both tents and not the entire basement. Trying to do this as efficiently as possible. That small dehumidifier only consumes 80w. 30 pints a day. Both tents combined are 350cu. ft.

 

[Bennyweed1]

And here is tent 2
72 degrees
56% RH (too high!)

I have 2 - 220 cfm fans tying both tents together making them a closed loop system with relatively even temp. variance.

 

[Bennyweed1]

And here is the total power consumption of both flower tents and the liquid cooling system.

One 600w HPS
500w of LEDs
Two fans and a carbon filter
all the pumps running the cooling sys.

12.48 amps

1191 total watts.

I am very satisfied with my outcome

 

[Bennyweed1]

^^^ I messed the title up. I meant cooling power!

I dont want to gather the heat, this floor is cold year round. Using it to cool everything. Its a basement about 8' in the dirt. The concrete slab maintains a very stable temp.

In the winter I simply dont have to run the cooling system because the air is chilled.

 

[eyes]

Also, now since this is a closed loop system my humidity is jacked up! Ill have to invest in a dehumidifier but would like to know if anyone has experience using small Thermoelectric dehumidifiers? Like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Eva-dry-Edv-2...W6KQ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1335413751&sr=8-5

I only want to dehumidify both tents and not the entire basement. Trying to do this as efficiently as possible. That small dehumidifier only consumes 80w. 30 pints a day. Both tents combined are 350cu. ft.[/QUOTE]


i wouldnt by the eva. in my experience those little dehumidifiers(thermoelectric) are good for a bread box. my suggestion would to be a regular dehumidifier and vent the hot air out of the tent into the basement. a 40 pint wont heat up a basement,like say a 70 pint. your also wanting to do two areas with one dehumidifier which gets tricky with stand alone units and not ducted units.
the other option is to water cool the dehumidifiers if u had to as well. the 40 pint i use is 280 watts where the newer ones are rated at about 360 watts. the 70 pint dehumidifiers are about 770 watts, the bigger 70 will do 700 sq ft. where the smaller is good for 350 or so sq ft. add plants and a humid environment and everything changes. theyll have to work that much harder and in some instances youll need a second one.

all in all u are better off with an a/c(which cools and dehumidifys at the same time. a smaller 5000 or 600 btu is about 500-600 watts. use the dehumids at lights off. dont let me detract ya from following through with your idea though. looks quite interesting.

 

[LiLWaynE]

patent that sucker asap!

 

[fungzyme]

Nice! Just wondering what the water temp in your reservoir is. If you use a large enough res directly on the floor like that it may provide enough cooling power to not even need the copper pipe on the floor (once it gets down to the temp of the floor, that is). Regardless, cool diy experimenting and I'm glad it's working for you.

 

[Bennyweed1]

Thanks! I just placed a bid on a Sentinel CHHC 1. Hopefully I win it! I'd be able to run my pumps directly off it controlling the temp. Along with co2, humidity, and heat.

Been wanting one of these controllers for years, finally my chance to get a used on for considerably less then $600.00 new.