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Another cooling system

  • #121
Luca,

I wouldn't suggest cutting the white wire. It is the sensor. You can't unplug it either, it is soldered to the copper coils around the water container. I think your best bet is to unplug the two wires from thermostat and either solder them together or use the wirenut rated for high voltage to be safe and atleast 5A (is there such a thing?) so it would not overheat and melt. If you cut the sensor there is no going back.
And yes, like robthered said you are playing with high voltage and high current and some expensive equipment, I also hold no liability to whatever happens.
 
  • #122
On my water cooler the sensor wire broke off and the machine runs fine. If you look at pics of my thermostat from the water cooler, you can see I just hung the thermostat off the busted thermostat wire.

img4546b.jpg
 
  • #123
well... I just got the biggest shock of my life (literally). I was unscrewing some screws on the controller thing to see if it would turn on the cooler and my pinkie drifted down and bridged the path between the red and blue wire.... it felt like my chest exploded. Anyway, after recovering from that I hooked the two cables together like so....
IMG_0245.jpg

it seems to work, the cooler has been on for hours now.
 
  • #124
think there is any danger of the water rez freezing up if left on all the time? im trying to decide if i should leave it cooling the water all the time and just have the pump hooked up to the hygrotherm or if i should have both the cooler and pump hooked up to it.
 
  • #125
what you can do is put some anti freeze of some sort in with the water. That would prevent freezing.
 
  • #126
true that. still waiting to get that dam cooler.... all my other parts are waiting to be completed. free shipping off ebay is slowwww :p
 
  • #127
what cooler are you getting?
 
  • #129
What's the wattage of these coolers?
 
  • #130
oh nice... good luck with it.
 
  • #131
What's the wattage of these coolers?

Not sure about wattage. It is drawing 4.7A when both cooler and fridge are on.

Heli said:
it felt like my chest exploded

So you did this with the unit on? Or was it a resigual charge?

mylesG said:
think there is any danger of the water rez freezing up if left on all the time? im trying to decide if i should leave it cooling the water all the time and just have the pump hooked up to the hygrotherm or if i should have both the cooler and pump hooked up to it.

You can order an additional thermostat from amazon for 50$ and let it control the temperature.
 
  • #132
That sucks you got shocked Heli. I know the feeling, I got a wicked one off my AC last year when i was re-wiring it. I forgot to unplug it lol. Wont do that again.

I think there is a chance the res will freeze up. You can add coolant but to be sure I'd suggest buying one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Controls-A19AAT-2C-Temperature-Controller/dp/B0002EAL58

It's what i'm using and it works great. You just put the probe into the res, plug the cooler into the Controller's plug and set the temp you want on the controller and you're gold.
 
  • #133
yea I forgot to turn it off.... silly me :lol:
 
  • #134
Not sure about wattage. It is drawing 4.7A when both cooler and fridge are on.
Watts = Amps x Volts

4.7A x 120V = 564W

Is that not going to work out expensive to run constantly?
 
  • #135
Watts = Amps x Volts
4.7A x 120V = 564W

Yeah that's what I calculated myself, but thought because the number was so big I did not take something into account.... Well glad that my rudimentary physics knowledge is still serving me sometimes :)

If this setup fails I'll perhaps consider doing what robthered did. Will take the coils and put them directly into a larger water container.
 
  • #136
@gil, you could also just directly vent the air from the AC into the tank. Thats what I will be doing for my future greenhouse. I am not sure how one hooks up a tube to the ac though.
 
  • #137
Hey all,

Well, here are the pics of my new contraption. It's working out great! The old water cooler idea didnt work out cause I think my setup is too large now. Anyway, now that I have about 12 liters of water in the res, it takes a long time for the water to warm up, and therefore the AC hardly ever turns on. It's turning out to be really effiecent. My AC only runs once or two an hour at the most for a 2-3 minute interval. The water temps are holding strong in the cooler. Yesterday it was about 33C while the tank was a cool 23c. Moreover, during the evening the temps were about 26c in the room, while the temp of the tank was 14c :). Temp drop is gradual too which I think the plants are really enjoying compared to last year, when I had the AC coil directly in the tank (it would drop the RH a lot and the temps would change +10c in less than 5 minutes lol). The plants lived but I dont think they enjoyed their summer last year. The new cooling setup it great! The RH hardly drops when the cooling kicks in and the temp drops are slow enough that the plants are shocked.

Anyway, onto the pics :)

Here's a pic showing the general setup. I need to get longer tubing and some new tube insulation. I had cut the current tubing to length for use with the water cooler, but now that I'm using the AC I need longer tubes. So for now the whole setup it really close to the window lol.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robthered/7273084590/" title="cooling setup by robthered, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7240/7273084590_47cca5f5a7.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="cooling setup"></a>

Here's the setup from another angle.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robthered/7273080752/" title="New cooler by robthered, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7273080752_cea0eb35f8.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="New cooler"></a>

The water temp in the cooler. It's usually 5c-10c.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robthered/7273081884/" title="water temp by robthered, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7236/7273081884_a366795271.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="water temp"></a>

The thermostat setting for the AC/cooler.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robthered/7273082834/" title="water thermostat by robthered, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7222/7273082834_bd7472d51f.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="water thermostat"></a>

Here I cut a section out of the cooler so that I could close the lid with the element inside it.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robthered/7273083698/" title="cooling element in cooler by robthered, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8149/7273083698_50edf55d6f.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="cooling element in cooler"></a>

Here's the whole setup. Like i said i need longer tubing, plus I;m getting some new chain to hang the lights right above the top of the tank. They're a little to far for my liking at the moment.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robthered/7273085716/" title="whole setup by robthered, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7239/7273085716_eb9f12a1b3.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="whole setup"></a>

Temp in the tank about 10 minutes ago.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/robthered/7273086662/" title="tank temp by robthered, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8002/7273086662_1bea8ccf50.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="tank temp"></a>

As you may know already I'm not one for clean looking setups lol.
 
  • #138
pfffft screw clean looking setups, im in it for setups that perform and perform well. I think you got that down with this contraption :D

as always, you rock :boogie: curious how much juice this'll use over time
 
  • #139
pfffft screw clean looking setups, im in it for setups that perform and perform well. I think you got that down with this contraption :D

as always, you rock :boogie: curious how much juice this'll use over time

Thanks for the kudos.

Shouldn't cost much.last summer it cost me about fourty to fifty bucks total to run my setup, and that was with the ac rad directly in the tank. The ac ran four to five times as often than compared to my new setup. so i'd assume the cost would be around ten bucks. mind u Canadian hydro prices are a lot lower than the states I think.

sent from my android
 
Last edited:
  • #140
in the room i will be growing in, there is going to be an A/C running for summer anyway keeping the room about 70-75 so i hope that my system wont have to work to to hard keeping nights 50-60. The seller on ebay told me he runs the units 7 days straight before shipping out so I guess tis a good thing that it is taking so long to arrive. Id ratehr it work well than get here a week faster n poop out on me
 
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