Fun with physics:

I saw a post here not too long ago, describing a way to cool the air in a duct line. I thought it was a good start, but doesn't fully bring out the potential of the design.

It was described as simply pulling the air off some ice and water in a Styrofoam cooler, into your duct line.

Here's something better, but requires a little bit more effort;

I used this design last summer to help cool down my herp room, as all the uvb lights, basking lights, heat strips, and computer equipment tend to make this rooms temps hoover around 110F. When I ran this it would cool the room down to a livable 85, and its not even a fully completed unit.

The keys to this design are heat transferability, and the basic properties of water and ice.

Things needed for an open room unit:

1) Fan
2) Styrofoam cooler
3) Copper tubing (fairly expensive) any size from 1/4 up.
4) Zip ties or small pieces of wire
5) Pump (I used a little 75gph fountain pump)
6) Some vinyl tube and either adapters or some ingenuity to connect pump to copper
7) Water
Ice
9) Salt

Tools needed:
1) Knife
2) Pliers
3) Tape (I used electrical, but that's cuz I get heaps from work)

Now to step one:

Cut three holes in the top of your cooler; one for power line in, one for feed tube out, one for drain tube in.

Place your pump in the bottom of the cooler and feed your tube through the lid and into the pump. Make sure you leave enough tube sticking out to either reach your fan, or to reach where your going to adapt into copper.

Step two:

Is the most time consuming step; Take your copper wire and begin attaching it to the FRONT of your fan. To the grate now, not the blades. A spiral pattern works best, but it really doesn't matter. Just remember that the copper tube is going to be transferring the coldness of the water into the moving air, so you want as much air passing by the copper as possible. Use your zip ties or small pieces of wire to hold the copper in place. In my pics you can see that my fan has both the feed and the drain on the same side. Makes it much easier to move water that way.

I used 1/4 inch tubing, which worked well, but caused a whole lotta friction on my pump. By the time the water made a whole circuit, it was barely a trickle out the drain, so this year I plan to use 1/2 copper. Harder to bend, but a propane torch will help me there.

Step three:

Attach your fan to your cooler; I tried to use a dresser that would adapt from copper to rubber, but it leaked, so I ended up using a crimp and a WHOLE LOTTA TAPE. However you manage to do this, remember; DRIPPING SALT WATER ONTO A CARPET WILL LEAVE A STRANGE STAIN.

now, the construction is finished. Fill your cooler about 1/4 full. I only fill it this much initially because when the ice runs out I just dump more in. Three times then I have to dump the cooler somewhere.

After putting the water in, add Ice. The more the better I say, but you want it to float still. If you add so much Ice that its grater then the water content... well... the pump has issues working in that environment.

Take your hand and stir those cubes around. I say to use your hand, because I want all you ppl who ditched science class to learn something. The water should get cold enough to make your skin tingle, and be slightly unpleasant to touch.

Now, add SALT. Any salt works! I have buckets of side-walk de-icier that I use. Course I make sure there isn't any funky chemicals in it. There's probably some mathematical ratio of salt to water we're supposed to use, but math requires brain cells that I've since fried. Or I'm just lazy... who cares! Add enough that it tastes salty I guess.... then add a little more...

NOW, stir that sucker up with your hand. Notice how its now VERY unpleasant to touch? The water is now MUCH colder as salt LOWERS the freezing point of water. So that means it takes colder water to make ice. So that Ice is now melting, but its melting in water that's colder than before. Make sense? SURE!

Flip on your pump and check for leaks. Make sure the water flows well through the tubing. You'll start to see frost develop on the copper. Time to turn on the fan.

I've found that lower speeds actually cool better than faster settings, as the act of molecules moving actually generates heat. More movement=more friction=more heat.

Feel the breeze.

njoy!

PICS:

sickkk!!! that freakin genius broo +rep for this misterr over hereee^^^^^ well up there^^^ lolz

thats a good idea.

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how offten do you have to fill the chest with ice?

every five or six hours during a hot day. I found that once you get the water cooled sufficiently, drop a large block in there. Keeps longer than cubes. I used to put water in a Tupperware dish and drop it in the freezer.

Excerllent idea. I have seen this elsewhere but i wasn't quite sure how to do it. I will try this on my indoor grow. Thx

Nice idea!

What if you were to somehow rig it up that the body of water is placed in a small inexpensive fridge then you wouldn't have to worry about them trips to the gas station picking up the blocked ice. Just my 2 cents

Funny thing you bring that point up! I was going to and figured someone would laugh me off the site, and maybe they still will. I hear of all the problems when your res gets warm so was figuring what to do about a chiller($350-$400, on up!) and I am lucky, I guess. I 've only been in hydro for under a year and I 've yet to get a res temp of 70F, usually stays about 60-65 and no probs......but the room never gets over 80 on a HOT day with the ac and running 2000wts of unvented hps......ugh<---reminds me I need to get them sealed and vented, would save on ac.......again...

Anyway, stoned again, or is that still...? I was thinking of something like what your saying, but why not even just use the fridge as a place for your res? There must be way to be able to drill through the thing safely somewhere......but I dont know, why aren't I hearing of people doing this then..... I do have the room for it<----outside the grow area; just pump from there? At the very least a person could freeze their own water in it, or even chill it.....you'd think.... I really want to get my temps down in the high 50's, would be awesome-just from what I hear......

So could someone please tell me why you cant use a fridge like that? What would be the down-falls that I am not thinking of or seeing?

Thanks! Hope your all having a great 420!!

growinman

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"I'd love to see things from your point of view.....I just cant get my head that far up my ass"--stolen

How many watts would a mini freezer run? If its as much as a portable a/c unit might as well just get a portable a/c unit instead

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