Summer Chillin' or How to Cool your Cab...

Discussion in 'Advanced Cultivation' started by MeRmAn, Mar 12, 2006.

  1. MeRmAn

    MeRmAn New Sprout

    I know its freakin' hailing outside right now but, [34 3'49.46"N, at 500 feet in March goddammit!] I've got summertime on the brain!

    Thing is, for those of us with small cabs [let's assume something in the neighborhood of C22-C32], what's the best way to keep things cool this summer?

    Numero uno: Airflow.... no holds barred the best and easiest, except when ambiet air temps reach a point when the wind is not enough, which for my setup is around 82F.

    Air conditioner? Even a basic 5000btu window unit from Sears would be too much for C22/32... Anybody know a mini A.C. that would work? Just put it inline with air intakes and Fred's yer Uncle!

    Restocking with ice is a hassle.... Some kind of electric beer cooler with a fan inside?

    How about an inline duct fan with a bunch of coiled copper tubing stuck in. Just stick right in your air intake (supercharged!). Small submersible water pump drives water (or even auto anti freeze) from a rezy through the tubing.
     
  2. Mr Douglas

    Mr Douglas still stoned again still

    cooling

    I'm no expert, but wouldn't that cause much un-wanted condensation in your ducting?? :confused:


    p.s. My boss has one of those auto fridges that plugs into the car lighter, but I don't think that would work anyhow.


    I vent my grow-space into my bedroom, and as long as I keep that room tolerable temp-wise, my grow-space is about the same. (a lil' warmer by a couple of degrees)


    Check the link that Quackho posted in this forum for portable A.C. units.


    Personally it is WAY too expensive for me.


    good luck :cool:
     
  3. Useless

    Useless Diogenes Reincarnate

    Well, you could run an A/C unit into a room in your home, and draw the intake from the room instead of from outdoors. Then you could easily control the intake temps.
     
  4. Green Goblin

    Green Goblin Cannabis Connoisseur

    apparently i dont know anything...but...


    most any small refrigeration device wether it be one of those car coolers, or a small beer cooler wouldnt be enough. piping ur res to copper in the duct is also not a good idea. not to mention the restriction the pipe would cause in the duct would be rediculous. ud be better off buying a hydronic cooling coil that would fit in ur duct. but even then ur res proly doesnt have the capacity to pick up that much heat. unless its in ur crawlpace or somewhere really cold,or hook it upto a chiller. best way in my personal and completely unsubstantiated and obviousely flawed opinion...would be to duct ur box to the room its in and air condition that room.


    i read somewhere on here that u need 5000 btu/h tocool a 1k. thats a lil less than 1/2 ton. 12,000 btu/h is equal to one ton of refrigeration. i can get a halfton window unit for a few hundred bux.


    but like i said, i dont know anything.
     
  5. MeRmAn

    MeRmAn New Sprout

    Unfortunately for me, my cab is out in the garage.... no sheetrock, no insulation = way too expensive to A.C.


    I've been thinking about the copper tubing idea more. Separate rezy outside the cab, maybe this is one of those novelty electric beer coolers. Water/antifreeze running through copper coils in the rezy then pumped to copper coils in an air intake with fan blowing over the tubing. As Mr. Douglas said, would have to allow for some drainage of condensation.


    I'm gonna try to pick up a used small refridge that college kids use in their dorm rooms and take it apart. Maybe I can rig something up?
     
  6. Wild Bill

    Wild Bill A Fat Sticky Bud

    :confused: What did I miss? BTW I think your advice


    (.....would be to duct ur box to the room its in and air condition that room.) is very sound. Just my opinion.
     
  7. nugsmoke

    nugsmoke Full Flowering

    i know what hes talking about, in another thread GTD and agrow told him to "stop giving advice pronto". dont listen to them GG you obviously know your shit.
     
  8. greenthumbdanny

    greenthumbdanny Excommunicated

    Green don't say that you dont know anything, you know plenty.. I don't remember ever knocking you but if I did I must of been having an off day..keep up with your thoughts and oppinions bro. :) If I did do some criticing it must have been some way off far out shit.
     
  9. MeRmAn

    MeRmAn New Sprout

  10. Wild Bill

    Wild Bill A Fat Sticky Bud

    Agreed. Goblin, anyone with any experiences with grows has every right to share their experiences. I've read a lot of what I thought was sound advice in your posts. I'll put it this way, It's obvious you're a grower.
     
  11. Wild Bill

    Wild Bill A Fat Sticky Bud

    Looks like a good idea but I don't think the ice would last even a day. Might be good to use dry ice in it. Maybe that would last longer. Maybe. Maybe not but at least you'd be supplying co2 at the same time.
     
  12. Wild Bill

    Wild Bill A Fat Sticky Bud

    Forget the dry ice idea. I read it again. The water is in a sealed bottle.
     
  13. MeRmAn

    MeRmAn New Sprout

    I'm going down to Goodwill tomorrow to see if I can find one of those dorm room refrige units for cheap. Worth experimenting taking it apart to get at the guts anyway. I'll let you know how it goes and take some pics along the way if I'm successful!
     
  14. Wild Bill

    Wild Bill A Fat Sticky Bud

    What are you going to do with the guts? And, what guts?
     
  15. DuffMan

    DuffMan Horticultural Technician

    I don't know what kind of light you are running but have you considered using a cool tube? Here's one that I made.


    [​IMG]
     
  16. MeRmAn

    MeRmAn New Sprout

    I've got full light shield, typical triangular six inch intakes. Maybe I just need a higher cfm fan...


    I don't know much about refrigerators but I assume they all have an air or fluid pump of some kind that circulates freon (or whatever) through the system (copper or aluminum tubing). The electronics might be a little complicated (relays, transformers, and such) but I bet its all extractable!


    I think most of the frige is just the casing and insulation?


    If I get it apart and working, I'll post some pics.
     
  17. DuffMan

    DuffMan Horticultural Technician

    I look foward to seeing the results. Yes,, I do think the higher CFM would help you aswell, I have a 265CFM fan running in a 19 cubic foot box, some might think this is overkill but more air flow is always better then less.
     
  18. MeRmAn

    MeRmAn New Sprout

    Refrige schematic (basic) attached. Can this be applied? Got me... I'm basically trying to find a cheapo method to make an inline air conditioner (and an excuse for a few hours of screwing around in the shop with a sawzall and some pipe wrenches :D ).The 'inside refrige' coil could live in a small insulated box with fan blowing (or sucking) to the cab intake. Or the 'inside refrige' might could live inside the cab. This would be more problematic... water condensation....freezer burned plants etc.I'm going to look for a used small A.C. unit as well and put THAT in box (so I'm not cooling the whole garage) inline with fan to the air intake.Anything will be hooked up to an atmospheric controller.

    Fridge.jpg

    /monthly_2006_03/Fridge.jpg.c764ad15d4385ecdb2555e13032c2eb7.jpg
     
  19. BC Kid

    BC Kid Begun Flowering

    Would that thing put out cool air for a long while or whould it just go for a few hours. If that thing works i wanna get one.
     
  20. Chronic*Q('-'Q)

    Chronic*Q('-'Q) Germinated

    If you want to buy that little cubical cooler, you might as well just put a frozen bottle of water in yer cab, because thats really all it is :D It probably just has a fan to circulate the air, but if your cab is small enough, it will already circulate from intake/outake. I have a 100watt HPS cab with only 2 cubic ft, I may give that a try and tell you how it goes :D if you're interested of course :)


    <<('-'Q)
     

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