Water Cooled Grow Rooms

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budleydoright

Well-Known Member
My idea was to use a water to air heat exchanger with a large ducted fan outdoors, as well as another one indoors. Put these on a pump circuit and a well insulated rez. Now my temps most of the year are below 60 especially in the evening when there would be a load on it. Even in the heat of the summer the evening are cool, although I'm sure a chiller would be required during the summer. Fall thru spring though, The air is quite cold at night.

I know HI makes a compressorless chiller which is a basically what I'm thinking.
 
cerberus

cerberus

Well-Known Member
yeah man. the HI compressorless is exactly what your describing. radiators on three sides and a giant fan on top, pull air over the radiator. nothing more. you could build it with HONDA radiators (for 45& on ebay) a fan, and a whole in the ground for geothermal insulation..


your idea is on point, go and be fruitful! lol
 
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budleydoright

Well-Known Member
But without the need for tonage, seems just a good sized air/water heat exchanger ducted to a single fan would work. Ebay for under 200.
 
NickNasty

NickNasty

Well-Known Member
Anybody got any links or info on how to figure out how much water it would take to cool a 5000 watt room with no chiller with the water naturally being around 60-65 degrees? I have a old water cistern in my house that is roughly 6x6x4 ft that I'm thinking of lining with pond liner I think it holds around 1000 gallons but I am bad with math so that could be off and 2 of its walls are attached to the walls of my basement so it stays pretty cool. Anyways I am basically trying to figure out if I could use this to cool my room without a chiller.
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
Fresca Sol claims 100gals per 1000w. So, it seems the 1000 gals +/-, should easily sink 5000w, right?
 
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budleydoright

Well-Known Member
Doer said:
Fresca Sol claims 100gals per 1000w. So, it seems the 1000 gals +/-, should easily sink 5000w, right?
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100 gallons in a steel drum in a 60 degree room maybe! My single fresca could take 100 gallons to well over 100 degrees in a few hours.

Do you have the platinum or the original fresca?
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
budleydoright said:
100 gallons in a steel drum in a 60 degree room maybe! My single fresca could take 100 gallons to well over 100 degrees in a few hours.

Do you have the platinum or the original fresca?
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Just a regular Sol, but, you are right, I haven't tried in summer, where the nights don't get cool. We go 50 max over night, year round.
But, with the city water plumbed thru, maybe that will hold day heat down.

For folks that don't know. A Sol will run fine at 100 degrees, but that a 100 degree hot spot over the plants.
 
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budleydoright

Well-Known Member
They do work great even with 100 degree water, make sure to use a pump that can handle the heat. Also in my original frescas, the powder coating between the glass started flaking off.

I'm not dissing on the frescas, I like them a lot. I just made a lot of mistakes with them, if I share them with you, it may make your road less bumpy.

I used RO water in one of them not knowing better. Tap water is better. I never used any glycol. I'm pretty sure that would have solved the powder coating issue. Once there is metal exposed. all of the different metals in your system are now connected through water and will start to interact with each other. I believe glycol will also reduce this interaction.

Test your no flow switch weekly, mine failed and I have heard of others failing as well. I used a high temp cut off as well. If my room went over 90 everthing heat producing is cut, as this indicates a failure.

Use a larger diameter drian line than your supply line, this will create negative pressure in the fixture. If you do develop a leak anywhere, air will leak in, instead of water leaking out. Do not use any type of vinyl hose, the heat will make it soft and it will collapse. I purchased a 50' roll of US made Goodyear reinforced rubber hose. I get it at harbor freight, it is 1/2" ID air compressor hose.

The rules of proper lighting still apply, if your running a 1k you still need to have 30+ inches between the light and canopy. You can reduce this distance alot more than an air cooled but you will fry your plants if you try to run it 6-12" off the canopy like it has been suggested in their advertising.
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
budleydoright said:
They do work great even with 100 degree water, make sure to use a pump that can handle the heat. Also in my original frescas, the powder coating between the glass started flaking off.

I'm not dissing on the frescas, I like them a lot. I just made a lot of mistakes with them, if I share them with you, it may make your road less bumpy.

I used RO water in one of them not knowing better. Tap water is better. I never used any glycol. I'm pretty sure that would have solved the powder coating issue. Once there is metal exposed. all of the different metals in your system are now connected through water and will start to interact with each other. I believe glycol will also reduce this interaction.

Test your no flow switch weekly, mine failed and I have heard of others failing as well. I used a high temp cut off as well. If my room went over 90 everthing heat producing is cut, as this indicates a failure.

Use a larger diameter drian line than your supply line, this will create negative pressure in the fixture. If you do develop a leak anywhere, air will leak in, instead of water leaking out. Do not use any type of vinyl hose, the heat will make it soft and it will collapse. I purchased a 50' roll of US made Goodyear reinforced rubber hose. I get it at harbor freight, it is 1/2" ID air compressor hose.

The rules of proper lighting still apply, if your running a 1k you still need to have 30+ inches between the light and canopy. You can reduce this distance alot more than an air cooled but you will fry your plants if you try to run it 6-12" off the canopy like it has been suggested in their advertising.
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Right on. This totally matches my experience. I haven't boiled out a Sol, yet. But, when the flow switch fails.....The Dwyers Instruments device
I use is a reed switch on a paddle. The water flow closes the switch by pushing the paddle. No push, no light.
 
kizphilly

kizphilly

Well-Known Member
my brother was telling me about this but i finally got everthing working the way i want and i aint gonna let him fuck wit it lol
 
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budleydoright

Well-Known Member
I was running 3 of them (frescas) had a piece of powder coat break free and plug the waterflow. the water heated very rapidly and at some point the obstruction was cleared. Hot glass and cold water, well you can guess what happened next. I'll tell you hanging that pump off a bungee just deep enough to operate kept me from pumping the whole rez (100 gallons) into my upstairs grow. Fortunately the pump wasn't deep enough to pump out more that 10 gallons which my liner contained.
 
phillipchristian

phillipchristian

New Member
Depends on the ambient temps outside and the ability of your holding tank to transfer heat from itself to the ground. Also, with a Fresca you are removing the heat from the bulb. You still need to cool the ambiant temps from the room and the other equipment in there. This is the biggest mistake I see guys make with Fresca's and Ice Boxes. They think adding 1 to their light means they don't need any other cooling. This is incorrect. You still need to cool the room and the other heat producing equipment.
 
NickNasty

NickNasty

Well-Known Member
I am bare bulb so it will be to cool my room not my bulbs my cistern is made out of concrete its in my basement and 2 of its walls are foundation walls its also in the coolest spot in my basement its walled off from my veg/flower rooms. Also my ballasts are in a crawl space so no heat from those and I will probably have a dehumidifier
 
phillipchristian

phillipchristian

New Member
Depends on how many and what size your lights are then. Also on the size of your room and dehumidifier. All of them have heat that need to be cooled back to ambient temps or just above if your room is cool naturally. Will be much more efficient to have 2 heat exchangers in your room than 1.
 
cerberus

cerberus

Well-Known Member
NickNasty said:
I am bare bulb so it will be to cool my room not my bulbs my cistern is made out of concrete its in my basement and 2 of its walls are foundation walls its also in the coolest spot in my basement its walled off from my veg/flower rooms. Also my ballasts are in a crawl space so no heat from those and I will probably have a dehumidifier
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?

do you have any fans? pumps? dehumid? etc in the room, their motors generate heat. plants generate heat (especially big healthy ones) just closed spaces generate heat (i don't know how, but all BTU rating charts account for empty space too)

just because the bulbs are bare does not mean you don't have other heating factors

you wanna over size your A/c everything else i am not for 'bigger is better' menatality but for A/c yes. if you think you need a ton get 1.5 tons.
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
phillipchristian said:
Depends on the ambient temps outside and the ability of your holding tank to transfer heat from itself to the ground. Also, with a Fresca you are removing the heat from the bulb. You still need to cool the ambiant temps from the room and the other equipment in there. This is the biggest mistake I see guys make with Fresca's and Ice Boxes. They think adding 1 to their light means they don't need any other cooling. This is incorrect. You still need to cool the room and the other heat producing equipment.
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Right, the Fresca won't sink all the lamps heat either. A portion, say 20%, radiates as infrared and heats up the hood, walls, etc.
 
phillipchristian

phillipchristian

New Member
Doer said:
Right, the Fresca won't sink all the lamps heat either. A portion, say 20%, radiates as infrared and heats up the hood, walls, etc.
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Yea, I've never used the Fresca's. The Ice Box with a correctly sized chiller will actually take away 100% of a 1000w bulbs heat. You can lay your face on the glass under the bulb. I'll have to test it again sometime soon but I am pretty sure the exhaust air was actually slightly below ambient as well.
 
Doer

Doer

Well-Known Member
yeah, just depends on the water temp. The fixture can be used to cool the room if the water is chilled.
But, I still get some ifrarred. What is different about the Ice Box, I wonder. I need to look into it.
I plan on going to 2000w by adding another fixture soon.
 
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