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Possible cooling breakthrough!

Hello all,
Here is a plan that I have created using some research of cooling properties and some of my own planning:

1) The idea: Create a "wind" of super-humidified air that blows across the plants, and is then removed through an exaust fan on the other side of the growchamber to cool even more.

2) The tools: PVC piping, 2 computer fans, ultrasonic fogger, and enclosure for ultrasonic fogger.

3) The principles: Evaporative cooling, cooling through wind, cooling through exaust of warm air

4) The plan: Plan


5) Suggestions? Ideas or improvements? Has anyone tried this same thing? I know a while back somebody did a fog insert system with piping, but I don't remember a cooling system...

THANKS!
 ~LM
 
I laud the creativity. Congrats!
 
That's similar to what someone (swords?) here uses, except i think his is a bit more industrial-scale.

You'll have a hard time getting a strong flow with the computer fans, unless they're unusually large and/or powerful computer fans.

I bought an AC 'muffin fan' (think large computer fan), and combined with a clothes dryer lint kit, it blows dampened outside air into my highland terrarium, which is vented on the opposite side.

The main difference is that i have a limited supply of distilled water, so i didn't want to use an ultrasonic humidifier.  Therefore, my system simply blows the outside air over a pool of tap water (hence the dryer 'lint trap').  It's moderately effective, and doesn't have to be refilled or cleaned as often.

In the winter i simply collected the air from between the double windows, so as to avoid blowing sub-zero air onto the plants.
smile.gif
 
here is a suggestion: Replace the two computer fans with a koolance computer cooler:
ext-a04_02.jpg


there are others, more powerful... would they work?
 
Spec, i think that works via thermoelectric cooling (Peltier effect).  It's not very efficient compared to an AC, and there are little thermoelectric aquarium chillers that are probably cheaper.

No, if you're going to spend any significant amount of money on a highland grow chamber, might as well go with the modified chest freezer or redirected AC flow.
 
That looks like it may work just fine Lman. I say go for it, perhaps buy a stronger AC fan though....PC fans won't give you "the breeze" needed for an evaportive effect, would want the fog to be sucked out of the terrarium, not lying on the plants.
 
Not really sure how much cooling you will see from an ultrasonic humidifier. I can't imagine the cooling effect to be all that much but I am only taking an educated guess..

Blowing humidified air into a grow chamber will certainly help with heat build up from lights and what not though. And if this is an issue now it might make a significant difference during the day. But don't think your going to get much of a drop over ambient air temperature.
T

ps.. get rid of that green I can barely read it ;p
 
Well,
Thanks for the comments thus far! I forgot to state that my fans are actually the AC type muffin fans, because I was just trying to provide a good description for what I might like to try...

D. muscipula, how much of a cooling effect do you get from that set-up?

Swords uses similar, but with air-conditioning in the mix as well...

Spec, looks nice, but perhaps very big compared to the peltier unit I built for testing a few months ago.

All in all, I just like to think outside the box, because I already am able to cool at night, but always like to try new methods!

~LM
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P.S. Just testing a new color...
 
Actually, the purpose of the setup is to make sure that i can keep the terrarium at least at outside temperatures at night.  My room is the top floor, western corner, with windows facing SSW and WNW.  It gets awfully warm in here when the sun is shining, and takes a while to cool down.

I couldn't say how much the evaporation from the reservoir lowers the temperature from ambient, especially since the temperature and humidity vary all the time (Boston weather).  When it's hot it's usually also pretty humid, so probably not very much.

I have a deactivated lab equipment cooler that may or may not be functional.  I plan to set it up to cool the water in the reservoir to 10C at night starting in a couple weeks.  So far this 'summer', it's been getting to 15C in the terrarium at least every other night.  Daytimes it can occasionally rise to 28C or even a bit higher if it's a hot day.
 
  • #10
I would be very curious to find out how well that setup would work here with the low humidity and air-conditioned house... I also am trying to figure out ways to cool the air that contains the fog, perhaps with one of these lab chillers? How expensive do you think they run? (I know yours was a gift)
Or I could use my peltier setup to cool the enclosure that houses the fogger, then have cold fog blow through? Does that sound like it could win a few more degrees?
Thanks,
~LM~
 
  • #11
There are some on Ebay (search for NesLab).  Probably more money than you want to spend.  It's definitely not the cheapest way to do what you're trying to do.

Unless you're trying to reach ultrahighland temperatures, if you live in an air-conditioned house, simple evaporative cooling should be adequate.

Taking air to be a diatomic, ideal gas, and making a bunch of other assumptions, i estimate that to decrease the temperature 8*C from an initial temperature of 20*C and relative humidity of 30%, you'd have to increase the relative humidity to 80% (relative at 12*C, of course).  That seems to make evaporative cooling a little too effective to my intuition, so maybe i messed up.  But anyway, there ya go.  The point is that evaporation of water is a very effective way to cool something.  Who needs more than 10*C change?

I did, however, not consider the heat added to the water as the ultrasonic humidifier 'atomizes' it.  That will obviously reduce your net cooling somewhat.

If you want to cool the the water first, that will be of some use, but there's really no comparison with the effect you can get from evaporation of water.

Make sure you're not cooling the saturated air after humidifying it... that way you're just putting in work to condense some of the water, instead of cooling it further.
 
  • #12
I'll have to take the condensation facts into consideration... I already grow and cool my ultrahighlanders wonderfully, but I always like to try new things, so we'll see how well it works... The growchamber is generally about 70-80% humidity, so I don't know how much room there is for cooling, but since it is force-fed air it might be different. If any of you are car maniacs like me, a simple way to put this is that it functions similar to a supercharged (forced induction) engine. I think this is getting way outta hand... I'M LOVING IT!!
biggrin.gif

~LM~
 
  • #13
Cool plan, but you're gonna need lots of space for that + equipment $. I already have the mister, now I just need the 2 fans and the PVC pipe. I thought of something like that (a random cooling device with fans + mister placed) anywhere, but didn't actually get it into a system like your. Good job! Might try it if can afford...
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Jason

Ps. I thought evaporative cooling only cuts the temps by only a few degrees C?
 
  • #14
Thanks for the comments Jason!

While that is true, with lights off, temps fall 1-2*C, then the AC cools another 2-3*C, with the evaporative reducing even a few more. Certainly I won't use this for my villosa, rajah, aristolochiodes, etc., maybe some people can use it for slightly less demanding areas...

Also, PVC is relatively cheap, as are the fans. You should be able to buy two fan setups for aroun $18 USD, and enough PVC for about $5 USD.
Thanks
~Lithopsman~
 
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