slick cooling set up, cheap money

[RaminarDixon]

Hey guys, Im building a room from the ground up, and would like some input and opinions on a couple of my ideas....the plan is to run the room only during the cool months of michigans season (November-May) and am trying to do it with as little as possible seeing that I have an abundance of cold air at my disposal. I want to have 9 gavita 1k's with 3 of them over each 4x16 row, with three rows. This room will be flower only and I would like to seal it to keep my CO2 in the environment. I was originally planning on setting and intake and exhaust fan on a thermostat and pulling in cold winter air to cool the room as needed. Now Ive come up with the idea of running duct from one end of the room to the other on the outside of the building. right now im thinking just straight rigid ducting will do, if I need more cooling I could always coil it. Im thinking that if I hook an 8" fan to one end of the duct and pull air from the sealed room down the duct that runs outside the building to cool and then return it on the other side of the room ice cold. It would be easy to add 2 or 3 more cooling tubes (ducts) if one doesn't have enough cooling power depending on weather and what not..I also plan to put a couple mini splits in the room just in case it gets warm early in the year or stays warm late like this year. Has anybody ever done this..if so I would appreciate any input or advise you have...if not I still appreciate your feelings on the idea.

 

[BakedBandit]

Haven't done it, sounds cool tho. Pun intended

 

[queequeg152]

Hey guys, Im building a room from the ground up, and would like some input and opinions on a couple of my ideas....the plan is to run the room only during the cool months of michigans season (November-May) and am trying to do it with as little as possible seeing that I have an abundance of cold air at my disposal. I want to have 9 gavita 1k's with 3 of them over each 4x16 row, with three rows. This room will be flower only and I would like to seal it to keep my CO2 in the environment. I was originally planning on setting and intake and exhaust fan on a thermostat and pulling in cold winter air to cool the room as needed. Now Ive come up with the idea of running duct from one end of the room to the other on the outside of the building. right now im thinking just straight rigid ducting will do, if I need more cooling I could always coil it. Im thinking that if I hook an 8" fan to one end of the duct and pull air from the sealed room down the duct that runs outside the building to cool and then return it on the other side of the room ice cold. It would be easy to add 2 or 3 more cooling tubes (ducts) if one doesn't have enough cooling power depending on weather and what not..I also plan to put a couple mini splits in the room just in case it gets warm early in the year or stays warm late like this year. Has anybody ever done this..if so I would appreciate any input or advise you have...if not I still appreciate your feelings on the idea.

just use water instead.

you will go broke buying rigid ducting to get the btu removal you are desiring.

you are also going to condense a huge shitload of moisture inside this duct that will have to drain to a sump somewhere.

the energy required to pump air is far greater than that of water.

just a bad idea.

get a decent pair of 1/6 hp hot water circulation pumps, and like 4,000 feet of 3/4" PP pipe. trench down like 9 feet by 6 feet wide, and lay the pipe out in huge 5' wide coils. make sure to lay surveyors landmarks to denote the boundaries of the field.

 

[Phaeton]

Kinda cold here in Alaska at the moment (-20 F) so the cooling intake had be shut to 40 square inches (20" X 2") and the intake fans turned down a notch. slowing the mixing of the cold air before being pushed back outside on the opposite side of the room from the forced air intake.
This adjustable direct outside air intake works all the way up to an outside temperature of 78 F where the 8 degree differential can no longer keep the room temperature under 86 F and lights are shut down.

Ice does form around the outlet when colder than -5 but not nearly as bad as the dryer vent.

An outside radiator cooling duct would require a large number of small diameter metal pipes to have enough surface area for the heat transfer. A single large metal duct is going to return the air close to the same temperature it left. A plastic or wooden duct would not lose any measurable heat at all.

Many years were spent working on aircraft at -40 under a draped parachute with hot air ducted in. Heat transfer was very important and fabric ducts held the heat as did the parachute fabric, this is the opposite of the effect needed to cool a room..

 

[RaminarDixon]

thanks for the input, the condensation of the moisture do to cooling the air was something that escaped me, didn't even cross my mind to be honest. what would I have for an exchange inside the room if I went the water route? would there be another coil system in the room? wouldn't those condensate?

 

[tommy2snips]

These complete units are popular in my neck of the woods. They're converted fridge/freezer units....no compressor and what-not...just the "rad" and fans with a thermostat and water in/out added. Typically ran drain-to-waste from the cold tap....this is of course not very environmentally friendly. A better way is to pump cooled water to/from a large rez.
You'd want a 3fan, maybe even a 4fan, for a 9K gig.
These can be built DIY as well....look into 'wood water heaters' I think it is for nice rads.

 

[tommy2snips]

...and condensation is collected in the bottom tray and there's a drain built in.

 

[queequeg152]

they are called fan coils. can be had in any number of sizes

 

[Cork144]

sounds cheaper and easier to get a minisplit AC

 

[queequeg152]

sounds cheaper and easier to get a minisplit AC

im inclined to agree.
unless you are going super green, or solar powered or something.

 

[Pangea]

Phaeton, what kind of vents do you use? Just manually adjusted to reduce the intake? or do you have a controlled damper/louver set up?

For water to air:

http://www.outdoorfurnacesupply.com/water-to-air-heat-exchangers.html

Hot water coils are the same as cold water coils, but the btu ratings are less than the heat #'s. You can also buy them with the fan ready to roll: http://www.outdoorfurnacesupply.com/hot-water-unit-heaters.html

If you want ultimate control for night time humidity as well, set up two coils, one for cooling and one for "reheating" and chuck out the dehumids along with the a/c's.

In the warmer months one can add chillers to keep their water recirc res' cold, or dtw(careful), or rig up some geothermal cooling coils underground if your able too.