Water cooled garden setup help sizing and details

[woodsmaneh]

Love what your doing,.....so much i'm following suit! Very curious what temp your running your Chilled Res temp at,........more specifically i wonder how cold your Res is set at to maintain the heat exchange for your room?

Chiller is set to 65 and keeps the chiller barrel res at 65/66.

 

[UCMETOO]

are you using 25' or 50' SS coils? and what temp is the water in the system ?
thanks i think the use of the radiator is brilant!

 

[ttystikk]

are you using 25' or 50' SS coils? and what temp is the water in the system ?
thanks i think the use of the radiator is brilant!

His combination of car radiator and big furnace style squirrel cage blower creates a truly huge surface area of heat exchange. The advantages are many, and some are subtle; the big unit he's built will keep working effectively even if his chiller reservoir temps rise, because of all that surface area.

 

[Organica]

His combination of car radiator and big furnace style squirrel cage blower creates a truly huge surface area of heat exchange. The advantages are many, and some are subtle; the big unit he's built will keep working effectively even if his chiller reservoir temps rise, because of all that surface area.

I think he is a she lol Said user said handy person not handy man. I see very few women growing and even less schooling all us dudes on construction handy woman projects. Big ups to her. And helping med patients with low income is great great great. To many greedy people woods, you help to even it out for the good guys.

 

[ttystikk]

I think he is a she lol Said user said handy person not handy man. I see very few women growing and even less schooling all us dudes on construction handy woman projects. Big ups to her. And helping med patients with low income is great great great. To many greedy people woods, you help to even it out for the good guys.

Woodsmaneh is female? Profile sez male. Not sure who you thought I was referring to?

 

[Organica]

So I chill 440 gal with my 1hp chiller down to what ever I want but most times it's 65, and that is with a 50 gal chiller barrel.
What I chill in that room
1 Undercurrent 90 gal + 50 Gal res
I Jumbo DIY Undercurrent 200 gal + 50 gal res
Chiller Barrel 50 gal
room cooler 7 months of the year.

Cheap cheap on hydro

I build med gardens and lots of the people have mobility issues and not much money so I get "R" done lol. I'm lucky I have the handy person gene. Does not sound as good as handy man but in recognition of all the woman who share this gift.

 

[Organica]

Woodsmaneh is female? Profile sez male. Not sure who you thought I was referring to?

The above reply is what I got woman from. Its says I have the handy person gene doesn't sound as good as handy man--- But in recognition of all woman who share this gift.
lol Maybe Im super stoned and reading it wrong.

 

[Seamaiden]

I vote for super-stoned. All. Day. Long. :D

 

[ttystikk]

The above reply is what I got woman from. Its says I have the handy person gene doesn't sound as good as handy man--- But in recognition of all woman who share this gift.
lol Maybe Im super stoned and reading it wrong.

He is saying that the handy gene is not gender specific. I remember this post of his, it was a bit confusing at first blush.

 

[ttystikk]

I vote for super-stoned. All. Day. Long. :D

Story of my life!

 

[ttystikk]

are you using 25' or 50' SS coils? and what temp is the water in the system ?
thanks i think the use of the radiator is brilant!

I'm not sure what woods uses as a water to water heat exchange coil, but I use the 15' length of soft 3/8" od hvac copper tubing. It comes from Homer's dePot for around $22 a coil. I have a 10" diameter trash can I use for a buck to wrap it around to give it the right diameter to fit in a 5 gallon bucket. Its performance has shown me that you certainly do not need 50' of tubing to effectively remove heat from your RDWC!

 

[woodsmaneh]

are you using 25' or 50' SS coils? and what temp is the water in the system ?
thanks i think the use of the radiator is brilant!

I have 50' SS coils but just for fun I cut one in half 25' to make 2 out of it and it still does a great job. My water temps stay around 65 to 66 most of the time when it was very hot here it went as high as 70.

 

[woodsmaneh]

I'm not sure what woods uses as a water to water heat exchange coil, but I use the 15' length of soft 3/8" od hvac copper tubing. It comes from Homer's dePot for around $22 a coil. I have a 10" diameter trash can I use for a buck to wrap it around to give it the right diameter to fit in a 5 gallon bucket. Its performance has shown me that you certainly do not need 50' of tubing to effectively remove heat from your RDWC!

Well that depends on how much water you are cooling, but the real issue is when does it stop cooling, what I mean is I'm pumping 66 degree water through 50' of SS so at what point does it stop cooling, at 26 feet or 36 feet or ??? I don't know and my brain hurts the more I think about it, but as I said I cut one 50' in half and it works fine in my small system that is cooling 400 liters, I'll leave the 50 footer in the jumbo as it cools 1000+ liters.

As for copper I have always been told don't use it as the ferts will pull copper from the pipes. Will it I don't know and I think the worst would be blue flowers, you can add copper sulfate to white flowers wand it will turn blue. I have a coil of copper I was going to use just have not gotten around to it yet.

I have been called a vagina before ( but with a big C, lol) OK you got me I'm a woman and just wanted to fit in and be one of the guys and get some respect and maybe find true love with Delta 9. But no I'm a guy, and my handy person remark was to show respect to the ladies that grow also like the great Seamaden.

Thanks for the nice words Gratefulhead, just trying to keep my options open when I take the long dirt nap.

Positive vibes to all

 

[ttystikk]

The reason that they sell 25 and 50' lengths of stainless coil is for the intended purpose of chilling wort, or the basis for brewing beer. It has to be cooled super fast to keep bitter flavors from getting into the taste. We don't need to cool our RDWC quickly, we just want it to stay at temp. This does not require anywhere near the same cooling capacity as wort chilling.

 

[Organica]

Lol I got confused with the post also. I'm not sexist or anything but was pretty astounded that a chick built that awesome cooling system, to bad I was wrong.

 

[ttystikk]

Lol I got confused with the post also. I'm not sexist or anything but was pretty astounded that a chick built that awesome cooling system, to bad I was wrong.

There is not one single solitary thing about water chilling that would be beyond the abilities of the average woman- I mean, it's plumbing, not needlepoint... THAT shit is complicated!

 

[woodsmaneh]

Lol I got confused with the post also. I'm not sexist or anything but was pretty astounded that a chick built that awesome cooling system, to bad I was wrong.

Last time gender was an issue was in Thailand she turned out to be a he....

 

[Organica]

There is not one single solitary thing about water chilling that would be beyond the abilities of the average woman- I mean, it's plumbing, not needlepoint... THAT shit is complicated!

How long have you been cooling your gardens with water instead of air?? Do you have any pics of your setup? Water seems to be the way to go by what you guys are saying, I've been busy the last 10 days but am getting caught up and now think its time to start another project. Life always in a constant state of change.

 

[ttystikk]

How long have you been cooling your gardens with water instead of air?? Do you have any pics of your setup? Water seems to be the way to go by what you guys are saying, I've been busy the last 10 days but am getting caught up and now think its time to start another project. Life always in a constant state of change.

It's been two full years since I got it installed and in all that time, the only failure was when a totally incompetent HVAC tech broke it while guessing instead of actually diagnosing whether the machine was in need of service. It didn't. Lesson learned? Make Damn sure you get a tech who knows wtf they're doing! Nothing new about that!

My chiller was originally manufactured as an AC unit, complete with an EER rating of 14.3. Hydro Innovations bought it and modified into a chiller, as follows; they removed the evaporator coil and fan, and installed a water pigtail, with the Freon line running through it. Water passes through the cool and is cooled by the exact same compressor, compressor section (hot side radiator) and other components of a standard AC unit, because in all respects besides the water pigtail, IT IS ONE. This is an important point; to understand that a chiller is not a fundamentally different device from AC.

So, why is it so much more efficient? That water passing through it picks up the temperature change more readily than air does, because it's some 900 times more thermally dense than air. Because of this thermal mass, it can carry a heat load (positive or negative) much further than AC, even with ducting. It isn't the compressor that's more efficient, it's the fact that this device uses a better medium to move heat around than air.

The benefits multiply in Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), because of the technology's total control over humidity. The water passing through the system effectively sets the dewpoint for your garden; set your dewpoint, set your RH. If you run RDWC, then water chilling is the assumptive best option due to its unique ability to keep water at a set temperature.

All the above accrues when you chill water instead of air. Now, let's touch on what happens if you put all that heat into another water circuit instead of just blowing it outside through a radiator. This is called 'water cooled process chilling', and it is NOT a heat pump. It just takes all the heat it's pulling out of the water on one side and puts it into a separate hot water circuit. This circuit could simultaneously service your hot water tank for domestic use, heat your home, heat your hot tub (directly replacing electrical use!), outdoor fish tanks for aquaculture or aquaponics, even geothermal applications like running lines under a driveway to heat it in winter. No more shoveling!

 

[Organica]

Wow bro, How I wish you were my next door neighbor lol. That was some serious knowledge. I had no Idea so much could be saved and done with a system like this. I'm going to try to make it happen next week with at least one room, and if all is well I will def do the second. Thanks so much for all the help and info.