Evaporative coolers

Im currnetly running 2 600 watt hps with cooltubes hooked upto exhaust with an active intake hooked up to a window and 2 oscillating fans in a room 6ft by 5ft 8ft high. Its now the beginning of summer here and my temps are creeping upto 30c and rh at around 28 and its only going to get hotter. Im wondering is anyone using or has used an evaporative cooler in similar conditions and do they work? I dont think an ac is feasible with wattage use and price as I will only be using it for 2/3 months max. Peace

Evaporative coolers (or Swamp Coolers, as we call them) work very well, but only in areas that have low humidity on a regular basis. I live in the Southwest - USA, an area that is essentially a desert (well, a semi-desert anyway!). Swamp Coolers are perfect for this type of area because they are very economical to operate (compared to typical A/C units); and also because they help boost the humidity of the naturally dry air - which provides a more natural growing environment.

If you live in a reltively dry environment, an evaporative cooler should be the perfect solution for you.

And, bye the way, around here they sell "spare parts" at the hardware store (to make repairs), so you can easily build your own cooler on the cheap side! I highly reccomend it!

Thanks for the reply bud. Is yours hooked up to a passive intake outside of your grow room. Im thinkin of buying a smallish portable one and having it inside my grow room because its less humid and hotter inside my grow than it is outside. Peace

lfc89 said:

Thanks for the reply bud. Is yours hooked up to a passive intake outside of your grow room. Im thinkin of buying a smallish portable one and having it inside my grow room because its less humid and hotter inside my grow than it is outside. Peace

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you'd have to leave the door open, those things don't work in a closed room. they will initially cool things off and make things more humid, at which point its functionality no longer exists!

Even with an active intake and exhaust. I thought it would lower my temps and raise my rh to a point and maintain that level. It would be on a timer to come on 2 hrs after my lights come on that is when the grow space is at its hottest and driest and it would turn off when the lights go out. Peace

lfc89 said:

Even with an active intake and exhaust. I thought it would lower my temps and raise my rh to a point and maintain that level. It would be on a timer to come on 2 hrs after my lights come on that is when the grow space is at its hottest and driest and it would turn off when the lights go out. Peace

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https://www.naturalsolutions1.com/aircooler1.htm

DO NOT close up a room and put an air cooler in a room in hope of cooling the entire room down, it will not work. All you are doing is putting humidity in the air and you can actually make it feel worse in that sealed up room. Air Coolers ARE NOT room coolers, they WILL NOT cool a room or area, they ONLY cool the air going through them and are for DIRECT PERSONAL COOLING!

• Unlike air conditioner use, air cooling with water evaporation means you don't close all the doors and windows to keep the cool air in. Doors and windows need to be open so that there is proper ventilation and airflow to distribute the cool air and get rid of the warm, wet air through the open windows and doors.

• When using Air Coolers, WINDOWS should be OPEN so there is air circulation and DRY air coming in the room!

I understand that, but the room is ventilated with an exhaust and active intake fan that is ducted to a window, there is constant fresh air being brought in

lfc89 said:

I understand that, but the room is ventilated with an exhaust and active intake fan that is ducted to a window, there is constant fresh air being brought in

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i can't stop ya, go ahead and try it.

So your saying it will basically just be a humidifier?

lfc89 said:

So your saying it will basically just be a humidifier?

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Yeah, I think so. I have six gallon Essick Air models in my veg and flower rooms, very useful for improved VPD but the cooling ability is minimal. My outside air exchange is much drier than I expected, being near Seattle.

My exhaust is bigger than what I need for the size of my room and its temp controled and its running full to keep it at 30c which in effect is creating a lot of negative pressure and lowering humidity to about 25-28 if I turned it down my temps go up. If I put an EC inside the tent would it be beneficial. I need to buy a humidifier regardless so im thinkin I may aswell see if it works

lfc89 said:

So your saying it will basically just be a humidifier?

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pretty much.

think about how evaporative cooling works. it doesn't really cool the air so much as it cools you.

Ye I believe the cooling process will be minimal. If it does only raise humidity ill be happy and my 2 youngest plants are suffering with what looks like vpd. I think its coz my exhaust is effectivly sucking the atmosphere out of the room way to quick

Uncle buck is absolutely right! The only way a Swamp Cooler will work well inside is if you duct outside air, directly into the intake of the cooler (not very efficient or easy)! That is why you always see them mounted externally, usually on the roof.

But if set-up and used properly, they can be a very effective (and economical) cooling system.

lfc89 said:

Is yours hooked up to a passive intake outside of your grow room. Peace

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Mine was a "Window Model", it was mounted hanging outside of a hole I cut in a shed wall. It sucked in "hot, dry" outside air - did it's evaporative thing - and blew "cool,humid" air inside the shed.

Air coolers are glorified humidifiers. A 90w model i had could cool a 3x3 growtent 3-4 degrees down if i filled its reservoir with plenty of ice cubes and some water but it had a very small reservoir and it needed changing every 3 hours. As you can easily understand, i gave up, i could not fill the reservoir with ice cubes every three hours to keep the grow tent at good temps. This was the only case where i used it and i had pretty low rh as those things are supposed to work (<25%). It was an expensive lesson, i barely used it. My other expensive lesson is a portable a/c i bought some time ago...Go with a window a/c or fight with the hotter temps that approach via vented hps,leds, good exhaust and such. From what i understood paying loads of money again and again, if you battle high ambient temps (this happens in the summer) go minimally with window a/c and co2 for proper temps and such. Or ideally with mini split a/c and co2.

This is how i installed my Swamp cooler on my Grow room,it works well to raise the humidity and cools the room about 10 degrees.less than the outside temperature.

Nice! Set it up like a pro! What is its consumption? Does not look like the air cooler i had got, mine seems like a toy compared to yours.

paparov said:

Nice! Set it up like a pro! What is its consumption? Does not look like the air cooler i had got, mine seems like a toy compared to yours.

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They have a motor rated at 1 amp in LA they cost about $35 a month to run the cooler and a 16in wall fan.The portable ones that don't bring in outside air are useless here