home made cooling

[weaponmaster15]

I was wondering if anyone know how to take a mini fridge and take it apart to put it into a grow area for cooling, I have two of them, and I need to drop my grow area but at least 15 degrees before I put any plants in there. I was also thinking maybe I could just cut a circle hole into the fridge and mount a venting fan into it with the pipes leading into my grow area. That way I am not over cooling the area yet I am still going to get all that i need. Do you think it might work? Or if you have any other ideas I will accept them also. The heat is on my party

And also if anyone knows how to make my extake vents quieter that would be great it sounds like I have a freaking plane in a cabinet

 

[ninfan77]

Running 2 small fridges to cool an entire room seems like a huge waste of electricity.

Is a portable A/C or in wall unit not an option? What about air cooling your hoods to remove some of the heat?

 

[weaponmaster15]

well in truth the second one I was just going to keep a fridge, I have no ac avalible to me at the moment so not really. I have enough venting the hoses I have leading out of there are like a wind tunnel and I have several blowing fresh air. I don't really have much to work with so I though I would ask if anyone had a idea. the mini fridge thing was my only really half ass idea and that is still really bad because I can't shut it off at the right temp. If I could have it turn off and on on it's own then I would go ahead and do that but other then that like you said it would be a big waste. I am running out of ideas.

 

[Guest]

Hey Weapon...

Chasing the heat game is a bitch. What wattage are you running and what are your dimensions? One thing I ran into years ago was trying to grow in a cabinet using a 400w. I know some do it, but with my ambient room temps sitting at 78 (wasn't going to turn down the AC on the entire home just for that single room) it was virtually impossible.

I would avoid using a fridge for cooling - let's see what your grow stats look like and I'm sure at least one of us stoners will be able to figure something out to assist.

 

[Johnny Rotten]

Refrigeration systems move heat around, they don't create any cooling. Without isolation and removal of the heat from the back coils you would actually be adding heat to your room. It could possibly be done, but I'd recommend throwing them up on craigslist and buying yourself a window unit or a -cough- -cough- portable.

 

[weaponmaster15]

O.k. then here is all of the info, The whole cabinet is a total of 72 inches tall, 29 inches wide, and 20 inches deep. It is split into two chambers. Each chamber has one bath fan hooked to the top by some wire to suck out heat, the fan blows at 50 cfm. On the bottom chamber there is a temp regulated fan set to shut off at 70 degrees and starts back up at 75. It has not shut off yet. the top has two smaller fans. not sure how fast, about 20 cfm each or so. For lighting I have on the bottom three flouros each 20 watts with 875 light output and 5000 color temp. The top has 6 25 watt bulbs of a redish tint (was planning on using for flowering) all in cool tubes. The temp for the one on the top is around 92 degrees and the lower one will not drop below 85. That is all the info I really have sorry.

 

[EZB581]

weapon, here is a link to DIY dorm fridge, chiller.
http://reefshow.com/html/go.php?filnavn=chiller_diy_project.htm

 

[Guest]

Weapon..... So you're running CFL's and having a temp problem - wow.

What is the ambient temps in the room that this box is sitting in? I mean if the air in the room is 85, it's not going to be lower in the chamber.....

 

[weaponmaster15]

that is the confusing part, it is around 72 in the rest of my house

 

[DIGITALHIPPY]

just go to target or lowes they have the 5k btu window a/c's on discount clearance for like 80$.... i got a 5200btu one from target for 85 out the door.

 

[Guest]

there are even smaller ones at walmart running about $50. i almost picked one up for my dresser grow last night!!

 

[weaponmaster15]

The wal-mart one would be great then, I only have like 60 bucks to my name

 

[weaponmaster15]

There was no wal-mart one here for that price....but I my have found my problem will let you know if that is what it was, will be back later

 

[badgr]

You can make a home made air conditioner but it requires lots of patience/matience and would not work too well. Look it up on google. People do these silly projects all the time. I'm surprised to see a question about cooling air with a mini fridge? LOL thats just a plain bad idea. Use your skill sell or trade one of your mini fridges for a small a/c unit. people are always throwing them out around here. Lets have some sort of sense. A fridge will not cool the air for more then a couple minutes after the door is open. Unless your growing in a fridge but even then you will still need too much fresh air. The air inside a fridge takes time to become cold and is not meant to be constantly running. You would slap your self for running a fridge full cooling 24/7. Big waste if you ask me. Good luck. If you can't get your grow cool b/c you only have 60$$ to your name then maybe you should hold off for awhile till your situation is better.

 

[weaponmaster15]

you see i live in a place where the biggest town around me is about 6000 people. There is no one thowing them out left and right around here. And I was not planning on having it run all of the time. I was going to put together a temp sensitive outlet that I found on here and put that next to my plants. Then when the temp got right it would shut it self off. When it raised in temp by about 7 degrees it would kick on again. I could hook up a fan running in it, this fan I was going to use has a flap at the end that will close off when the fan is off. have the fan and fridge hooked to the same outlet so they are always running at the same time. And have some hose running from a circler hole that i cut into the door of the fridge to near the plant but not blowing on it. This would make it so that too much of the cold does not leave the fridge during the off mode and make it so that the temps don't run out of control. At least that is what I was thinking. It would make it a lot like a a/c unit.

 

[Getawaymonkey!]

why dont you run hydro and use the fridges for a DIY chiller.Then high temps would be less of a problem

 

[weaponmaster15]

I was thinking about that and I even looked at all of the stuff I would need, It would be a very cheap way to go.

 

[technogrow]

theres two kinds of fridges, mini fridges usually have an evaporative coil that takes up space in the freezer portion, radiant cooling the refridgerator portion. The other type of fridge is more like the style of full size fridges, where ice cold air blows out with a fan (they make this style in mini fridges too) this is the kind that will be effective in cooling a room. the radiant style is useless and will only be a waste of time and money. Im using a 6000 btu window unit in my VERY small closet, and even with 600watt hps, temps stay WHEREVER i want, even 60 degrees f!!! without this unit i was near 100 degrees in only 20 minutes with the light on. I got it used for 50$ and ducted the hot air out into the attic... hope this helps.

 

[GreenBush 420]

Are there any issues with using a window air conditioner in an enclosed space? Do you just have to worry about draining the water? I am running a 3*3*6*7 high closet and I can't keep my temps under 80f with a 400w HPS. I can't get my rez temps under 80 for any extended time frame.
I actually had two mini fridges and sacrificed one to use a rez cooler and it failed miserably. It was a evaporative coil type so I just took the coil off and tried to submerge in the rez. Seems like a great and EASY idea the problem was that it never worked. For some reason the coil would shut off as soon as I placed it into the water. I even tried to place it in plastic garbage bags to shield from the water, that shut it off to??????? Can anyone explain this? I left the coil sit out all day and it stayed on and even created ice all over it, but it had to be out of the water....
This seams like it should work and it is really driving me nuts that it doesn't. The fridge is sooo easy to take apart compared to an office water cooler. It only took 10 min to have a functional cooling unit. (With a saws-all)