Using water to cool heated air from cool tube?

I may just be stoned,
but a thought came to me tonight -
What if I were to stick my exhaust duct into a reservoir of cool water?
Obviously it's going to make a lot of bubbles like a mini hot tub, but
would this be effective, or even dangerous?

Besides making a bubbly mess, I don't see how this wouldn't be SOMEWHAT effective..

Other than the fact that you will probably greatly reduce the efficiency of your fan, and the water will probably heat up rather quickly, and in return just radiate that heat back into whatever room the reservoir is in.

On the plus side, free hot tub!

Ah, I see.
I was hoping for a cheap cooling method, like the rest of us.
Any other input?

puckuck said:

Ah, I see.
I was hoping for a cheap cooling method, like the rest of us.
Any other input?

Click to expand...

Weed is wonderful.

I'm confused as to why you need to cool the air that is being blown away from your grow room? Is it to stop it from being sucked back in thru intake?

^^What he said. The further you can get hot air away, the better. Trying to cool it can be less efficient, depending on specific circumstances. I'd probably look at using a chiller and iceboxes before doing what you mentioned. Wears out your fan, reduces airflow, and youd still need to figure out how to cool that water for it to keep working.

^^^My idea exactly. I was thinking an ice box. Maybe get a small bedroom fridge, cut some holes thru the side, secure your ducting to the holes. Idk, but that seems like it would work.

Always consider the different factors that will give to the plan and to the design.

My problem is, I can't vent anywhere else outside of my closet when I'm not home. It's a somewhat stealth grow using 400w dimmable ballast, with a cool tube venting out of a 2 x 4 x 5 tent into a walk-in closet, I can dim my ballast to 50% (200w) and close the closet door for 45 minutes before heats get to 86 F, so I was getting desperate for answers.
I've concluded on buying some T5 to hang vertically on both sides with some 42w CFL on top for use when I'm not home to control high temps.
But THANKS anyway.

I read back in the 90's of a guy doing this but the water was outside if I remember rightly. He had it pine scented as well. I guess you could get the chilling mechanism from an old a/c and drop that in the water to keep it cool. Or you seal the cab up (but thats pricey). I am looking into water cooling at the moment. It's mucho $$$$ for outlay.

puckuck said:

I may just be stoned,
but a thought came to me tonight -
What if I were to stick my exhaust duct into a reservoir of cool water?
Obviously it's going to make a lot of bubbles like a mini hot tub, but
would this be effective, or even dangerous?

Click to expand...

i think that this system would put a tremendous strain on your inline duct fan and create a lot of backpressure (not good)

Hot tub technician offers input:

I'm assuming this walk-in is in a bedroom and you normally keep the closet door open but must lock the closet door when you leave...???

I'm also assuming you can't cut a four inch hole in the drywall somewhere and vent to an attic, crawlspace or the bedroom.

You could use water to cool the tent but the best way is to build a simple heat exchanger. You must exchange the heat from one space into another.

Anything you do with an open tub of water requires evaporation to dissipate the heat. Evaporation inside the closet will just add humidity to the equation and compound the heating effect. A large, closed body of water might act as a 'heat sink' but it would only work temporarily until the tank of water was the same temperature as the tent.

Building a simple heat exchanger:
Place a long coil of (ideally) copper pipe on the ceiling or around the walls in the top of the closet. Place another coil of copper pipe outside the closet. Connect the two with a small circulation pump and fill the system with water.

The coil inside the closet will absorb heat. The coil outside the closet will dissipate the heat IF the the outside space is cooler AND if you use a fan to blow heat away.

Either way, you need to move the heat somewhere outside the closet or it will be like opening the refrigerator door to cool the kitchen.

If you can put the discharge coil in the bedroom it will transfer the excess heat from the tent/closet space into the bedroom.

I found this on the Internet to give you some idea of what I'm describing... You could even use this gizmo to help heat the bedroom in winter (effectively for free) if you live in a colder climate.

heat is energry, you cannot destroy energy, just transfer it