How much cooling power could I harvest from this?

[LED-Freak]

Hey again.

I grow in a basement. My basement floor is a constant 55-60 degrees year round.

I want to take 50' of 1/2" copper pipping and run in on the floor making a heatsink. I want to connect it all together with a 50gallon reservoir running water through the copper pipe so the heat can be absorbed into the floor.

I'll then hook up a heat exchanger inside my tents similar to the hydro innovations ice box.

I have a total of 350cu.ft. I would like to cool and a total of 1200w max of lighting.

I dont know how I will control the condensation coming off the copper pipes though....any thoughts? Maybe a fan setup blowing air over the top surface of the pipes? Seems like that method will raise my overall RH% Id imagine.

Going to home depot tomorrow to budget a supplies list.

I know I can get 10' of 1/2" copper pipe for $9.57 a piece. I have just about everything else I will need including the pumps. Might need to invest in a better resev though. Something metal preferably.

What do you think? Think this could work?

Simple sketch:

 

[dragontoker]

I dont think it will work well enough with the amount of light you have, its worth a try though. Some things that might help: Insulate the coil of copper tubing to the floor with about 2-4 inches of foam board, dont use fiberglass. Another thing is to get your pump out of your reservoir if possible, it creates quite a bit of heat over time and water is a conductor. You could also use a coil of tubing just above the water in the res and have a little axial fan blowing on the coil and on the surface of the water.............

All said and done you could end up wasting a $100 setting this up which is half the amount of a chiller that we know will work and work accurately.

If your idea does work, what happens if it works a tad to well,,,,did you factor in a temp controller to stop the pump or fans?

 

[LED-Freak]

I dont think it will work well enough with the amount of light you have, its worth a try though. Some things that might help: Insulate the coil of copper tubing to the floor with about 2-4 inches of foam board, dont use fiberglass. Another thing is to get your pump out of your reservoir if possible, it creates quite a bit of heat over time and water is a conductor. You could also use a coil of tubing just above the water in the res and have a little axial fan blowing on the coil and on the surface of the water.............

All said and done you could end up wasting a $100 setting this up which is half the amount of a chiller that we know will work and work accurately.

If your idea does work, what happens if it works a tad to well,,,,did you factor in a temp controller to stop the pump or fans?

Thats the thing, I dont want to run a energy hug chiller. My goals are efficiency and lower power consumption to bud output. Being a thermostat for a fan to regulate practically free cooling is much more efficient then paying monthly cost to operate a chiller year round.

 

[LED-Freak]

I built a liquid cooling system It is not a finished product by any means. I used a lot of stuff I had around the house like pumps, and the reservoirs. I want to see if it would work.

IT DOES!

So things I plan to buy to make it a more solid system are:

(2) 35-40g steal reservoirs with smooth full contact bottoms.

2 real pumps that can give me some head and pressure.

A real heat exchanger for inside the tent (something like Hydro Innovations Ice Box)

I first want to spend some time researching, trying to find something I can either build or something larger than the Ice Box.

I only ran 20ft of copper heat loop on the floor. I wanted to see what kind of results I would get.

Here is my simple, inexpensive, effective, and virtually free liquid cooling system.......

Resev. 1. This resev. runs the ground floor heat loop.

I placed all my soil bins on top of the heat loop for better contact. They are mostly full of cooking organic soil.

Its also modular. I can add more heat loops if I need too which I plan adding 30' more for good measures.

Resev. 1 with the return line coming off the heat loop. 120gph pump.
Also the coil in Resev. 1 is being used to chill Resev. 2

Resev. 2 with a 120gph pump running water through the coil in Resev 1.
Also a float valve to refill it automatically. Its all RO/DI water which I also use to water everything.

And here is the make shift/ghetto heat exchanger in the tent placed above a cooling fan. Once I figure out a permanent solution this coil will replace the plastic coil I have running into Resev. 1 cooling Resev. 2.

Here is the static temp. of both reservoirs combined after 4 hours of running 42.3F. Both Resev. are filled with 35g each of H20. 70g total.

And here is the temp inside of the tent after 4 hours of running. 69.8F w/65% PH (too high!). I have to figure out a way to regulate the flow of water, or get a fan speed control thermo stat so I can raise the temp.

The cool thing about this system is I plan to run Co2. So once I get the equipment, ill need to raise the temp to about 82-85F. There will be no problem maintaining that temp.

Also, now since this a closed loop system my humidity is jacked up! Ill have to invest in a dehumidifier but would like to know if anyone has experience using small Thermoelectric dehumidifiers? Like this:

Amazon: Eva-Dry Edv-2200 Mid-Size Dehumidifier

I only want to dehumidify both tents and not the entire basement. Trying to do this as efficiently as possible. That small dehumidifier only consumes 80w. 30 pints a day. Both tents combined are 350cu. ft.

And here is tent 2
72 degrees
56% RH (too high!)

I have 2 - 220 cfm fans tying both tents together making them a closed loop system with relatively even temp. variance.

And here is the total power consumption of both flower tents and the liquid cooling system.

One 600w HPS
500w of LEDs
Two fans and a carbon filter
all the pumps running the cooling sys.

12.48 amps

1191 total watts.

I am very satisfied with my outcome :ying:

 

[LED-Freak]

All three pumps running my cooling system consume 37 total watts.

that beats a 400-500w chiller!!!!!

 

[budlydoright]

I am very satisfied with my outcome

That's sweet. Look for heat exchangers on ebay. They can be had pretty cheap.

i want to do the same kind of thing but just use 2 water to air heat exchangers, one outside and one. Would produce a positive effect at least 9 months out of the year and could be built for under 500 bucks.

 

[LED-Freak]

That's sweet. Look for heat exchangers on ebay. They can be had pretty cheap.

i want to do the same kind of thing but just use 2 water to air heat exchangers, one outside and one. Would produce a positive effect at least 9 months out of the year and could be built for under 500 bucks.

Dude whip up a print on paint pad or something. I want to see your idea. I love nothing more then a good idea! Solid man. +rep

Wait
EDIT...

how do I spread some rep in this damn place???? All I see is a like button. WTF, am I on FB or something?