Water Chiller blues in the UC

[Kingkong]

Iam new to the scene..I really enjoy the hobby though..Ive been working with dirt and I got some trays I'd like to master(or get as I can)before I move on to the two UC's,but my friend has 2ucxl6's and is looking to get at least one more probably two..Now I heard from fellow growers that a water chiller is a must with UC's but I searched high and low and only found an ad for one on the threads.Couple questions if you could help me out, how does the water chiller pipe in to the UC's should he conect them all together?Is there a diagram I could get?We were going to get a 1hp is that too big, because we do have plans of expanding someday?Is the water chiller necessary?I see plenty of people that don't use them with great results?Thanks for the help brothers in advance!Oh BTW the room is climate controlled and we are venting all the heat from the lights out..Should be able to stay 70 degrees, no problem..What do you think..

 

[googolplexs]

To me seems kind of simple, if you go to hydro store or look around a bit more on net , you should be able to see what the set up is.
I was also so think how simple it would be to even make your own chiller, all you need is control ( a thermostat ), a solenoid vavle, and a frig, wala.

The reason you need chiller, is heat in the water build up from the pump, this heat will shut you down real quick if not taken care of.
1hp is alot of power a lot of heat, dang, 1 real horse could weight a thousand pounds, get mys drift, that's one of the ways they usto move water horses
1hp that's alot of power my garbage disposal is only 1/3 hp, as is my garage door opener.
1 hp that would move a lot of water you must be doing a very large system.

You need to do a lot more home work, it does not always work in buying bigger now for future expansion, a lot of times just buying what you need now wil work and then buy the exact same thing again when you expand.

One of the things it does not work as well with buying big now for future use is in pumps, you will be moving to much water and making to much heat. You can lower pressure with vavles but to me it's not worth the hassel.

 

[RMCG]

You can't make a chiller from a fridge...


1HP is not too big for what you are trying to do. If you are going to expand, might look to a 2HP. .5HP per system will keep you in check.

For chilling a single system, you just hook the return line in the epicenter to go into the chiller and put the return out of the chiller back in to the epicenter.


For chilling multiple units from a single chiller, you will need a separate reservoir (15-20 gal) and 'cool coils' (either purchased or made) to drop in to each system. The chilled water from your chiller reservoir is pumped through the coils, heat is transfered from your UC's to the chiller water.

Check out Ben's thread, Jacks thread, or Hydro Innovations videos for better visual explanation.

Here they show the cool coil at ~ 4 minutes in.

[YOUTUBE]M0uRrMvfucY[/YOUTUBE]

If you can keep your res temps 68* or less thats ideal. If you have 'extra' chilling power, you can then manipulate water temps to bring out colors in late flower as well.

 

[Kingkong]

Thanks alot for your help..I love this forum!

 

[googolplexs]

You can't make a chiller from a fridge...


You could make a chiller out of a very large tray and couple of bags of ice, a chiller is nothing more than a refrigeration device, as in the old days they put a big block of ice in the frig.

King kong ask if you really needed a chiller, in my saying 1hp was to big I had thought he was refering to pump size, not chiller size for future expansion.

You could make a ciller out of anything cold except maybe your cold ass.
Not infering your's as cold ass.

 

[RMCG]

You can't make a chiller from a fridge...


You could make a chiller out of a very large tray and couple of bags of ice, a chiller is nothing more than a refrigeration device, as in the old days they put a big block of ice in the frig.

King kong ask if you really needed a chiller, in my saying 1hp was to big I had thought he was refering to pump size, not chiller size for future expansion.

You could make a ciller out of anything cold except maybe your cold ass.
Not infering your's as cold ass.

In the 'old days' they used TONS of ICE to cool public places. Which is where we get the TON rating of A/C's today...

Melting ice 'absorbs' heat at the rate of 144btu/hr per POUND of ice.

1 Refrigeration Ton = 2000 Pounds x 144 BTU per Pound / 24 hours = 12000 BTU's per Hour

So unless he wants to buy 'bags of ice' by the TON, delivered by horse and buggy, I would suggest a manufactured chiller.