Water Cooled Growers Unite!

[thefatman]

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-1-HP-TITANI...742?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255e1d6d26

check this guys stuff out. i've heard good things about these.
Be cheaper to setup one master chiller and run a pump circuit to each of your UC rez with a stainless or titanium coil in it. wort chiller coil off of ebay works great.

I bought my Titanium Heat exchangers on eBay for $189.00 each. They are about the same size as those you linked to. Mine have a full 21 foot lone piece of 1/2" out side diameter titanium tubing for the heat exchanger. Only about 6" of the tubing is outside the heat exchanger. 1/2" outside diameter titanium tubing sells for about $5 per foot so if the person doing the modification of the window aiR conditioners you linked to actually uses all the goodies that should be used with a good chiller then the prices is not too bad at all. I would definitely inquire as to whether his units include and expansion valve, a refrigerant filter and a moisture indicator in his systems. If not the price is too high as a window air conditioning unit can be bought retail for about $200 to $250. I would also ask how many feet of tubing is in the heat exchanger. The tubing should have an inside diameter of 4" and contain at least 13 coils. Also ask if the compressor is a 1 ton unit or if the system is rated at 1 hp. Most modifiers selling such systems use a 8000 Btu compressor but rate the units with a good heat exchanger as 12000 Btu (1 ton) units as a water to water system is much more efficient then the air to air units in their original form.

 

[budleydoright]

I bought my Titanium Heat exchangers on eBay for $189.00 each. They are about the same size as those you linked to. Mine have a full 21 foot lone piece of 1/2" out side diameter titanium tubing for the heat exchanger. Only about 6" of the tubing is outside the heat exchanger. 1/2" outside diameter titanium tubing sells for about $5 per foot so if the person doing the modification of the window aiR conditioners you linked to actually uses all the goodies that should be used with a good chiller then the prices is not too bad at all. I would definitely inquire as to whether his units include and expansion valve, a refrigerant filter and a moisture indicator in his systems. If not the price is too high as a window air conditioning unit can be bought retail for about $200 to $250. I would also ask how many feet of tubing is in the heat exchanger. The tubing should have an inside diameter of 4" and contain at least 13 coils. Also ask if the compressor is a 1 ton unit or if the system is rated at 1 hp. Most modifiers selling such systems use a 8000 Btu compressor but rate the units with a good heat exchanger as 12000 Btu (1 ton) units as a water to water system is much more efficient then the air to air units in their original form.

They look like they are just simple converted window shakers, he sells a .5 hp unit for 400 bucks. I've seen it come up in a few threads and does look like a better unit than the commercial aquarium chillers that are out there.
I'm currently trying to educate myself about the additional components you mention and incorporating them into my chiller.

Lot's of good info and tips, appreciate it.

 

[poindexterous]

Thanks to watercooled@'s suggestion I've been looking at water cooled marine air conditioners, which are essentially the reverse of a water chiller(heats the water and chills the air), and these look to be especially nice quality units should anyone be after one.

http://flagshipmarine.com/selfcontained.html

 

[budleydoright]

I've been planning on building one out of a window shaker but now I think I'm just going to build a 2 ton chiller and an air handler. I don't know how to do the math to calculate how much water I would need.

 

[poindexterous]

I've been planning on building one out of a window shaker but now I think I'm just going to build a 2 ton chiller and an air handler. I don't know how to do the math to calculate how much water I would need.

Hey Budley, remind me what is involved to convert a window unit to water cooled. What sort of heat exchanger do you replace the hot coil/condenser with? And do all refrigerant types require an AC tech to charge it?

 

[budleydoright]

It's the same coil that you use on the evaporator side. Same process just on the other side. I could see where a water cooled chiller might be cool. You could heat a jacuzzi with out running the hippie soup through your fresca sols. Not very effecient though.

 

[poindexterous]

So here's my latest experiment. It's 50ft of coiled 5/8" copper tubing attached to garden hose in 300 gallons of water. Essentially it's another place to dump excess heat from Fresca's in addition to or instead of the radiator. A mag drive pump circulates the warm water from the main Fresca rez through 100ft of garden hose to the copper coil and back further reducing the temp. The pump only adds 1/2 amp and the main rez has dropped 10 degrees so far, so it looks to be worth it. Of course the temp of the water around the coil makes all the difference in how effective this will be.

 

[budleydoright]

So here's my latest experiment. It's 50ft of coiled 5/8" copper tubing attached to garden hose in 300 gallons of water. Essentially it's another place to dump excess heat from Fresca's in addition to or instead of the radiator. A mag drive pump circulates the warm water from the main Fresca rez through 100ft of garden hose to the copper coil and back further reducing the temp. The pump only adds 1/2 amp and the main rez has dropped 10 degrees so far, so it looks to be worth it. Of course the temp of the water around the coil makes all the difference in how effective this will be.

That's a great idea. It gets pretty cold here in the winter, good passive way to get rid of some heat!

 

[poindexterous]

That's a great idea. It gets pretty cold here in the winter, good passive way to get rid of some heat!

I'm happy to report it's working pretty good so far, especially since it was entirely shooting from the hip, no math went into it, I didn't know how much heat the copper coil would transfer or if the little pump could push through 250ft of total tubing. But so far it has reduced the peak temp of my 150gal main Fresca rez by 16 deg F, and that's with summer temps, for winter it will do far better, I'll probably stop using it actually. Fun stuff!

 

[poindexterous]

Speaking of air handlers here's my homemade rig...

The radiator is 24" square with a dust filter taped to it. The 6" inline fan is not really making the most of it with only 400cfm passing through, but I needed to get the heat out of the room via duct. I used to have a 20" fan pushing 2000cfm through it which removed a lot more heat.

From my experience I would say 400 to 500 cfm per square ft of radiator is a good very general ratio, one could push twice that much through, or get away with a fraction of it as I have been.

 

[abellguy]

Absolutely love them have four in my current setup and am getting ready to put two more up in about a month really looking forward to it. I run with a 200gal light rezi with a 1HP chiller works great I can just slam em the last month closest I have had them with just a couple light burns here or there was 8" but 12" is never an issue

 

[poindexterous]

Absolutely love them have four in my current setup and am getting ready to put two more up in about a month really looking forward to it. I run with a 200gal light rezi with a 1HP chiller works great I can just slam em the last month closest I have had them with just a couple light burns here or there was 8" but 12" is never an issue

Ah you're running Liquid Lumens units, they seem nicer in ways than the Fresca's. I'd love to see more pictures if you feel like posting them. I'm also curious what the inner and outer diameter of the glass tubes are?

 

[abellguy]

Hey poindexterous I really like your rotator setup with frescas In about a month I am adding two more LL's and will be disassembling them and cleaning and resealing, they've been through 8 runs now so some buildup is on the inside. When I do take them apart I will record that and let you know what it is. I am going to be doing a journal of my next Skywalker run I am getting the pictures together now from cuts to finish, so once I get it up you will see many pics of the room setup and the plants going in and the whole nine yards.

I have been working with this strain for a minute and am now feeling like of got the first stage of dial in down so I wanna show it

 

[poindexterous]

Hey poindexterous I really like your rotator setup with frescas In about a month I am adding two more LL's and will be disassembling them and cleaning and resealing, they've been through 8 runs now so some buildup is on the inside. When I do take them apart I will record that and let you know what it is. I am going to be doing a journal of my next Skywalker run I am getting the pictures together now from cuts to finish, so once I get it up you will see many pics of the room setup and the plants going in and the whole nine yards.

I have been working with this strain for a minute and am now feeling like of got the first stage of dial in down so I wanna show it

Sounds good, I'll look forward to seeing it...

 

[budleydoright]

I just watercooled my 70 pint LG dehuey with a 30 heatercore from autozone, check it....

Even with the airflow diverted to less area, there is no heatbuild up around the unit or within. It blows out cold air now.

I'm hoping that this means no more running AC just to cool the dehuey. We'll see soon.

 

[poindexterous]

I just watercooled my 70 pint LG dehuey with a 30 heatercore from autozone, check it....

Even with the airflow diverted to less area, there is no heatbuild up around the unit or within. It blows out cold air now.

I'm hoping that this means no more running AC just to cool the dehuey. We'll see soon.

Nice. I often run both AC and DH together when I just need to reduce humidity but not change temp. I hadn't thought to water cool a DH.

 

[JG's Ghost]

I saw an amazing video by hydro innovations where they had a whole grow room cooled by a chiller. The fans running the hoods were thermostatically controlled. They had a water cooled co2 burner a radiator for each hood and one for the room.



edit; I'm not trying to be a hater but when you compare the cost and complexity of having a water cooled system to a regular air cooled system, air cooled is a lot cheaper, by far.

$1500+ minimal for a chiller plus the cost of a chiller rez, all the water lines, radiators and a water pump vs. a 2 ton window unit for $350

I got a 1hp water chiller for $895, and two of the H.I. 6" Icebox chillers, and I am in the process of building the rooms now.

I used a DIY water chiller made from a small window shaker A/C unit with an Icebox, and a 360 cfm inline fan to cool a 1000 watt light, and it worked well enough that I could just recirculate the air inside the 5' x 7' room. It kept the temps in the high 70's.

With the new chiller, and a controller I expect to be able to set the temps to whatever I want.

JG

 

[budleydoright]

I've been on the fence about how to scale up. Should I build a bigger chiller and watercool everything, Or go barebulb and throw a hugh watercooled AC in there.
After much reading, I've decided to build a 2 ton chiller with a reverse flow valve that can also function as a water cooled AC. It's definately above my skill level at the moment but I'll get it fugured out. It is quite doable with off the shelf parts. Could probably do it with one of the window AC/HEAT units available at the hardware stores now, but am going to do this build from scratch.

 

[poindexterous]

I've been on the fence about how to scale up. Should I build a bigger chiller and watercool everything, Or go barebulb and throw a hugh watercooled AC in there.
After much reading, I've decided to build a 2 ton chiller with a reverse flow valve that can also function as a water cooled AC. It's definately above my skill level at the moment but I'll get it fugured out. It is quite doable with off the shelf parts. Could probably do it with one of the window AC/HEAT units available at the hardware stores now, but am going to do this build from scratch.

If electricity use weren't an issue barebulb and a huge AC sounds delightfully simple compared to my plumbing madness, though the plumbing can be kinda fun too.

Either way do show us pictures of what you build, always fun to see.

Speaking of photo's here's the two pumps running my whole setup, Blueline makes great pumps for this sorta thing.

 

[budleydoright]

Is that one of those Ebay heat exchangers?
I've been using pond pumps from lowes, that way if it craps out I just go and exchange it! I think it's time I went with a more industrial unit though, have to check those out.