Hey there gurus I am a homebrewer and a homegrower, and I had this crazy idea. First, some background: I know you can convert a regular fridge or a chest freezer so's you can lagerbeer--for the non brewer that means just keeping a temp based on a regulator--you can keep it a nice chilly 60 degrees if you install the right regulator parts. I don't know a lot about that but I've skimmed some FAQs about it. It's not hard, you just buy the fittings. Also, I grow in a closet in my shed. I also live in a hot a$$ climate, so i can only grow in there eduring the fall winter months. Which of course is sad now that it's spring (100 fking degrees today!! WTF!!). It gets HELLA hot in there. temps during winter swung around wildly, but I did get to about 97 once during our balmy winters (outside temp prolly 60s). I have a hydro setup w/ a 400 watt sodium. So I thought, why not put a regulator on a fridge and put the HID light in there and see what temps we get? I mean, if i can set the temps at 70, then put the HID in, I can see having a nice 80-85 degree grow environment. However, I thought I'd ask you smart folks out there and see if ya'll had any thoughts on the matter. here's the problems i see.... 1.) drilling holes for all the cables in/out. Avoiding freon line would be important I can guess 2.) condensation? there's electrical stuff, I can see this being a problem, unless I get one of those fancy ass enclosed lights 3.) ummm...ok so's I don't have a number three. love to hear any comments, oh masters....
I think soon as you start ventilating the grow space you'll suck your cold air right out. The fridge won't be able to cool the air entering fast enough so you're stuck with hot air again. That means you'd have to seal the inside environment and that means no ventilation for the plants. I just don't see it happening....was a good idea though.
actually it could with co2. and a dual cool tube. the fridge couldnt handle the load of the light, even in a single pass tube. u need an inner and outer tube. ducted from outside the fidge to the outside of the fridge. cutting the holes is a pain in the ass. u need a 6" hole saw that will cut through stainless steel. then u need arms burly and hairy enough to handle the drill thats turning it. u wont be able to run humidity due to the condensation, which will have an adverse effect on the result, but wont kill em.
get some ducting preferably 4 inch from home depot. insert a duct fan . preferably a 250 cfm. the space will probably be what?????maybe 6 square feet total??? the duct fan can be wired to a timer that would run the fan on possibly like 1minute every 20 minutes or so..that should be sufficient to keep em right.you will need to have a duct draft inhibitor which keeps air from running out on ya and the fridge burning up from having to keep up. insulate the pipe with some wet dry marine insulationto keep it from building up condensation. the fridge would probably burn up because the condenser might go..it is not used to constantly staying on b/c of that great asbestos filled insulation they use in em..i would use the fridge but dont plug it in and run a duct fan all the time...really if it were me i would go witha bigger space and mo plants!!
yeah you could do probably if you put enough thought into, i've seen a few on the net that people had good looking stuff coming out of and had the top for veg and bottom for flower. I would also do the cool tube with ducting venting on both side and run it out the top, and also like already stated us co2 and small exhaust fan just to pull some of that oxygen building up out. It could make a pretty good grow box i wish i had a fridge to tear apart and try it on.
hey girlieNug , i think if you want to use your fridge you should use it with out it running , the fridge would be running constantly (thats a lot of electricity) and the condensation would be a problem . If you are still going to grow in your fridge use a drill and a jig saw with a metal blade in it to cut out the fan holes , i started trying to use a grinder(3inch) and thats not the way to go there was sparks and metal bits f out every where . any way thought i'd try and help out with them tips here a few pics of my fridge . View attachment 1693 View attachment 1694 View attachment 1695 /monthly_2006_05/57a6c8eaca360_grow051.jpg.70a616bd39c6a55313800ea0fbd6aa8a.jpg /monthly_2006_04/57a6c8eace77a_grow045.jpg.89cebd808827c96e9564c3f88e2c6f2a.jpg /monthly_2006_05/57a6c8ead29e3_grow060.jpg.9f8de42953901b58cf301f8c5c16760c.jpg
Check this out, it's pretty cool http://forum.growkind.com/showthread.php?t=41082&highlight=Frankenfridge
Very nice commercial refrigerator. True makes a few stainless steel models, they cost a lot but look great! ------------------ If you have a working refrigerator, you can convert it into a grow box, and yes you can use the original fridge cooling system to cool the growing environment, like an air conditioner. You'll need to wire the compressor to a new thermostat to control growing temperatures in the fridge, and if using a cool tube, you'll need to install 2 ventilation ducts "from the outside of the box to the outside of the box", to exhaust the heat of the light. You must be careful not to drill your ducts through the refrigerant gas pipes. CO2 is recommended for this type of conversion, since it's a sealed box. It's hard to say how much energy a custom made unit will consume, it depends on the size of the compressor being used, how often it runs and for how long, the type of lights used, the amount of hours they run, the load of all electronics... and each case is a different case. One of my projects was a GE refrigerator conversion, the original compressor was a quiet 700btu, a 300 watt LED light, a bunch of fans, power supplies, controllers, relays, etc. I monitored and logged the consumption, and these were the results: Temperature set: 73F. If the lights were on 24 hours a day, it would cost $38.50 a month. If the lights were on 12 hours a day, it would cost $27.50 a month. But these numbers are for my project only. As you can see, it's not tooooo much.
