Lessons Learned Operating Water Chilled Growrooms
Thought I'd share a few things I've learned since my system has been up and running for awhile:
1. This system is a pretty involved and intricate install, unless you're only running one circuit. Don't let that stop you.
2. Number one shouldn't stop you from doing your whole setup with multiple rooms, the results are TOTALLY worth it!
3. Yes, you can run different temps in different places; rooms and hydro systems both.
4. Yes, you can cool both the water in your hydro system(s), and in your rooms with the same water, and therefore with just one chiller.
5. It's better to set a wide temperature 'delta' for the chiller, that is, put the setpoint a few degrees lower, and the trigger temp to kick the system on a few degrees higher than the average water temp you want. The literature suggests 8 degrees. I thought that was a bit much at the beginning, but now it makes sense and works well for me.
6. I got a bigger system than I strictly needed for my setup. Apparently, that doesn't hurt a thing, and I'm not giving up much if any efficiency over getting a smaller one- and this way, I'm ready for expansion should I decide I want to.
7. The biggest draw on your chiller is likely to be your bloom room and its hydro systems.
8. If you want to build more capacity for blooming, seriously consider a flip box and separate light tight space, so you can run two bloom rooms on 12 hour intervals, one on while the other is off, or 'out of phase' for you engineering types out there ;-) This will smooth out your power usage, and you won't need to upsize your chiller. Yeah, that's doubling the size of your setup with the same cooling plant, with only a small amount of extra work plumbing waterlines and Iceflow boxes into the new space. Sweet, huh?
9. Once the main system is in place, adding circuits to your manifold is easy peasy... in my case, because I built manifolds with valves on all inlet and outflow taps, I can now add or subtract circuits, move them around, or do repairs and maintenance without ever taking the chiller and pump offline. The extra expense of a few valves and manifolds is downright trivial next to the advantages gained.
10. Don't skimp on components. As ever the system is only as good as its weakest link, so how badly do you want to deal with a cooling system failure because you got cheap parts, or a second rate chiller? Get good gear from a reputable company that specializes in watercooling and it won't let you down. That's money saved in the long run, not money spent.
11. If you can properly plumb the whole setup, the thing pretty much runs itself. That means a bit more engineering on the front end, for the ease of use and dependability on the back end. In other words, all that work at the beginning to properly design it pays off big time!
12. I set my system up to cool the air in my bloomroom, not the air coming out of my hoods. For that, I just aircooled them with air from outside the room. Saves serious power to do it this way. Also, those Iceflow boxes get cold enough to condense water out of the air, and that's done a very good job of stabilizing the humidity in my bloomroom even without a dedicated air handling system. Since the room is sealed, I got a dehumidifier- but I've yet to use it. I'm also not sure how well this would work in lower altitude and/or higher humidity areas, but I suspect it would be more similar than different. It IS a sealed room setup, after all!
13. Some things are possible with a chiller system that you just can't do with an AC system, period. Examples:
a. Run ONE head unit that then actively cools several rooms, AND cools both air and water. And for those who get the air handling units (if needed), your humidity too.
b. The opportunity to run an outside heat exchanger (aka 'compressorless chiller') to cool your water without having to run the chiller system at all. Unless your climate NEVER EVER goes below 65 (sorry, south Florida), this will save you beaucoup bucks! If you go this route, think about timing the bloomroom in your setup for the coldest part of your day, like 7pm to 7am. You might find yourself not using your chiller much at all most of the year.
c. There are several options to consider to heat your home in the winter with heat you're extracting from your growrooms, some as simple as moving your chiller inside. This also saves you serious coin, this time on heating bills!
d. Hooking this up to geothermal is a no-brainer... and very easy to do.
13. No AC system ever does more than merely move heat around. Don't believe me? go check the coils on the back of your fridge. Or freezer. Or AC unit. Toasty, huh? All these sytems do is move heat from one place to another. The more efficiently you do that, the more benefits you gain, and the less money you have to spend to do it. Because it is so much denser, water does this better than air. It really is just that simple.
With a little thought and effort- and face it, you're already building an aritificial environment for growing plants in your house, so I KNOW you're up to the job!- you can build a system that cools your growrooms, cools your hydro systems, can use cold air from outside to do it, AND can contribute to heating your home, all at the very same time! And every step is SAVING you money, as opposed to costing you hundreds of dollars in electricity bills. Bottom line? Less power used means less coal gets burned at the utility, which is better for the environment, and better for your wallet. Now, that's what I call a win-win!
