Cooling via Airpumps in a Fridge?
- Thread starter AMCRambler
- Start date
_MrBelvedere_
Well-Known Member
You are indoors right? If you have temperature problems, treat them correctly by getting a wall air conditioner. Your room and reservoir will both stay cool.
It probably wont
If you have a 5gal bucket with15L of water in it and you pump 40F air at a rate of 50LPM you wont even have a 0.5F drop in the water temperature after an hour. This assumes the water doesnt gain any heat from anywhere during the hour, and you have completely lossless tubing so all 50LPM arrives at 40F
I understand those factors, I live up north and higher temps are harder to keep for me. With my entire setup running lights on. Fan on- my room is sitting at 80, fan off- at 85 +\- 2 degrees for both. I have everything dialed in for my particular grow room. It might not work well for growers closer to the equator. That has to deal with heat. Res temps sit beautiful between 60-65 degrees. With lights off my room temps drop quick to around 75 +\- 2 degrees. Even though there is some loss of cool air thru the air tubes. That's fine for me. Last thing I need is my girls getting frost bite. My mini fridge is the type that creates an ice box. And I don't want to drop my temps any lower than 60. thanks for pointing this things out. Good note for anyone thinking about this setup.
That won't work. The key is to pull the cold air using the air pump. It'll gradually warm a bit before entering your bucket. Leaving at least for me at a comfy 60ish degrees. Chilling tubes won't work
In sure you all have an air pump, tubing, and an extra 5 gallon bucket around the house. Get some warm water in the 5 gallon bucket. Plug in your air pump. Hook up your air line and air stone. Throw the air pump in your freezer. Throw the air stone in the bucket of water. And see for yourself. Free test...
_MrBelvedere_
Well-Known Member
You are getting a lot of bad advice here
Cooling 1lb of water by 1deg F takes 1 btu, heating 1lb of dry air by 1 deg F takes 0.24 btu. The important thing is 1lb of water = 0.45 litres, 1lb of dry air = 378 litres! If you run 378L of 40F dry air through 0.45L of water and it exits at 60F, it will have gained 4.8 btu from the water.
Result: <5F temperature drop in a cupful of water after running 50LPM of 40F air through it for 7.5 minutes
redi jedi
Well-Known Member
lol...my post was sarcasm...more to humor myself than to advise. Its so mickey mouse its funny.It probably wont
If you have a 5gal bucket with15L of water in it and you pump 40F air at a rate of 50LPM you wont even have a 0.5F drop in the water temperature after an hour. This assumes the water doesnt gain any heat from anywhere during the hour, and you have completely lossless tubing so all 50LPM arrives at 40F
jijiandfarmgang
Well-Known Member
Back when I used an eco-plus commercial air pump, during winter I installed it outside.
The eco-plus commercials are noisy junk that really create a lot of heat.
It worked pretty good at getting the air to a normal temperature.
The fridge thing.....yeah that won't work so well. Not to mention it will create heat in your room (not cool it) so you wouldn't even want it in your room.
- Jiji
The eco-plus commercials are noisy junk that really create a lot of heat.
It worked pretty good at getting the air to a normal temperature.
The fridge thing.....yeah that won't work so well. Not to mention it will create heat in your room (not cool it) so you wouldn't even want it in your room.
- Jiji
WeedFreak78
Well-Known Member
I'm in a basement. I moved my air pumps from a shelf that was 3' off the cement floor and @75F to the cement floor which was @65F and saw a 1.5F drop in my buckets( 4 - 5gal dwc's)..nothing great but it's keeping me under 70F in the res. I've also coiled 50-75' of hose right on the cement floor,covered it with a sheet of foam insulation and aimed a fan at it to make a quick cooling circuit for water, worked ok, just took some time to transfer the heat.
Try this - 5gal bucket full of water in your fridge, turn the thermostat down as cold as it will get, go buy 1/4" aluminum tubing and coil it in the bucket, make a large coil, have air go into the fridge( pumps mounted outside the fridge), through the cooling circuit and then out. Should provide a decent temp drop in the air, although not very efficient. If you go this route, you might be better off making cooling coils for your res and get a small pond pump and use it as a res cooler at that point.
Try this - 5gal bucket full of water in your fridge, turn the thermostat down as cold as it will get, go buy 1/4" aluminum tubing and coil it in the bucket, make a large coil, have air go into the fridge( pumps mounted outside the fridge), through the cooling circuit and then out. Should provide a decent temp drop in the air, although not very efficient. If you go this route, you might be better off making cooling coils for your res and get a small pond pump and use it as a res cooler at that point.
redi jedi
Well-Known Member
I've built a fridge chiller before. Started with just a coil of 1/2" copper in the fridge. Then I put the coil in a bucket full of water and I removed the ice box (thermoplate) and put it in the bucket also. This contraption was good for 7-8 deg C below ambient in a 50 gal RDWC.
Not bad for $75 investment but at the time I didn't know the copper would react with my nutes (almost killed my plants) and the fridge ran so hot it discolored the paint...major fire hazard.
