Watercooled sealed room?

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surfguitar

surfguitar

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I know others do this and I got the main outline of my thinking from ttystikk so maybe he can chime in or someone could point me in the direction of some techs?

I plan to build 2 new rooms pretty soon, each 2k on a flip flop. Originally I had planned to just go the easy/lazy route and vent cool air from under the house thru a filter into the grow room and then out the top with 2 inline fans controlling each room. Obviously I miss out on the benefits of a sealed room but its easy and it works.

Alternatively and I'm really considering this route I'm thinking about putting a rez under the house with a 1hp eco line chiller and 2 6in heat ex-changers in each room with a 6in fan circulating air thru them in each room. I figure with a insulated rez and insulated grow room I should be able to get the best bang for my buck with electricity and not have to fuck with AC's and than I can run co2 and get all the benefits of a sealed room.

Would love some advice or thoughts from people with experience with these type of setups. My biggest concern is that the chiller will not be big enough and I'm considering going 2hp so I can maybe go to 8 lights down the line.
 
Tank333

Tank333

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Also, keep in mind that you'll need a good pump to push that water from under the house up into your grow room...
 
Smoking Gun

Smoking Gun

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Surf, I honestly think that you will spend more on your water cooling than it is worth for spaces that small. 2K can easily be ventilated to keep the temps controlled. An air conditioner would also handle spaces that size, and keep it a sealed space. If you are putting together larger rooms I think the water cooling would be worth it, but for such a small space I am not so sure.

Just my 2 cents, nothing more. Tty is a good source of info on water cooling room, here is a thread by Raker, who really has his water cooled room down to a science.
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/water-cooled-grow-room.51015/
 
surfguitar

surfguitar

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It's 2k on a flip flop so 4k total and hopefully I want to expand if that goes well.
 
Smoking Gun

Smoking Gun

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surfguitar said:
It's 2k on a flip flop so 4k total and hopefully I want to expand if that goes well.
Click to expand...

I understand you are putting the rooms on a flip, so that means you will only ave to cool 2k at any given time. I also understand you are expecting to expand in the future, and it is absolutely best to be prepared for expansion ahead of time. My point was simply to weigh the cost/benefit ratio. There is a lot of equipment required to water cool anything, because while you are cooling the lights and space with water, you then have to cool the water back down as well. You will probably end up spending more on cooling your water than growing your plants.
 
PButter

PButter

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You can get by with a 1/10hp chiller IF your chiller rez is big enough. For example a 1/10hp chiller cooling a 300gal rez would be similar to a 1hp chiller cooling a 40gallon rez. Its more about how much thermal mass the system has than how much hp you have on tap...
 
CelticEBE

CelticEBE

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Tank333 said:
What were your outside ambient temps when you did that? Summer or winter?
Click to expand...
Wow....that was 4 years ago...it was summertime in SFV, which is usually hot as hell but I think that year it was a bit cooler than normal.
 
T

Ttystikk2

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Those who say that a 4kW op is too small for water chilling are almost right. But no one would balk at a tiny chiller to cool the water... gets me every time!

I cool everything; air, dehuey, RDWC, even the house, with water. It is easier to run hoses than ductwork- it just gets complex because you're doing more!

Get the biggest chiller you can afford that will be well sized for the eventual size of your op. One full Ton should be enough for four kW in lights per side, I got the two Ton for twice that. It worked until summer, when I needed extra capacity or less load. You may consider a bigger chiller, some kind of cooling assistance like AC, or shutting off some lights in the room running during the daytime during the hottest parts of the summer. I tried misting the compressor section of my chiller with water to help it, my results were inconclusive.

If you chill your RDWC with the same water as everything else, that water will act as a reservoir for temperature maintenance purposes even though it isn't circulating through the system. The bigger the RDWC, the greater this effect.

A really big separate res for chiller circuit is undesirable. It only needs be big enough to hold a good amount of cold, so the chiller can shut off and rest for awhile. In your case, twenty gallons is on the big side of enough.

Yes, the chiller is expensive. Try adding up the cost of separate chiller, AC AND dehuey and see how that stacks up, and you'll see why I went the way I did.
 
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