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Energy Crisis

  • #41
I have no idea what it would cost, but I am sure that one is available somewhere........

After my wifes back surgery, she was sent home with an "ice water recirculator" I AM SURE THAT IS NOT WHAT IT IS CALLED. It was a small cooler filled with ice then filled with water. The cooler had a pump that would circulatethe ice water through a chambered ice pack that was flexable and could be lted to her. The ice pack resembled a small air mattress. It had an adjustment knob on the top so that you could adjust the flow, hence being able to control the temp off the pack due to heat exchange. Depending upon the size of the cooler, size of the Ice Mattress and the size of the area you need to cool, one could probably be made for less than $100. Just my two cents and that can't even buy bubble gum anymore. Good luck and I will be cheering for you.
 
  • #43
mass said:
Everyone knows I hate S. minor.
Click to expand...

:ohno: HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!!!!



i love S. minor...:blush:





anyways, i have been thinking about getting a GH myself , and all kinds of heating/cooling solutions have been running through my head, including hooking up one of the houses 2 central heating/cooling units to the GH. this would be totally impractical in my case, as the GH would be outside(and i doubt my parents would approve), but it might work for you!
 
  • #44
Hey Larry, how're we holding up?
What's an OGF'er?
No discounts, we've already asked.

OGF'er....Oregon Green Free Member;)
 
  • #45
Good luck with whatever potential solution you choose. This hot spell is ensuring my basement plants are being heat stressed more than any other time in the past 5-6 years. Frequently the temps drop enough at night that I can stick fans in the basement windows and cool things down again to offset the few degrees heat gain during the day. However, recently even that has not been an option ... so the heat gain is cumulative .... :0o: :censor:
 
  • #46
Mass, I grow my plants on the top floor of my house. It gets in to the 90*s often enough during the summer. Some can take it, and some don't, I kill lots of plants in my experimentation, but I keep trying. Don't give up! There is a solution for everything.

I take it that winter is not an issue, because you can just pump in cool air?

If so, is it possible for you to switch to a grow shelf/chamber that is easier to cool than your current setup? To use a smaller AC and fewer lights?

Have you made the interior surfaces of your setup as reflective as possible? I mean, just plaster everything in aluminum foil so you can reduce the number of lights you use. Do you really need all those fans? Can you reduce the number and just be more careful of where you put them, and use a diffuser?

What about the humidifiers? Can you make one big one that uses less power? Like Kyle has in his setup?

Don't use ice bottles, it will freeze the soil, and make the temps unstable throughout a large space. I just killed my nice SG regia the other day by freezing it to death.

Can you make a cooling recirculator? Like in Kyle's photo? Use a bathtub or cattle water trough as a heat sink, then run water through pipes that run through it. Because you have AC the water in the trough will stay cool, and if you run a fan through an old car radiator, you should get cool enough air coming out.

Swamp cooler?

Bins of dry ice?

Liquid nitrogen poured onto your plants?


Godspeed buddy, I really hope you solve your problems.
 
  • #47
travis that setup with fan and coil will work better if you cover the coil with wet cloth
 
  • #48
Prolonged heat/warm at night is becoming a pisser for me as well in the basement. I finally had enough and closed off my outside vents and opened another duct in the central ac. That should help with the night time temp drops I am looking for. I have a few drosera giving me the stink eye right now. :suspect:
 
  • #49
It just keeps getting worse. We lost power 3 days ago. Still no power here until Monday at the earliest. And it's been 100*F every darn day. The house is heating up something fierce. Already lost $300 worth of food in the fridge. Not sure how much longer the plants can hold out in the elevating temps, no light, and lack of airflow.
Guess it just wasn't meant to be.
 
  • #50
Bro! Don't give up! Don't get rid of plants! Make them grow! Or grow them to death! Go Macgyver those things... You will be surprised by what some plants can take...
 
  • #51
Im with Peatmoss here don't give up man!! Spraying the tops of the plants with water every 30 min or so certainly helps. How did you loose power? Did a power line snap Im assuming? According to studies N. Macrophylla can live as a intermediate for a certain time while still pitchering and growing. I just got a doghouse AC unit (yeah, they do exist) which Im using to keep the Nepenthes cool. Maybe you could use this for consuming less power? Ill have to check into how much it consumes.
 
  • #52
How is he going to use a ac unit without any electricity? :lol:
 
  • #53
On a serious note..give them a serious misting and pop the windows in the greenhouse as well as the windows in the room. Give it the best drop you can at night Travis.
 
  • #54
So, you are using a room AC to cool a greenhouse that is inside your house? The main problem I see with that, is it is cooling the greenhouse while pumping the heat into the room the greenhouse is in (your house) and then your house is having to cool that air. Is that what you have going on? You could move the g/h to the window so the AC is pumping the hot air out of the house completely out the window, then the room ac would actually be maybe helping cool your house (after it is done taking care of the heat your lights are making) and I would think that would be quite a difference in electricity use overall.
good luck in whatever you try! And mostly at this point, getting your power back.
Andrew
 
  • #55
Rig up some coolers. I think i'd put some ice water in the bottom, keeping the plants up above the water. Do that during the day and then maybe at night when it cools put them under some lights.
 
  • #56
Heya Andrew! I believe Mass is using a "portable" air conditioner in which the heat is vented to the outside via exhaust duct mounted in the outside rooms window.
 
  • #57
Oh, not quitting or giving up by any means. Just not a whole lot I can do to prevent their demise. Well that's not true, I'm going to scoop up some of the more sensitive stuff and bring them back to my mother's A/C. I was more or less just venting publically about how miserable it is out here after the tornado brush.
On the iPhone now, so I'll respond to everything once I get back to mother's.
Smitty is correct on the venting.
 
  • #58
WE HAVE POWER!! :boogie:

By the looks of it a ceph and all of the cape giant propagations were the only things to perish.
A few neps popped some pitchers open a bit early.
The dews are all stretched out struggling to find some light.
And there's a bunch of mildew around the GH.
Other than that.. we're back in business.
 
  • #59
Great to hear Travis, can the dews be made happier just getting em a bit closer to the light?
 
  • #60
Vbkid said:
Great to hear Travis, can the dews be made happier just getting em a bit closer to the light?
Click to expand...

They'll be fine. The new growth is just a bit more extended and longer than the old. You can tell they were stretching for light.
 
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