I just got a killer deal on a 3 ton Chillking unit, 7 iceflow boxes, a pump, and a CO2 burner... I am trying to cool a 16x9 room with 8 1000w hoods ("ochos"), which are already aircooled with outside air. I plan to leave the aircooling in place, and also run cooler coils to cool the hydro systems in the room. I've been doing a lot of reading and I'm getting the distinct impression that I am just a hair too small on the rated capacity of my chiller to handle all those lights, but that doesn't take into account that I'm aircooling the hoods, either.
I also plan to cool my hydro systems- total of 500 gallons- and I'm already repositioning my ballasts outside the room. I already got rid of the CO2 burner because I didn't want to add extra heat to the room, and I already have a CO2 tank and regulator setup on my environmental controller. I figure if I'm going sealed room, I won't have so many trips to the hydro store for refills anyway, right?
So I'm still in the proess of trying to set the whole thing up- I have a 55 gallon drum for a reservior, plenty of tubing and hose clamps, and I even went so far as to build a stand for the res. so the pump only has to life water maybe 5 feet from top of res. to chiller, and the iceflow boxes are all within 6" of the top of the res as well, all to aid water flow. I'm going with a
Titan Controls Mercury 4 unit to control the fans pushing grow room air through the iceflow boxes, so I can set an idle speed and maintain continuous cooling throughout the time the lights are on. Unlike some, I'm fine with the idea that the iceflow boxes will potentially condense water and I plan to run that water right back into the hydro systems it transpired from in the first place!
Just to make things even a lil more interesting, since I'm right at the ragged edge of capacity for my chiller, I plan to run a cooling circuit of incoming water from the main house line- even in the summer, water comes in at 62 degrees- and use it to provide some additional cooling. Think watering the lawn when the res starts getting a lil too warm...
I am trying to figure out how I can calculate the benefits/penalties of these strategies so I can see where I'm going- off a cliff or on the right track? Can anyone help me with actually quantifying the effects of these strategies?
