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My Grow Rack Re-Pimping Project

TheFury

Oh, the humanity!!
Hi all -

I've decided to re-do my grow rack yet again. All this was undertaken with the idea of getting better ventilation and better humidity for my Nep collection that I'm slowly stepping up. Here's what I did:

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What I started with

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Step 1 - gather the supplies

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Step 2 - strip my grow rack down

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Step 3 - hit it with some mylar

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Step 4 - wrap the whole thing in opaque cellophane; tape up all holes

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Step 5 - cut the front open

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Step 6a - install the duct work on the lower shelf (this pipe brings cool air in from outside of the rack)

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Step 6b - install the duct work on the upper shelf (one pipe exhausts hot air out the top of the rack, the other is for the humidifier

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Step 7 - thick foam weather stripping

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Step 8 - hang a sheet of clear PVC

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Step 9 - hang a thick sheet of canvas over the PVC to block some light

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Step 10 - rig up both fans

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Step 11 - rig up the humidifier

And presto! With the humidifier on, RH inside the rack is 65% right now - it was in the high 40's before I started this project.

Comments or criticism welcome, please!
:banana2:
 
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Very clean, I love it. I think I need to get me some mylar to replace my space blankets. XD

One thing I'd note: Is that the humidifier tube coming in from the right side over the top of the lights? If so, two things: 1) the fog is going to greatly increase chances of rusting on the tops of the light fixtures and 2) the heat of the light fixtures will probably end up evaporating a lot of the condensed "fog" you get from the humidifier. That's not a big deal, because the humidity is still there, but some plants rather appreciate the actual wetting effect of fog. Just a thought.

I like how it almost looks like a (huge) mood light with it all closed up.
 
Thank you good sir! I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Very good point about the lights causing evaporation. The humidifier pipe is actually the one sticking into the center of the rack from the top. It opens up right at the bottom of the lights on the top shelf. Since all my Neps are on the bottom shelf, I might actually extend the humidifier pipe down to just below the lights on the bottom shelf. They'll appreciate the mist for sure; my dews on the top rack will appreciate the humidity but not the mist! Perfect!

I'm going to redo the duct work too. The pipe I have right now is 1-1/4" inner diameter. I have one 3" fan (exhaust, 36CFM) and one 4" fan (intake, 60CFM), and they just don't make enough pressure to force air through the narrowing airway. What I end up with is really weak airflow inside my rack. I'm going to step up the intake/exhaust pipes to match the diameters of the fans. That should do the trick.

It's dark in the room now and the grow rack looks awesome with the canvas in front of it. Sort of looks like one of those Japanese lanterns... only much, much bigger. :-D
 
Probably a good move to pipe the fog into the Nepenthes shelf - they will probably appreciate that change. And, yeah, like you said, the dews don't appreciate being fogged up all the time, at least not in my experience.

Moving from aquariums to terrestrial plants, I've learned that pushing air through small spaces it way more difficult than pushing water, haha. I have sort of a similar issue with a fan that pulls air in from outside at night to give me a temperature drop at night. And, hey, that might be something to consider, too. Many Nepenthes species appreciate a temperature drop at night and, as far as I know, some outright require it. You might look into piping air in from outside during the night to provide for that. Just (yet another XD ) thought.

EDIT: I noticed you're using one of those "travel" humidifiers. You've got a Smart Water bottle screwed into it. Just thought I'd mention: They add stuff back into Smart Water for taste and for the "smart" aspect (electrolytes, etc.). I don't know about TDS or if anything they add back to the water after filtering it matters, but if it does give it a moderate TDS, it'll eventually clog up the disc in the humidifier as well as start leaving "hard water" deposits on your plants. If you need an easy, cheap way to get water, I've been using the Glacier refill machines in a local grocery store. It says it's like UV filtered, carbon filtered, double RO filtered... I don't even know, but I've been using it over a year with success. And it's $1.95 for five gallons of water.
 
Your suggestions are very much appreciated, thanks! Yeah, I feel like with 60CFM in and 60CFM out, I should get some good circulation going. I would LOVE to be able to pipe air in from outside, but alas, this rack is located in my girlfriend's study on the opposite side of the room from the window (that's where her desk is). I've taken over her room enough, so I feel like running a big duct across the room would be one step too far! Heck, this is why I've given so much attention to the looks of this setup... I'm operating in borrowed space here!

The best I can do is to pipe air in from near the floor in the corner of the room (where the cooler air is), and vent hot air out from the top of the rack. That's what I'm doing now... or trying to do at least, were it not for this :censor: airflow dynamics problem I'm grappling with at the moment!

And... LOL, very good eye... catching that smart water bottle! I'm impressed. But not to worry... I drank the contents of that bottle on the way home from buying the humidifier today! It's filled with RO water. I have a cheap 3-stage under-the-sink RO unit. It does a fine job... gets the water down to less than 20 PPM. But apparently Brooklyn has very good tap water to begin with - about 35 PPM according to my TDS meter that came free with the RO unit, so probably not the most accurate of readings.....
 
nice set up.... the only extra thing i can throw into the mix to increase the flow of things is to maybe switch to standard PVC piping instead of the corrugated piping. i would think the corrugation will slow down the airflow and you might start catching/hold a good amount of water inside the pipe and grow more things. And you can try to pipe it using the least 90 degree angles as possible.

Now... i also don't know about that piping... if it is similar to pond piping.. then it could be smooth inside and be a mute point.

Also... i am not a lighting expert.. but can't you separate the ballast, which makes the heat, from the light fixtures themselves? others can chime in on that though.
 
Thanks for your suggestions! I see you're in Ohio - a great state! I went to college in Oberlin and I've been meaning to get back there sometime.

I see what you mean about the corrugation. I'm not sure how much it affects the airflow from the fans (the step-down in duct diameter is what's really getting me right now), but now that you mention it, I'm SURE the corrugation in the duct creates hundreds of little places for the water mist to condense and collect along its trip from the humidifier to my thirsty Neps. I'll add standard PVC tubing to my shopping list along with some 4" flexible duct. I do a lot of shopping here and was looking at 51135K51 for the humidifier tubing and 55335K42 for the ducts. Do you think that silicone tubing will be too flimsy? It's got a very soft durometer...

As for separating the ballasts - that's something I've been interested in for a while but I don't fancy myself much of an electrician. I'm just too afraid of having high voltage equipment OUTSIDE of the metal casing it's supposed to be in. Do you know of any good how-to guides I can look at? Maybe that would put my mind at ease, because it would definitely pay dividends in terms of temperature control!
 
i think the separate ballast thing isn't too hard... i thought they sell them that wall at the store too... instead of you having to take apart your current ones. (more $$).

You could also look at just getting the smaller CPU fans to hook up... they really can push air.

I have a ultra sonic humidifier piping into two conservatories... and the small fan in the ultra unit is enough to push the fog up 3 feet and split into both conservatories... for me it works out nice since any water just drips straight back into the ultra unit vs into the conservatories...
 
So I just took on a new project to deal with the heat from the lights. Rather than moving the ballasts to the exterior of the rack, I just installed heatsinks on the lights!

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I also added a fan to the top of the rack along with a cardboard baffle (sort of visible in this shot) that draws the heat right off the top of these heatsinks.

The temps in my rack stayed in the high 80's... approaching 90 at times... but after I finished this mod, the max temp now seems to hover around 82 degrees. Success!

I also moved my humidifier inside the rack. I figured it doesn't take up a whole lot of room and now I don't have to worry about annoying condensation in the pipe that can collect in the wrong places and grow stinky things.

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All said and done, I get temps between about 70F and 84F with humidity between 55% and 100%. Maybe I can start branching out in my Nep collection now??

Finally, I picked up one of these bad boys:

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It's an 80CFM AC-powered duct blower. This will be perfect. I find the problem with CPU fans is that their airflow spreads too quickly; waving your hand around it, the air seems to flow from it in a wide cone. So if you try to direct it all down a straight duct, they just don't have the oomph to push all the air through. I have a 4", 60CFM fan but I DEFINITELY don't feel 60CFM on the opposite side of the duct. This in-line fan should do the trick! Plus, it's only $5 more than the 4" CPU fan was at Radioshack.
 
  • #10
Simply awesome. I love it. If that were mine I would be very proud of it. I love the constant innovation/improvements on projects like this.

xvart.
 
  • #11
Thank you, I really appreciate the compliment! I certainly am proud :)

I forgot to mention... I switched the 1-1/2" diameter pipes for 4" diameter ducts for dryer exhaust. It really improved airflow for sure. That's what led me to purchase one of these 4" inline blowers... and will probably be purchasing a second soon to replace my 4" CPU fans.

Which reminds me... anyone want to trade me something for some barely-used 4" CPU fans??? :-))
 
  • #12
Ooooo, excellent! It looks good, AND it's functional! I was going to use one of those Inductor fans, but I don't have any electrical experience whatsoever and would rather not start a fire. LOL. It would be nice, though. I'm sure it'd be more effective than the ghetto rig I have now. XD
 
  • #13
Electrical experience - hang on, does it require anything else than a hookup to hot, neutral, and ground? It just has three wire leads sticking off of it. If it needs any more than that, then perhaps I'm not too comfortable installing it either!! LOL
 
  • #14
All you need is to match the colored wires but make sure you buy a heavy duty enough grounded cord to power the Inductor and appropriately large connector caps to seal all wire joins so none of the metal of the connections ever touch because crossed connections will spark and start fires.
 
  • #15
D'oh, that does sound very easy. And I assume the power cord would also be available at Home Depot?

Might have to switch out the fan I got, then, for the official thing. >.<
 
  • #16
Yeah, the inductor fan just has 3 wire leads, so make sure you get the 3 prong plug (hot, neutral, and ground). Although if it's as loud as swords says it is (haven't tested it yet) then I may have second thoughts. The Radioshack AC fans I have are actually very quiet... although not as powerful.
 
  • #17
do you have any air flow over those heat sinks to help dissipate the heat? if not, they'll just eventually stop providing much benefit. very nice project you have here. looking forward to future updates.
 
  • #18
i say open up one of the fluorescent lights and see about moving the ballasts outside you grow chambers. They are making all of you heat. From one of mine that falls apart periodically ( that i use to start garden seeds ), it looked like the ballast is just a completely separate box with the wires. They are made to be replaceable, so therefore removable. You might just have to lengthen the wiring a bit.
 
  • #19
@ zlookup - Thanks! And yeah, I've got a fan that exhausts hot air out of the top of my rack. You can see it a bit better in this pic:
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The heat sinks are on the left, the cardboard baffle is on the right, and the exhaust fan (hard to see) is directly above the baffle in the top right of the pic.

@ nevermore... maybe I'll open up one of the lights to see what they're like. I'll definitely need some longer wires. But the terminals on the ballasts themselves... how would I protect them from contact (and potential sparks)? Some sort of insulating box maybe?
 
  • #20
So here's a little update. I moved my grow rack close to the window, so I can stick the air intake duct right up against it. This will be crucial for achieving a nice temperature drop in the fall and for regulating heat during the winter... although I fear that my grow rack will remain unacceptably hot during the hot summer months (I nearly lost a bunch of plants this summer when temps in my rack approached 100F pretty regularly. Looks like the worst of the summer heat has passed now, thankfully :cool:

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Here are some S. oreophila seedlings that I've been growing. They haven't really grown in months, although they're still alive. Hoping to see a growth spurt soon. I've got them on a 16 hour photoperiod along with the rest of the plants in my rack. I'm guessing a 24-hour photoperiod would work wonders as per the "indoor Sarracenia growing year-round" sticky thread in the Sarr forum. Maybe I should try it...

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Mass' moss still growing happily :) it even sprouted some D. rotundifolia seedlings, but unfortunately they didn't survive a brief dry spell when I neglected to water the sphag cups for a week or so.

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My Lowe's Death Cube S. purpurea is loving life at the moment! Might be time to repot into a 6 or 8" pot... whaddaya think?

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Happy growing, folks!
 
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