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Cooling a grow chamber?

Hey everybody, I've been researching ways to cool smaller areas like grow tents and chambers. I've read about mini swamp coolers (which obviously wouldn't work) wine chillers, modified chest freezers, mini AC units which pipe the air into a tent/chamber, etc. and I haven't yet found something that seems completely feasible. I'll list my questions and thoughts in order to make this easier to read.

Thoughts:
1. It seems to me that a small AC unit or cooler element would work great, if only there was a way to pipe the chilled air into the grow area.
2. I assume that ultrasonic humidifiers are the norm for highland/ultra-highland chambers, don't know if this is correct or not.

Questions:
1. What is the best solution for cooling a (relatively) small space?
2. Is it economically feasible?
3. Has anyone done this/seen this done, in an application where it actually succeeded in performing said application?

Thank you for any answers. I'd like to grow Hamata, I have seen this plant grown on windowsills and most notably under grow lights with no enclosed terrarium, and am wondering if putting Hamata in a highland chamber would make it grow significantly faster?
 
I don't see why a mini swamp-cooler would obviously not work, that said your climate is significantly more humid than mine and evaporation and therefore cooling is reduced. I've used a solar powered mini swamp cooler to help cool a small area in a greenhouse, it does fairly well on it's own and can be nearly free if you have a large computer fan laying around!

Also, you can ice the water everyday or every two days, you'll get a boost of coolness.

If you are going for a large highland chamber or need exact temperatures that can be stably maintained, then there are few substitutes for small AC units with thermostats.

-Dave
 
I don't see why a mini swamp-cooler would obviously not work, that said your climate is significantly more humid than mine and evaporation and therefore cooling is reduced. I've used a solar powered mini swamp cooler to help cool a small area in a greenhouse, it does fairly well on it's own and can be nearly free if you have a large computer fan laying around!

Also, you can ice the water everyday or every two days, you'll get a boost of coolness.

If you are going for a large highland chamber or need exact temperatures that can be stably maintained, then there are few substitutes for small AC units with thermostats.

-Dave

Yup, 50% humidity or higher here all summer. Swamp coolers, even in local commercial greenhouses, don't do much. A swamp cooler is not going to work.

Also, keep in mind that I need a significant temperature drop for the Nepenthes I plan to grow. Do you grow any highland or ultra highlanders?
I also need an AC unit that has air that can be DIRECTED into the enclosure. I can't use a large window model. I have a spare chest freezer, which I think will serve the purpose.
 
I use a chest freezer, and it does serve the purpose very well, for babys. Long term not sure growing massive plants in a chest freezer will be practical :)
 
The plants I'd want to grow would take many, many years to get massive.
 
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