water cooled gardens

[water wise guy]

Show me your water-cooled garden pics and tell me how you are running your system. i want people that are using water cooled products in their garden to give the rest of the people an idea of how they could use them in their garden to help with heat but most of all make their garden more efficient. i will also give you some tips on how you can make your water cooled system run more efficient and who knows maybe one of you has some ideas i have not thought of yet. Each garden is different and there for every set-up is different it is just whatever works best for you in your situation. Hope to see some good gardens and spread the word of how well these water cooled system work.

 

[fondiz]

I am rebuilding my water cooled setup. had some pumps fail this summer.

update when i stop changing my mind

 

[water wise guy]

I am rebuilding my water cooled setup. had some pumps fail this summer.

update when i stop changing my mind

let me know what you are thinking about doing and maybe i can give you some pointers.

 

[fondiz]

My idea is so far to run 2 1k Liquid Lumen hydroreflectors in 6X6X8 room. completely seal. 12kbtu mini split ac to cool the room. I have a 1/2hp chiller used to chill lights. Have a 105 insulated Poly water tank for my rez. I bought a flotec 1/2 hp centrifugal pump to use when i upgrade to a 1 or 2 hp ChillKing chiller. I might use a 1/6 flotec sump pump and a 800gph submersible pump in the mean while. I have a 20# CO2 tank with regulator for my co2. digi ballasts are in another room.

 

[watercooled]

;-)

This room was run with no chiller. Drain to waste; feeding from one well, dumping into a second. Most efficient system I've had.

You can get really close with these 1k lights...

A little extreme, but they aren't burnt to a crisp!

Lot's of plumbing!

Fun little room.

If you're going to build a large room, then I would not recommend the ice boxes unless you are quite handy.

 

[water wise guy]

My idea is so far to run 2 1k Liquid Lumen hydroreflectors in 6X6X8 room. completely seal. 12kbtu mini split ac to cool the room. I have a 1/2hp chiller used to chill lights. Have a 105 insulated Poly water tank for my rez. I bought a flotec 1/2 hp centrifugal pump to use when i upgrade to a 1 or 2 hp ChillKing chiller. I might use a 1/6 flotec sump pump and a 800gph submersible pump in the mean while. I have a 20# CO2 tank with regulator for my co2. digi ballasts are in another room.

this sound like a goos system. the only thing that needs work is the chiller is small but with the large res and 12k a/c you should be fine but this is the first thing i would upgrade. you might need to dehu a little if the a/c can't keep up with it depending on size of plants and how much they are growing.

 

[water wise guy]

This room was run with no chiller. Drain to waste; feeding from one well, dumping into a second. Most efficient system I've had.

You can get really close with these 1k lights...
View attachment 172165
View attachment 172164

A little extreme, but they aren't burnt to a crisp!
View attachment 172166

Lot's of plumbing!
View attachment 172163

Fun little room.

If you're going to build a large room, then I would not recommend the ice boxes unless you are quite handy.

this is cool that you are running this whole thing with no chiller. what are your room temps? what climate are you in? what size is your room? how well does this room produce?

 

[Chillville]

This room was run with no chiller. Drain to waste; feeding from one well, dumping into a second. Most efficient system I've had.

You can get really close with these 1k lights...
View attachment 172165
View attachment 172164

A little extreme, but they aren't burnt to a crisp!
View attachment 172166

Lot's of plumbing!
View attachment 172163

Fun little room.

If you're going to build a large room, then I would not recommend the ice boxes unless you are quite handy.

Badass man, really. Love the geothermal cooling, good for the earth and your wallet too ;)

 

[watercooled]

this is cool that you are running this whole thing with no chiller. what are your room temps? I can go low 70's in Summerwhat climate are you in? Hot (100 degrees) and Humid summers. Short winters with typical 50-60 degree days.what size is your room? how well does this room produce? 1.25-1.5 per light using a little over 1 per light in 25# containers on a 65 day strain I've had for a while

To be fair I do have two marine A/C's in this room and they run when needed (summer) Got too good of a deal on them and they are both self contained watercooled units. 1.5 ton each. Fed from the same well if needed.

Badass man, really. Love the geothermal cooling, good for the earth and your wallet too ;)

;-) It can be done if the property is the right one!

 

[GanjaAL]

Badass man, really. Love the geothermal cooling, good for the earth and your wallet too ;)

Actually it is not good for the earth unless is dumped in a stream or back in the well like he did. It actually takes more electricity to cool when using a chiller. also our most precious recource water is what we lack the most.

 

[Chillville]

Actually it is not good for the earth unless is dumped in a stream or back in the well like he did. It actually takes more electricity to cool when using a chiller. also our most precious recource water is what we lack the most.

Putting it back down in a well is the right thing to do and it save money not using electricity to cool the water, that's why I said that. This happens on a large scale in many manufacturing plants all over the world and this method is ok as long as the water isnt exposed to air. Once its exposed to air bacteria can start to grow....then you put that water back in the ground where it can grow and possible contaminate the water supply.

Putting the heated water it in a stream is actually being wasteful IMO, just like dumping it on the ground. Once you pull it from the ground you are depleting the water supply no matter what you do with it unless of course if you are running it back down another well.

 

[GanjaAL]

Yea... I know for me... I would be waisting more electricity cooling with water than I would just using a high seer mini split... which I eventually did. Like watercooled said... on the right property...it is the right thing to do. Thank you for your time an insight on this subject.

 

[ttystikk]

Efficiency is as efficiency does, Forrest

Actually it is not good for the earth unless is dumped in a stream or back in the well like he did. It actually takes more electricity to cool when using a chiller. also our most precious recource water is what we lack the most.

Not exactly... from what I've read, and the various different sources were pretty consistent on this, using a water chiller is roughly twice as efficient on a BTU per watt basis. This is due to the fact that water is far denser than air and has much more thermal mass. Not only is the chiller better at getting the water cold on a watt for watt basis, but then the water is much easier to carry long distances to where the cold is needed. AC by contrast has trouble getting cold air much more than 10-15 feet from the unit, even with ducting.

This advantage is diminished somewhat by the need for a pump to continually circulate the water through the chiller and the various heat exchange equipment, but you're still coming out ahead, and what's more, with a big chiller, you can cool both the growroom AND the water in your hydro system! Can't do that with an AC unit, you'd need another chiller. The synergies here get better and better, too; once the water in your hydro system is cold, it acts something like a reservoir as well. So for instance, if you get a hot afternoon that temporarily exceeds the capacity of your chiller, it can use the thermal mass in your system to keep temps more level. This works especially well with DWC, UC and other hydro systems that hold a lot of water.

If you live in a climate where the temps get cold in the winter, you can even get a thermal exchanger that looks a lot like a central AC condensor unit (the outside part), only it runs the chiller water through it. When water temps rise, you pump through that it, a fan pulls cold air through the unit, cooling your water without necessarily needing a compressor to run at all. You don't even need an additional pump, because the one pump that's running everything else will send water through this as well. Just be sure you run 50% glycol if it freezes in your area!

So, whoever told you that chillers are less energy efficient than AC had it exactly backwards. As far as wasting water, if the chiller system you're using is closed loop- that is, the working fluid remains sealed in the system you built and never mixes with either outside water or nutrient water, then there's no wasted water either. It won't evaporate because it's in a closed system.

 

[ttystikk]

Just built a new room, thought I'd share the specs:

1. Size of room? Bloom 16x9. Veg 10x11. Nursery 7x11.

2. How well insulated is it? Quite well, it's all in a finished basement
3. Total wattage in the room(s)? Bloom: 8x1k HPS, all in 8" vented magnum xxxl hoods, the 'ochos'. Currently running just two of them, will be adding more stages of plants at 2 week intervals. Veg: currently 2 x1k sealed 6" hoods vented outside, on a light rotator. Nursery/clones; shoplight 2x40w over ez cloner, and 2x90w UFO LED and 1x130w LED over preveg stages
4. Burning gas for Co2? Tank, on Sentinel CHHC-4. So far, it's just sipping the stuff.
5. Ballast in the room? If so digital or magnetic? Magnetic ballasts in adjacent room, not coincidentally the room where the air is pulled to cool the hoods before it's exhausted outside. Eventually the plan is to install flipboxes and run another similar 8k bloom room, cooled with same chiller.
6. Dehu? What size? How often is it running? HAve a 70 pint dehuey, set it to 75% humidity, haven't seen it run yet.
7. What size, brand, and seer rating is your a/c or chiller system? 2 Ton window mount Chillking water chiller. Do chillers have SEER ratings? What is it and what's a good rating?
8. How often does it cycle (turn on and off)? Right now all it's chilling are 2k of lights and chilling 24 site RDWC in bloomroom (100 gallons), and 24 site RDWC in veg room (75 gallons). Running maybe 20%. As I add more circuits and turn up more hoods, surely it will run more.
9. What is the highest and average outdoor temps? What the climate like? This year's August was hottest on record for Colorado; highs averaged mid 90s. Lots of people complained, I wasn't one of them. Winter temps can drop waaaay down, I've seen it hit -25 at the house. Usually 30s n up daytime, teens to low 30s nights. And yet, it's not unusual to see a 75 degree day in January! Oh, and turn your bones to dust while you're still walking DRY. Single digits not unheard of, it can be only 60% humidity in a driving rainstorm, don't ask me how! Altitude also contributes to low RH, and big temp swings day vs. night. Not unusual for temps to swing 50 degrees in just 12 hours, especially in spring and fall.
10. What is your grow room temps set at? Just sealed the room, set it at 80. Using a Hydro Innovations soft temp controller, fan changes speed to maintain a constant temp as opposed to cycling all the time. Sentinel says the room is nailed to 80. So far, so good... Have only the one chiller box and 8" maxfan running at the moment, will install 2 or 3 more as I turn up more hoods. All will run from same controller.
11. Is the system able to maintain the temp setpoint through the entire light cycle? So far, the system is maintaining temps better than I could if I didn't have anything else to do but watch it. Humidity is creeping up from 35%- seriously!- but I want it closer to 70%-75% day and night.

Had a nasty surprise when installing things; FREE ADVICE: use water in your chiller setup until you've run it for awhile and made sure there aren't any leaks! Why? The leaks I discovered were at the connections to the chiller coils in the RDWC units. One was leaking badly enough it overflowed and flooded the system by a few gallons! If I'd had glycol in the system, I'd have ruined the nutes, and maybe the run. I will put glycol in the system in a few weeks once I'm confident it's tight, not doing a Colorado winter without it.

Chiller system reservoir is 55 gallon drum, currently 2/3 full. The other third emptied into the RDWC system, lol. 1/2hp Flotec pump pushing water, definitely no shortage of oomph from that beast. MORE FREE ADVICE: the hose on the inlet side of the pump needs to be plenty stiff (I got the thick stuff with nylon threads braided in it, hydro store hose is inadequate for this application), otherwise a pump that's powerful enough to push all this water will suck the intake hose flat and start cavitating inside the pump. That buzzing, grinding sound is bubbles forming in the partial vacuum and hammering the impeller, and will wear it out fast if situation isn't fixed.

 

[ttystikk]

This is getting kinda booklength, but I wanted to share some of the installation issues, so people can build theirs right the first time out w/ less hassles.

1. I used PEX brand 6 outlet water manifolds with open ends. The 6 holes are 1/2", the ends are 3/4". I installed valves on each of these 6 outlets, and I did it on both the inlet and return sides this way. The reason is so I can isolate any circuit, like for the coil in my RDWC or for an Iceflow box, and service it or even remove it completely without the need to shut the entire system down.

2. I used 2 of these manifolds for each of 2 locations, so far. One is in the bloom room, where it will cool 3 RDWC systems and 3 x 8" Iceflow boxes with maxfans blowing through them. The maxfans have a hydro innovations speed controlled thermostat unit that slows the fan down to better match the cooling needs of the room, as opposed to just cycling on and off. Works tits! The other pair is near the veg room, where it will cool the room, another RDWC, plus assorted other spaces and the cloner.

3. I used a 55 gallon drum for the reservoir and put it up on cinder blocks. The 1/2 hp Flotec pump is directly beneath it to guarantee it never runs dry. The flojet has the main outlet port which I resized for 1" line, which runs to the ceiling, where it splits into two 3/4" lines that travel to each PEX inlet manifold in its respective room. For the return run, each PEX return manifold has a length of 3/4" line that runs straight back into the reservoir without combining anywhere. I think this will do an acceptable job of evening out backpressure and reduce flow irregularities. There are two 1/2" front ports on this pump, I sealed one and the other flows water to the chiller. The return from the chiller pours in the top of the 55 gallon reservoir, so it mixes up the water inside and makes sure the chiller can keep the whole thing cool. I was concerned about thermally stratified layers if I dropped the return line all the way to the bottom of the drum.

 

[seebobsled]

As I understand it goes tank 1"to pump to 1" for rise to 2- 3/4" to 6 way manifold to 6 valves to heat source and back 3/4"

1. Is that from the other end of the manifold(you said the manifold has 3/4"in and out thru and 6 ports? 7 or 8 holes on manifold?) or is that the return manifold is a two 3/4" drop to tank as hot return and basically one 3/4" back from each room or two back from each room?Not sure on the visuals

2. is not pvc to rubber hose a bit more flexible for hanging lights and iceboxes.I saw some red pex pipe and it was stiff almost like that 1/2" garden drip line.same stuff?

3. Looked at the pex brand today but fittings needed pex tube and it looks to stiff for drops down to fresca sols.... looked cool for runs to rooms or is there more rubber like not poly... like ?
got some pics of manifolds ?

 

[GanjaAL]

So, whoever told you that chillers are less energy efficient than AC had it exactly backwards. As far as wasting water, if the chiller system you're using is closed loop- that is, the working fluid remains sealed in the system you built and never mixes with either outside water or nutrient water, then there's no wasted water either. It won't evaporate because it's in a closed system.

Sorry but I did the numbers and bought everything to cool four lights and was assed out when I found out how much wattage I was going to be using.

1 hp pump was going to be using 1700 watts continuous

2 hp chill king chiller was about 4500 watts for a whopping total of 6200 watts used to chill my lights


Now my 18 seer 2 ton only uses 1400 watts so I am not sure who told you that it was more efficient to run water cooled lights. Even with the the chiller out of the equation... my mini split is 200 watts less if my mini was running continuously.

 

[Chillville]

Sorry but I did the numbers and bought everything to cool four lights and was assed out when I found out how much wattage I was going to be using.

1 hp pump was going to be using 1700 watts continuous

2 hp chill king chiller was about 4500 watts for a whopping total of 6200 watts used to chill my lights


Now my 18 seer 2 ton only uses 1400 watts so I am not sure who told you that it was more efficient to run water cooled lights. Even with the the chiller out of the equation... my mini split is 200 watts less if my mini was running continuously.

Wow, where do I start :)

First of all for 4 lights you would only need a 1/3 hp pump and it uses 3 amps, roughly 300 watts. The chillking 2hp chiller uses 1,100 watts 220 v, not sure where you got 4500 watts. This is a total of the 1,400 watts which is what your a/c is using. The difference isn't between which one uses more or less power while they are running, its about how long they run. Its a pretty well know fact that chillers are more energy efficient than a/c's, this means you are getting more bang for your energy bucks. You will get more cooling btu's out of a chiller system while its running than you will the a/c, so it shuts off sooner than the a/c...and when this happens is when you save $

 

[Chillville]

In case anyone is was wondering what makes a chiller more efficient here is the short version. Water can absorb heat 20x's faster than air. A/c's pass air over an evaporator and chillers pass water over an evaporator. The evaporator is where the condensed liquid freon boils off to a gas and is able to absob heat (the place cooling happens). If you have the same amount of BTU's stored in air and in water.... a chiller will be able to remove those BTU's much sooner from water than an a/c can pull these BTU's out of the air. There simply isn't efficient heat exchange going on with air.

Something to think about....if you are outside and its 60 degrees you will never freeze to death...but if you are in 60 degrees water you can die of hypothermia after a short time. This is simply the efficiency of water removing heat.

Something else to think about. Most hotels and hospitals use chiller systems to heat and cool because of the energy savings. From what I understand it's code in some parts of CA that larger buildings must use water-cooling systems....that is what I do for a living :) Typically my customers are seeing 25% to 50% energy savings depending on how old the systems are that we are replacing.

 

[GanjaAL]

Volts times amps = wattage.

Technical Specs

Model BTU/h Power Supply Min Circuit Ampacity
(Max Fuse) Weight- lbs.
(Operating Weight) Resevoir
GC036CK1 37,000 208/240V 1 Phase 30A
GC036CK3 37,000 208/240V 3 Phase 22A
GC048CK1 52,000 208/240V 1 Phase 34A
GC048CK3 52,000 208/240V 3 Phase 25.5A
GC060CK3 65,000 208/240V 3 Phase 29A (45A) 950
GC072CK3 76,000 208/240V 3 Phase 33A (52A) 1,082
GC090CK3 90,000 208/240V 3 Phase 40A 1,100 (1,560)
GC102CK3 102,000 208/240V 3 Phase 43A
GC120CK3 208/240V 3 Phase 49A
GC144CK4 460V 3 Phase 29A
GC180CK3 180,000 208/230V 3 Phase 80A
GC180CK4 460V 3 Phase 38A
GC240CK4 240,000 460V 3 Phase 47A
GV036CK3 208/240V 3 Phase 18A
GV060CK3 240V 3 Phase 29A (45A)
GV090CK3 96,000 240V 3 Phase 44.25A (70A)
GV18CKB1 18,000 208/240V 1 Phase 17A
GV24CK1 24,000 208/240V 1 Phase 15A 30gal Stainless
GV24CKB1 24,000 208/240V 1 Phase 15A 16gal Stainless

Also... less things to go wrong with adjustawings and a mini split.

also the 1 hp pump was going to be used for other things but found a more efficient way to run things and coming from a plumbers background... less things to go wrong.