Water Cooled Grow Rooms

wow, have't been on this thread in forever. thanks for the shout out ryan...aka...the guy who taught me everything. LOL. hope everyone is doing well. bought to journal a 4000w water cooled grow room construction starting in a week or so. hope everyone is staying cool.

Why does a commercial grow op (50,000+ watts) doesn't run water cooled, instead they run ac with air cooled reflectors? Really great Info thanks scooby

Hello all, I was wondering if I could get some insight on what I should do for a water cooled system. I live in Michigan so It really is only hot 4-5 months out of the year starting in the beginning of April to the end of August. Anyways my rooms are as follows

12L x 15W x 8H with 4000 watts, a 70 pint dehum, no co2 yet, but was planning on a burner
The ballasts are inside the room, and I am planning on moving them outside once I get money for cords to be adequate length (lol)
The room will have 12 plants because Michigan likes to do the really gay 12 plant per patient room rule.
The lights are air cooled hoods, and I have the intake coming into the hoods from outside and the exhaust from the lights going outside as well.
I run soil plants, and don't plan on switching to hydro.

My second flowering room will have all the same things except it's dimensions are 10L x 15W x 8H

Keep in mind these rooms are in a basement

If I didn't give enough information for an accurate guesstimation I'm sorry in advance.

h.cordero said:

Why does a commercial grow op (50,000+ watts) doesn't run water cooled, instead they run ac with air cooled reflectors? Really great Info thanks scooby

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i've rarely ever seen a 50k room even running air cooled lights. normally they just put the bulbs in bat wing reflectors and use a few 5 ton commercial air handlers. water cooling technology is pretty new and is very expensive upfront. most large commercial ops don't want to deal with the buildout time and something that size would require multiple large chillers which may be hard to conceal.

Rayjay123 said:

Hello all, I was wondering if I could get some insight on what I should do for a water cooled system. I live in Michigan so It really is only hot 4-5 months out of the year starting in the beginning of April to the end of August. Anyways my rooms are as follows

12L x 15W x 8H with 4000 watts, a 70 pint dehum, no co2 yet, but was planning on a burner
The ballasts are inside the room, and I am planning on moving them outside once I get money for cords to be adequate length (lol)
The room will have 12 plants because Michigan likes to do the really gay 12 plant per patient room rule.
The lights are air cooled hoods, and I have the intake coming into the hoods from outside and the exhaust from the lights going outside as well.
I run soil plants, and don't plan on switching to hydro.

My second flowering room will have all the same things except it's dimensions are 10L x 15W x 8H

Keep in mind these rooms are in a basement

If I didn't give enough information for an accurate guesstimation I'm sorry in advance.

Click to expand...

not sure what your question is. do you want to go water cooled with your grow room? you will have some issues with a chiller outside during the winters there in michigan.

h.cordero said:

Why does a commercial grow op (50,000+ watts) doesn't run water cooled, instead they run ac with air cooled reflectors? Really great Info thanks scooby

Click to expand...

Maintenance, huge AC already in place, no need for a water cycle.

In my little backroom, you could NOT run 1000w uncooled. You go water cooled when need to.

Big grows don't need to. They have space, volume, big fans, etc. No need to water cool.

I could not function without it.

Really gay, huh? CA has a 6 plant rule.

IAC, without a chiller you will need 400 gal of water ballast outside to run 4000 watt HID. Maybe more, since you don't want it to freeze at night in winter.

That's how I do it. 100 gal in the north side shade of the house. But we never freeze.

I have a 1/6 hp sump pump in there on a 1/2 inch hose, runs at a low flow, to increase the transit time thru the light. Also I have a no flow/no go switch on the light. That has saved my ass.

ScoobyDoobyDoo said:

i've rarely ever seen a 50k room even running air cooled lights. normally they just put the bulbs in bat wing reflectors and use a few 5 ton commercial air handlers. water cooling technology is pretty new and is very expensive upfront. most large commercial ops don't want to deal with the buildout time and something that size would require multiple large chillers which may be hard to conceal.

Click to expand...

When you say "rarely".. are you saying you HAVE seen a 50k+ room run air cooled?

That would just be silly.. aircooled lights is a micro garden thing..

That would be just silly unless you can show us a 50k water cooled setup

TexasHank said:

When you say "rarely".. are you saying you HAVE seen a 50k+ room run air cooled?

That would just be silly.. aircooled lights is a micro garden thing..

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you'd be surprised how many idiots there are in the world. and i know of 2 in colorado that a run 10 rows of 6 lights that are air cooled. so yes, "rarely."

Yes, water cooled is for small grows where there is no other way to manage the heat,

It adds expense, material and labor.

Doer said:

Yes, water cooled is for small grows where there is no other way to manage the heat,

It adds expense, material and labor.

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if you are on the grid then water cooled technology is costlier to setup but cheaper to run in the long term.

It is cheaper to run if you don't count labor and can get away from active chilling.

On grid, when I added a 1/4 hp chiller, it blew up the electric bill.

Cleaning the lamps every 6 month is another big turn for maintenance. And water quality maintenance, itself, is another cost.

But, as I said for a small space nothing else will give this level of heat maintenance
for HID.

Fresca Sol now has a two bulb lamp. So, that gives 2000w HID. Then go 2x on the on those plumbed in series and add another big water tank, I'm looking at a large sealed pipe setup for under the house. Cool under there. Almost 6 gal per foot for 12" pipe.

That is another advantage to water for me. I could have the 4000 watts in a bathroom sized space.

I use water cooling to remove heat AND humidity. AC doesn't do this as well or consistently- and as mentioned above, its far more costly to operate on a head to head basis.

I've cooled 16kW of sealed and vented lighting with just one 2 Ton chiller, and it cools up to 12kW of open bulbs. That just doesn't happen with a Freon to air exchanger.

Moreover, one chiller cools multiple spaces, spread apart. AC can't do that. Water chilling also cools with less space, a phenomenon known as energy density- the same principle underlying liquid cooled laptops and car engines. Because I work with vertical systems, my ratio of total room volume to canopy surface area is radically different from flatlander style grows. This results in rapid heating, potential hotspots and a very high transpiration load in the room. Water chilling is essential to effective management of these environmental issues, AC is a nonstarter.

Interesting. How much space do you need from a wall to grow vertical on that wall.

2 feet?

Have an pictures?

For anyone who still thinks that water cooling is only good for small applications, how do you think they cool skyscrapers?

Doer said:

Interesting. How much space do you need from a wall to grow vertical on that wall.

2 feet?

Have an pictures?

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I don't grow vertically against walls. I build cylinders that manage the distance between lamp and leaf much better than flat surfaces do. This drives efficiency by ensuring the entire canopy gets optimum lighting with little waste.

Very cool. I will check your blog. thx.

Of course, I was talking only about water cooled light circuits.

For economy of scale, nothing beats water chilling. Water is a fantastic transport.

Size matters. If I could have 1/4 acre on a south slope, I would farm that, not a bathroom.

To go small and still have big light is what I meant.

If you can get sized up to 2 ton, I think water is better that AC for air cooling.

Doer said:

Of course, I was talking only about water cooled light circuits.

For economy of scale, nothing beats water chilling. Water is a fantastic transport.

Size matters. If I could have 1/4 acre on a south slope, I would farm that, not a bathroom.

To go small and still have big light is what I meant.

If you can get sized up to 2 ton, I think water is better that AC for air cooling.

Click to expand...

You have to install it properly, but it does kick serious ass in the cooling department. It even keeps things cool when the heat load exceeds its rating... thanks to big tub RDWC and the thermal reservoir created thereby!

Going small space need not mean small yield. My Super Silo needs a seven foot square and 2 thouies to produce... welllllll... I don't know what it can produce. Every time I run it, it makes more. So far, at least eight.