never use an AC again...? new cooling technique..the theory..

[WonderWaller111]

So I have been off the scene for about a year now and had to start a new temporary profile for now...

anyways i got just a little closet going at the moment and i been getting stoned and researching some diy cooling techniques that i could use for my closet while also getting some new ideas and inspiration for when i get my grow set back up for real

i came across some videos for a diy AC.. there are dozens of them on youtube.. if you havent seen them they are essentially a styrofoam cooler that has a hole drilled in the top with a little personal fan blowing into the cooler and another hole in the top usually with an elbow for the air to blow out... then you fill it up with ice and as it melts it creates cold air which the fans pushes out of the cooler..

they do seem to work but they obviously wouldnt be anywhere near strong enough for growroom application and probably even have a hard time even cooling a medium sized room noticeably.. my biggest thing is that even if i could get it to work i would most likely have to change the ice a few times a day and i like to be able to be away from my plants... a neat idea though...


then i remembered the chest freezer my parents had when i was younger that we kept meats in.. it always had a thick layer of ice caked around the entire inside.. so i thought what if you took that AC idea one step further.. essentially you would have a deep freeze chest freezer that you remove the lid and replace with a thick piece of styrofoam or just drill right into the original lid.. so lets say doing 6" holes, drill two holes in the top.. duct one to the growroom and put a fan blowing into the other, or use your growroom exhaust to passively pull the air through...

this seems like it would work great but i thought it must be horridly efficient or people would already be doing it.. i have never seen a grow that used this idea (and there seems to be no title search only option anymore).. i have seen a few posts that talk about modifying to a chiller but never to cool the actual air.. and obviously would be working harder than normal use.. but i looked into it and a 14cu ft freezer (3'x4') only uses 2 amps!!

i was cooling my old sealed room with a 12000 btu AC in combo with watercooling and my ac used 10.7 amps so i can have 5 freezer and use the same power.. those freezers can be set to -20F so if pulling the room air through it warms the inside, it has a 50F variable before it is even above freezing..! you wouldnt have to vent hot air, or more importantly smell, like you do with a window ac and air that cold would have to be dry as fuck so no added humidity..

just a personal box that you plug in and it makes arctic air that you can passively or actively vent wherever its needed for 1/4 the power of an AC.. !! the only con i can see is they are expensive brand new but i have found over 10 in my little area on CL for around $100.. and i can see them maybe working harder and going out quicker but it would almost still be practical even if you had to replace it every year

what am i missing.. ?? I get the best/worst ideas when i am stoned, which is this..? i am just too high please tell me or if there is already someone who is doing this please point me in that direction..

 

[lost360]

I think humidity would climb causing problems

 

[ghostmade]

Not a wise decision.you can use the refrigeration units and coils to chill water that you have hooked up to a heat exchanger. Or run a fan over the cold side of the refrigeration unit. But you're going to have to isolate the heat exchanger so you can be able to properly vent it.other than that it's pointless. I have talked to HVAC technicians, electricians, engineers, and all the bro science homie on the forums.not specifically about this idea but just general heating and cooling. Somebody who was willing to sacrifice a little bit of their time who has more in-depth knowledge behind such things, will explain this and detail the fallacies of such endeavor. Trust me it's pointless it's better to yank out the refrigeration unit, and use the inside of the ice chest as your insulated reservoir. You're welcome I don't even need no reps lol

 

[Heusinomics]

Edit: exactly what he said.. Quick resp good info.

Those use refrigerant jst like an AC unint. Transfering the heat from inside the freezer to the outside of it, wich is y your refrigerator vents warm air. Jst like an AC used the pannel on the back or outside unit to blast heat outside.

You can't jst set a window AC inside a room it will make things hotter not cooler w/ o venting!
The same will happen w the freezer.

Sorry bro!

 

[WonderWaller111]

appreciate the responses... exactly what looking for to bounce the idea around... but you havent really sold me yet....

all of those technologies have a hot and cold side...

heusin, i have made a few ac boxs before so i know what u mean about the heat, i used to heat my entire upstairs comfortably with 12000 btu exhaust.... but if i had two identical rooms and in one i put a unvented AC in the middle of the room plugged it in and turned it on high and in the other i put a unvented freezer on high and shut the doors and came back hour later that the freezer room would be hotter or even equal to the AC ..?

in our first house we had ourdeep freeze in an attached enclosed porch next to another fridge and it wasnt even that noticeably different from the inside... again this was when i was younger and i didnt have grow experience when i was 9 so didnt know what to look for, but i pretty sure i remember there was intake on at least one if not both sides and the hot coils were on the back outside the unit... the mods would only be to lid so freezer should operate normally ... taking a closer look at my fridge, the hot coils are on the outside... they are hot to the touch but not heating my kitchen...

ghost, having to vent doesn't really make the idea any less feasible really... u cant really be like 'the ideas pointless cause your gonna have to vent, so just stick with AC just MAKE SURE YOU VENT'... I am still not fully convinced that having a freezer plugged in would raise my temps that significantly without venting but if it needed it shouldn't be that big problem... people everywhere use vented ACs, so that means at one point there had to be a guy who said 'what if u mounted an AC in the grow instead of window?'

'well a AC has a hot and cold side so u would have to separate and vent so it pointless' foam board can do wonders

lost360, iwill have leave hygrometer in freezer on my fridge and see what readings i get

i am honestly not trying to be argumentative just brainstorm debating

 

[stoned-trout]

its been thought of and cast aside long ago

 

[blastfrompast]

OK..here is a stoner thought...

why not just grow in a re-fridgerator...have it turn on before lights come on..turn off afterlights go out...

 

[moses wellfleet]

There was a refrigeration business near to where I used to grow, they dumped large amounts of used ice everyday... I thought I was gonna use it to cool my operation and save on Edison bills... after loading up the ice and nearly breaking my back I only tried it once and never again!

Some ideas are best left alone to remain theory forever!

 

[GratefulOne]

FYI- Freezers don't move heat quickly. The compressors are small. Put a gallon of water in the freezer and see how long it takes to freeze. Check the BTU's of the water when warm and you will see the freezer is super slow. You can't modify a freezer to cool anything that will require many BTU's transferred per hour.

 

[vostok]

Moldy buds is a curse, I see mold as an issue here along with again hi humidity

 

[ghostmade]

you must have misunderstood me Merle I'm not here to belittle you or your ideas.im just trying to give you a reality check in regards to heating and coolingthe reason why a freezer get so cold it's because it's such a small volume air sealed in a insulated vessel.the freezer is not constantly cooling ambient air temperature.understand?not if you can re get up so cold side of the heat exchanger issubmergedin water.pump a cold water to a car radiator in your room and use that as your heat exchanger.but I doubt that 2 amps of electricity can produce enough be to use to cool a multi light room

 

[WonderWaller111]

your good broi didnt take offense and thats the exact kind of answer i looking for, something i can take to the bank... cause i be the first to admit it sounds too good to be true, and it usually is...

cause i am not talking bout loading ice or a fridge im talking bout an actual deep freeze that you use for long term storage of meats...when running they have ice inches thick caked on the inside.. normally you buy one plug it in set the temp and it stays constant... this is obviously a modified use so like you are saying,im pumping ambient air inside which will raise the temp... the starting point is -20 and a AC blows cold at what, 40-50f..? you push ambient in and cold comes out... the question is how long before the inside is too warm...they take most of a day to defrost with lid completely open

so lets say you have 2 freezers... u put a small fan thats not too powerful so u arent bringing ambient air too quickly and warming it too fast, along with a damper u can evenly insulate... then u can put them on timers and have them switch to the other freezer every couple hours so they never get overworked and have time refrost... still drawing less power than 5000 btu

i dont think i can cool multi light room with just this... i got the chillers i got the radiator i got a couple regular dehuey and a spare i gonna turn into a chiller i even got the AC on deck.... but if i can replace the AC or even have the larger power consumer work less its a plus...

humidity probably would be an issue if my dehuey cant keep up.. the inside freezer on my fridge is 16% but who knows with evaporation

 

[ghostmade]

dude I'm done I am not trying to explain s*** no more bro.look up diy res chiller.on here and google.comyou can use the existing hardware in the deep freezer to create a water cooled setup.you can even use the vessel as an insulated reservoir.(ive done it,although I use a window banger for the chiller).thats all I got for you bro you're going to have to do the legwork yourself

 

[WonderWaller111]

hey no need to get upset... was thinking out loud so others can follow my thought process... havent been on in while but i thought this was a site for growers to congregate and share ideas.. hope im not at wrong place....

i know how to diy chiller but a freezer would be near the bottom of list of things to turn into chiller but that not what trying to do here

 

[BlackBuds]

There was a refrigeration business near to where I used to grow, they dumped large amounts of used ice everyday... I thought I was gonna use it to cool my operation and save on Edison bills... after loading up the ice and nearly breaking my back I only tried it once and never again!

Some ideas are best left alone to remain theory forever!

LOL, your final statement is brilliant.

 

[TheyCallMeJJay]

There was a refrigeration business near to where I used to grow, they dumped large amounts of used ice everyday... I thought I was gonna use it to cool my operation and save on Edison bills... after loading up the ice and nearly breaking my back I only tried it once and never again!

Some ideas are best left alone to remain theory forever!

Could you imagine dry-ice? lol you'd kill everything