Refrigerator Water Chiller?

[jakew215]

Sooo.ive been pondering and thinking about stuff. i have a few extra refrigerators and was wondering if anyone has converted one somehow to cool there water?

im not exactly sure how a ref works, but i was thinking if anything make a hole in the bottom and coil line all the way up the inside up through the freezer and back into the res?

i realize how inefficient it would be (for energy costs sake) i was just wondering if this would even work, maybe to even get the water to drop a few degrees for when i want to hand water, i wont be watering with warm water right out of the tap.

and can you give soil plants too cold of water?

you could even have a big tub of cold water in the refidge and freezer that the line can run through... seems like an aluminum line running through a frozen block of water would do some major cooling. i could be wrong though.

i know ice cooled turbo inter coolers make a drastic change in intake charge temps.

maybe even DRY ICE! im getting ahead of myself i think.

 

[Farmer Jon]

Heya Jakew,
If you google diy chiller or diy A/C you will find a bit of info on this conversion/hack it has been done with limited success. It can work but the problem is one you mentioned, how inefficient it is...with that being said, if you are the tinker type and like the diy path it could be a fun project and a good thread. On the other hand if you are looking for something that will work without the work break down and buy a water chiller, you can find them in the bay area used or on craigslist for a decent price.
As far as solution temps for soil ladies a cool 68 deg well aerated solution will be rewarded with a phat healthy root system (assuming a healthy rhizosphere is present now)
You said "out the tap" so i'm guessing you are using city water which is typically not the greatest. I dont know if its in your budget but a r/o unit would be a good buy, or if you're close to big market maybe you could buy water, it would be cold and clean!
I wish you the best of luck,
FJ

 

[jakew215]

Heya Jakew,
If you google diy chiller or diy A/C you will find a bit of info on this conversion/hack it has been done with limited success. It can work but the problem is one you mentioned, how inefficient it is...with that being said, if you are the tinker type and like the diy path it could be a fun project and a good thread. On the other hand if you are looking for something that will work without the work break down and buy a water chiller, you can find them in the bay area used or on craigslist for a decent price.
As far as solution temps for soil ladies a cool 68 deg well aerated solution will be rewarded with a phat healthy root system (assuming a healthy rhizosphere is present now)
You said "out the tap" so i'm guessing you are using city water which is typically not the greatest. I dont know if its in your budget but a r/o unit would be a good buy, or if you're close to big market maybe you could buy water, it would be cold and clean!
I wish you the best of luck,
FJ

thanks for the input i appreciate it.

those were kinda my thoughts also, it would sorta work, but not in a reliable practical sense long term. i plan on getting a chiller when i make the jump to hydro.

and yes i do need to get an RO unit, i am using city water currently as it is not in my budget till i get a few grows under my belt. maybe ill just buy an air pump/stone and 5 gal and stick in the fridge with some nute solution till im ready to feed.

can you buy RO water? or is there another water i should buy?

im only a month or two from harvest in which time i should be able to get an RO. just looking for some cheap DIY's at this point to improve to quality of my current grow.

 

[Inuit]

You can get RO water in 5gal jugs from many pet shops......over the life of the grow you could easily afford a cheap ebay RO (~$125ish) until you can get a nice one..

Be safe

A

 

[Farmer Jon]

yea man city water can cause some nasty lockout, you can buy chilled, filtered, uv blasted drinking water at walmart, vons, albertsons, ect.ect.
buy a jug there or bring your own. A dollar fifty will get ya 5 gallons i believe, and its MUCH better than most city water.

 

[CelticEBE]

I tried this and failed horribly. I wound up scoring a 1/2HP chiller on Craigslist for 300 bucks. I spent soooo much time and energy trying to create one though. I hope you have luck with this.

 

[candyjob34]

I think there are many Refrigerator Water Chiller out there. Maybe it is better if you should buy rather than to make a hole at the bottom of your refrigerator.

 

[CheechWizard]

Seems like the efficiency would go up as it was stocked with cold beer :)

 

[zoeronerer]

it works ... i have done it with a mini fridge converted to chill aquariums ..

i posted about it on here some wers..

trick is to coil all the tubing inside to get more contact time and a higher volume of water circ...

make sure the tubing can exchange heat easily ie thin or something non insulated ......

 

[jakew215]

yeah i didnt really tackle this project lik ei had planned, dont really need a water chiller as of right now... gotta bigger fish to fry right now. lol.

i need to get RO water before i can even start chilling it. lol

 

[zoeronerer]

good luck

r.i.p m a c d.r.e

 

[phase]

If your grow room is attached to your living quarters, then why would one want to get rid of that heat? Do you not heat your house or use warm water daily? And yet you must spend more money, use more electricity, to get rid of heat, a resource you *need*?

Install a solar boiler, or an old broken down electrical boiler, heck, build your own insulated boiler if you feel up to the job... Fill it up with water, hook it up between your cold water feed and your water heating installation (kettle/boiler). Recirculate the water from the boiler through your water cooled HID armature and voila: The heat is gone, your thermal footprint reduced and even your utilities bill will be lower, how about that.

The water in the boiler will be warmed up ("pre-heated") by the heat dissipated by the bulb, in turn requiring less fuel/electricity consumption to bring it up to the desired temperature by your hot water installation.

 

[jakew215]

If your grow room is attached to your living quarters, then why would one want to get rid of that heat? Do you not heat your house or use warm water daily? And yet you must spend more money, use more electricity, to get rid of heat, a resource you *need*?

Install a solar boiler, or an old broken down electrical boiler, heck, build your own insulated boiler if you feel up to the job... Fill it up with water, hook it up between your cold water feed and your water heating installation (kettle/boiler). Recirculate the water from the boiler through your water cooled HID armature and voila: The heat is gone, your thermal footprint reduced and even your utilities bill will be lower, how about that.

The water in the boiler will be warmed up ("pre-heated") by the heat dissipated by the bulb, in turn requiring less fuel/electricity consumption to bring it up to the desired temperature by your hot water installation.

cuz plants like cool water. i was thinking about it for chilling my res water. my house already has two hot water heaters, one is powered by a solar panel.

 

[phase]

cuz plants like cool water. i was thinking about it for chilling my res water. my house already has two hot water heaters, one is powered by a solar panel.

So you simply install another solar boiler in front of the current one you already have, this one being warmed up by the water cooled HID armatures. Provided the boiler is big enough, the water contained within will also remain cool, don't forget we're cooling light bulbs here not heat sensitive computer parts or plants... Water from this boiler can then be further heated up by the solar installation.

 

[phase]

An alternative is the larger heat storage boilers for central heating systems, for instance Viessmann and Vaillant are two examples of manufacturers who offer this kind of "renewable energy boiler". The largest Vaillant model has 1000 liters of water storage (used for central heating purposes) and 11 connections to attach renewable heat input devices, heat is exchanged from this supply to potable water through a plate heat exchanger (only 1 degree Celsius Tdiff). Or just hook it up at the bottom of your existing solar boiler. There is always room for more free energy in a green setup ;)

 

[phase]

Woops my bad, totally off topic ;) I thought this topic was about cooling the water from a water-cooled HID armature like Fresca Sol and Liquid Lumens... Forgive my intrustion ;)

 

[dxco]

I think that some of us had the wrong idea here: A refridgerator chiller to cool the water for your res. or for watering = Great idea & entirely possible;
A refreidgerator chiller for cooling your lights is at best, a stretch (unless you have some HUGE refridgerator). Not enough cooling capacity in your standard fridge to be effective.
A "cool" design might be to refridgerate a large tank of water (antifreeze if a freezer) and submerse a heat exchanger in the cold liquid. Heat exchanger could be a car heater coil, an "A" coil from a home air conditioner would be nice if you could clean the oil residue out of it -Even a car radiator!
For cooling a few lights, with some inginuity one could rig a window AC unit to cool water instead of air -water is a great conductor of heat and the aim is to remove the heat from the water...
Hmmm, something to think about.

DXCO

 

[jakew215]

thats a good idea. a radiator in a big tub of 34* water with water running through it...

i even have some old radiators, even have a circle track 8 core all aluminum one (its HUGE!)

ill look into the for sure today, as i just got my res and RO filter hooked up yesterday.