Water Cooled Grow Rooms

Keesje

Keesje

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
The swimming pool idea is great- and at $40k to build one I'm sure it's well within the budget of everyone! I'm teasing, of course.
Click to expand...
I know several people who use the Opticlimate. It was specially designed for growing. I guess not originally, but hte guy who builds them saw those machines... thought of how well they would do in growing rooms... converted them a bit and gave them his own brandname.
When they just came to the market, he openly advetised them with slogans like "can cool a room with 6/12/20 x 600 HPS".
He sold a lot of these. Now he is not allowed to advertise in such a way anymore.

They keep your temperature exactly where you want it. During lights on, and also during lights out. It has a lightsensor.
So if you set it 28 C and 23 C, it will keep it that way.
It also dehumidifies. During the day especially. But the newer ones also during the night.
It also heats up you room if needed. It has some kind of heating-panels inside.

Perfect for growers. But not cheap. Also heavy equipment. And too much electronics for me. So if things go wrong, you have to get it off the ceiling and bring it to someone who can repair it.

I know 1 guy who uses one and he does not cool with tapwater but with his pool. It is one of those cheap pools that you can buy for a few hundred bucks. Big enough for him. Another uses a river or canal that is near his house.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Keesje said:
I know several people who use the Opticlimate. It was specially designed for growing. I guess not originally, but hte guy who builds them saw those machines... thought of how well they would do in growing rooms... converted them a bit and gave them his own brandname.
When they just came to the market, he openly advetised them with slogans like "can cool a room with 6/12/20 x 600 HPS".
He sold a lot of these. Now he is not allowed to advertise in such a way anymore.

They keep your temperature exactly where you want it. During lights on, and also during lights out. It has a lightsensor.
So if you set it 28 C and 23 C, it will keep it that way.
It also dehumidifies. During the day especially. But the newer ones also during the night.
It also heats up you room if needed. It has some kind of heating-panels inside.

Perfect for growers. But not cheap. Also heavy equipment. And too much electronics for me. So if things go wrong, you have to get it off the ceiling and bring it to someone who can repair it.

I know 1 guy who uses one and he does not cool with tapwater but with his pool. It is one of those cheap pools that you can buy for a few hundred bucks. Big enough for him. Another uses a river or canal that is near his house.
Click to expand...
I'll look into them.
 
Keesje

Keesje

Well-Known Member
Not sure if they deliver in any country in the world.
You should check it out.

If you want to grow with CO2... They are almost a must-have.
 
K

Kandar

Member
I made a pretty cool~ little chiller system to cool my little 4ft x 3ft grow room.

I ripped a refrigerator apart and cut the evaporator off of it. I made a coaxial evaporator coil that turned out well. Using 1/2 inch tube and a little tiny pump i piped in a little 12x12inch fan coil that used to be on a commercial vapor separator and a heat exchanger in my resivior. It is a continuous loop that uses electronic 3-way valves connected to some relays and temp switches. I use non-toxic glycol in the chill loop that is good to -100. I watered it down slightly.

I dialed in the system to put out 44 degree water at the coldest. I can get a 15 degree delta. I was totally impressed with this little 0.05 ton fridge compressor that pulls next to no amps. It has to run for about 5 minutes to cool the room and probably 20 minutes to cool the resivior down 4 degrees which is perfect.
 
Keesje

Keesje

Well-Known Member
Kandar said:
I made a pretty cool~ little chiller system to cool my little 4ft x 3ft grow room.

I ripped a refrigerator apart and cut the evaporator off of it. I made a coaxial evaporator coil that turned out well. Using 1/2 inch tube and a little tiny pump i piped in a little 12x12inch fan coil that used to be on a commercial vapor separator and a heat exchanger in my resivior. It is a continuous loop that uses electronic 3-way valves connected to some relays and temp switches. I use non-toxic glycol in the chill loop that is good to -100. I watered it down slightly.

I dialed in the system to put out 44 degree water at the coldest. I can get a 15 degree delta. I was totally impressed with this little 0.05 ton fridge compressor that pulls next to no amps. It has to run for about 5 minutes to cool the room and probably 20 minutes to cool the resivior down 4 degrees which is perfect.
Click to expand...
I don't get it totally.
Do you have pics? Or a drawing?
 
K

Kandar

Member
Sure.
I started with some GE fridge parts.20191011_060601.jpg
This was eay to rip out. Two bolts at the bottom back of the fridge. I evacuated the refrigerant into a recovery bottle. Cut the refrigerant lines and two wiring harnesses. Then it slides right out as one unit. I didn't use the evaporator coil in the first pic. I made a new one.

Snapchat-660125947.jpgSnapchat-148682120.jpg
I made this coaxial coil out of copper. My engineering on it is slightly rough but it is ballpark in terms of sizing for the compressor.

20190903_204713.jpg
Pic above. Is the new coil mounted on the compressor/condenser plate. In the pic it is still being tested.

20191011_062214.jpg
For each my resivior and fan coil cooler(not shown) i use 3-way valves. I pulled them out of some fan coils on a 4 pipe system. They are 24v and recieve calls from thermostats to open and close different portions of the loop.

20191011_062126.jpg
Testing stuff here but almost done. Its a mess in this pic. Relays wired directly to outlets and temp controllers. Its mounted to a board for ease of moving wires and relays

20191011_062449.jpg
So i grabbed a big steel cabinet from a 3phase transfer switch i had and painted it with the only paint i had on hand for the sprayer.. of course its john deere green... Im in the process of mounting everything including the chiller in this box more properly.

I was adding things as i needed them to grow. This is my second grow for this equipment made out of about anything i can find. 5th time growing in total so iv made plenty of mistakes along the way.

Plants are doing well. Zillions of long hairs on those roots and the plants themselves recuperate very quickly after getting clipped.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Kandar said:
Sure.
I started with some GE fridge parts.View attachment 4406353
This was eay to rip out. Two bolts at the bottom back of the fridge. I evacuated the refrigerant into a recovery bottle. Cut the refrigerant lines and two wiring harnesses. Then it slides right out as one unit. I didn't use the evaporator coil in the first pic. I made a new one.

View attachment 4406357View attachment 4406358
I made this coaxial coil out of copper. My engineering on it is slightly rough but it is ballpark in terms of sizing for the compressor.

View attachment 4406368
Pic above. Is the new coil mounted on the compressor/condenser plate. In the pic it is still being tested.

View attachment 4406365
For each my resivior and fan coil cooler(not shown) i use 3-way valves. I pulled them out of some fan coils on a 4 pipe system. They are 24v and recieve calls from thermostats to open and close different portions of the loop.

View attachment 4406367
Testing stuff here but almost done. Its a mess in this pic. Relays wired directly to outlets and temp controllers. Its mounted to a board for ease of moving wires and relays

View attachment 4406366
So i grabbed a big steel cabinet from a 3phase transfer switch i had and painted it with the only paint i had on hand for the sprayer.. of course its john deere green... Im in the process of mounting everything including the chiller in this box more properly.

I was adding things as i needed them to grow. This is my second grow for this equipment made out of about anything i can find. 5th time growing in total so iv made plenty of mistakes along the way.

Plants are doing well. Zillions of long hairs on those roots and the plants themselves recuperate very quickly after getting clipped.
Click to expand...
How long have you been an HVAC tech?
 
M

Mrasta01

New Member
coreywebster

coreywebster

Well-Known Member
Kandar said:
Sure.
I started with some GE fridge parts.View attachment 4406353
This was eay to rip out. Two bolts at the bottom back of the fridge. I evacuated the refrigerant into a recovery bottle. Cut the refrigerant lines and two wiring harnesses. Then it slides right out as one unit. I didn't use the evaporator coil in the first pic. I made a new one.

View attachment 4406357View attachment 4406358
I made this coaxial coil out of copper. My engineering on it is slightly rough but it is ballpark in terms of sizing for the compressor.

View attachment 4406368
Pic above. Is the new coil mounted on the compressor/condenser plate. In the pic it is still being tested.

View attachment 4406365
For each my resivior and fan coil cooler(not shown) i use 3-way valves. I pulled them out of some fan coils on a 4 pipe system. They are 24v and recieve calls from thermostats to open and close different portions of the loop.

View attachment 4406367
Testing stuff here but almost done. Its a mess in this pic. Relays wired directly to outlets and temp controllers. Its mounted to a board for ease of moving wires and relays

View attachment 4406366
So i grabbed a big steel cabinet from a 3phase transfer switch i had and painted it with the only paint i had on hand for the sprayer.. of course its john deere green... Im in the process of mounting everything including the chiller in this box more properly.

I was adding things as i needed them to grow. This is my second grow for this equipment made out of about anything i can find. 5th time growing in total so iv made plenty of mistakes along the way.

Plants are doing well. Zillions of long hairs on those roots and the plants themselves recuperate very quickly after getting clipped.
Click to expand...
Hows this project coming along?
 
K

Kandar

Member
Great. After this grow is done ill finalize a few things but it all works well. 20191122_053259.jpg
These plants suffered from a few mistakes but are ok. Pic is from 35 days in bloom. Not a single hiccup from the cooling system. It has been great.

I was thinking i might actually add a few doodads and make it a heat pump too because winter just showed up and things are getting a lil chilly.
 
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