Stealthy Garage Water Cooled Flower Chamber

[riverrat]

PS. Good to hear your growtronix system is up and running.

It's been a love /hate relationship with the Growtronix system, not because anything wrong with the equipment per-see as much is how I have it configured. I use relays to control main power to the grow and every so often the system will drop offline for a sec or two, which will kick off all power and knock out my HPS lights. The hardware seems quite prone to EMI interference. I love the flexibility the system gives you, but you have to baby it.

RR

 

[smoke1sun]

excellent lookin grow man, very stealthy.

 

[Gr8StonedDragon]

Very cool.

I don't know if this is feasible or not but, if you cool the supplied air down past the temp where you want it then heat it back up it will have a lower relative humidity. I don't know if you knew that or not. I don't mean to offend. I think most a/c's take it down to near 50-60F then heat it back up. I've never really worked on one. Just read about it.

If you're seeing water condensing out of the air and you don't heat it back up, the air will be pretty much saturated with moisture. Which is what you're dealing with i assume.

Other than that have you thought about dessicant dehumidification? You know that silica gel stuff that comes in packaged food. You can put it in the airflow and it will absorb moisture. The air coming back out will take the moisture back in. Also provides some cooling i think. Check it out.

 

[Jumbly Returns]

brilliant use of the freezer.

 

[Gr8StonedDragon]

I think if I were allow the water in the freezer to freeze into a block and pump coolant through a copper coil encased in the ice, the compressor would not run as much but I don’t really know.

I’m going to keep the system online until I get the air based system installed and tinker with it and see how efficient I can get it.

RR

I think this is a good idea. A thin copper coil. Allow for max surface area and contact time for heat transfer.

Making a solution so you can get it as cold as possible sounds good.

Maybe something stirring the water around too so the coil gets fresh cold solution contact.

 

[riverrat]

I actually don’t really think this mod would make much difference, my scientific mind (limited as it is), tells me that, the chamber generates X number of BTUs of heat per hour that has to be removed. The freezer compressor is capable of removing X number of BTU’s per hour from the water/ice.
I don’t see that the “working temp” of the system if you will, will make much difference in the run time of the freezer. But it will be an interesting experiment, providing I can find about 50 feet of copper coil that won’t cost me an arm and a leg.

RR

 

[riverrat]

I think most a/c's take it down to near 50-60F then heat it back up. I've never really worked on one. Just read about it..

That’s how a dehumidifier works; it first cools the air by passing it through a cold heat exchanger (called an evaporator) which condenses the moisture out of it, then heats it up again by passing it through another heat exchanger (called a condenser). An A/C unit circulates inside air only through the evaporator, and the condenser is cooled with a fan by outside air. If you just put a dehumidifier in a closed system, it will heat up the air because the air coming out of the unit will always be warmer than the air going in. I’ll have to add an A/C to the closed loop the cool the air coming out of the dehumidifier back down to an acceptable level.

Other than that have you thought about desiccant dehumidification? You know that silica gel stuff that comes in packaged food. You can put it in the airflow and it will absorb moisture. The air coming back out will take the moisture back in. Also provides some cooling i think. Check it out.

I thought about it for a sec or two, but I’d need a lot of it to pull the water the plants are giving off out of the air, and it would have to be replaced often so I don’t think it would work very well.

RR

 

[Gr8StonedDragon]

hope you get it working :]

 

[stoney419]

Pulling up a chair for this I love the set up

 

[knifehitz]

I can't tell, is the room vented at all? Or are there just circulation fans that pull through carbon scrubbers? I could understand how you wouldn't need to vent, with the chiller setup you have running. However, if you didn't ventilate at all, I would really suggest you look in to some sort of CO2 enrichment. Half the reason we vent the cab is heat, the other half is replenishing CO2.

By the looks of your grow, I'm sure you've thought all that through before, I'm just looking for some info. Peace,

 

[Dr420CloneX]

Excellent Setup. Im thinking about going this route for more convinience. but looks expensive.