DIY CHEAP A/C or Heatexchanger for 2k-3k lights

[datDANK]

I plan on building a room with 2 to 3k lights and need some help
I want to cool this room and get it down to 76-80 degrees constantly
I want to build it cheap, simple, and efficiently

its really cold right now in the winter and as indoor growers we should take advantage of this

I'm trying to build a very simple system that goes something like this:

RADIATOR WITH FAN(S)
50 GALLON BARREL OF WATER WITH PUMP / HOSING (0)
NO CHILLER (FOR NOW)


THATS IT!!!!!!!!!!


at first i was thinking of getting the 8 inch ice box with a can fan but for 0 i thought i could get something else for that price that would be more efficient. 8inch ice boxes are rated to cool up to 8000 btu. with 3k lights i need about 9kbtus

http://www.amazon.com/Delphi-RA2010...EE/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1325011735&sr=8-14

or perhaps i can go to a auto junkyard and save even more!!!
shit..maybe i can get a junk car radiator with fan already attached, rig that up somehow then i would have a cooling system for $50 bucks!?

the barrel of water i was planning on it sitting outside where it is cold and using mother nature as the chiller and then upgrading to a 500 dollar chiller as summer comes along. also some kind of temp stat where the fans will run idle when at 76 degrees and starts to kick again when going higher


will this work? how would i rig this radiator. I see 2 small ports in the bottom and 2 larger hoses . I am guessing the larger ports would be for my chilled water so i would have to figure out how to make that size hose compatible with my pump. also which pump sizing?

i have no clue what those 2 smaller ports on the bottom are
http://www.amazon.com/Performance-R...2P02/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1325011735&sr=8-6

 

[dankworth]

I bought a 1584 cfm blower from Harbor Freight (75.00). Then I bought like a 27.00 heater core radiator from Napa(car parts place). It was like 8.75"x6.5" ish. I secured it using a bungie cord to the blower, then shrouded it to the intake of the blower with foil tape.
Then off my well I flowed water in the shower into a 5 gal bucket. Had an ecoplus 633 gph driving about 25-30 feet to the radiator on the blower, throgh 1/2" tubing(not that efficient w/such small tubing). Then returned the water to the bathtub for drain-to-waste. The water was like 50 degrees or so before passing through the radiator.
This cooled 2 1k lights(aircooled) in the room, plus their magnetic ballasts. But there was lots of condensation dripping from the radiator. So I had to put the whole thing on a 14 gal rubbermaid with a hole poked in the lid to contain the condensate. Then fungus gnats may want to reside there, so be careful.
This will also reduce the load on your ac, which also dehumidifies. This will help in veg and early flower, but you may need to run a dehumidifier during the light cycle to prevent your rh from getting too high.
Ttystikk says that peeps should blow room air through the radiator and not pull air through it for best effect.
But with a real radiator, that you could get on craigslist, shrouded to one wall of a box, and a decent size fan pulling through ducting shrouded to the opposite wall of the radiator, and a decent flow rate of chilled water, who knows how many BTUs you could cool. Lots I bet.
That was my experience. Hope it helps. Watch out for the condensate.

 

[Aerojoe]

It will work for what your trying to do w/ it albeit w/ a few modifications and additions. I used to use the car radiators to build watercooled pc's. They are very efficient all you really need to cool a rez is to have a pump and a fan on the radiator, it will pull heat into the water like crazy. For what your are trying to do you will have to 1 for the lights in the room which is plumbed into a reservoir, then you need to plumb a line outside of the room(preferably outside where it's cool) and setup a final heat exchanger to expel all the heat being generated in your reservoir into the night air.