Cooling methods

[The Griffin]

Tamlin,

I will look for it. It is hidden in the dungeon-er, I mean the basement. I was only $20, if you can believe that. I also got a fog machine for the same price. It's for Halloween special effects, but I thought it might do the job. The brand name escapes me, but if you do a search on their website, you might be able to find it there.

Cheers,

Joe

 

[Tony Paroubek]

Coleman and igloo and all the big cooler companies now make small coolers that will hold a few sixpacks of soda. They will run on either 120 or 12volt and use peltiers to keep the soda cool while the cooler is in the car and not require ice. Someone used one of these to build a small highland chamber by removing the lid. Essentially like using the chest freezer but on smaller scale. My thoughts are still that you will need a whole lot of peltiers to effectively cool a noninsulated terrarium which makes thermoelectric cooling impractical and expensive compared to refrigeration/AC systems.
Tony

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

AHhh, peltier cooled. I see. I have pretty much abandoned the peltier concept. I have an engineer friend working on this in Brazil (he needs it to be able to grow many of the cool loving plants, ironically which are from Brazil!) and we are pretty much decided that the water cooler method with a circulating pump and filter will probably be the most economic and feasible approach. That way, the terrarium itself doesn't have to be cooled, only the substrate. There will be a temperature control placed in the medium to switch on the pump after a certain degree rise in the substrate. This will be a substrate terrarium vs one to hold pots since the water willl circulate from the base and be replaced. This should remedy some of the faults in such a closed system and make a healthy substrate terrarium possible. I need this to be able to cultivate Heliamphora. My plants are all but dead again, and I feel I can't win with them without the terrarium. Grrrr. The problem with indoor growing Heli's is they either sit there and do nothing (not enough energy in the tubes for them I think, esp. shining through the glass of the tank), or they dry up outside without the needed high humidity. Such are the agonies of not owning a GH.

 

[Jason Wong]

Hmmm, what exactly are AC systems?

 

[lithopsman]

Air Conditioning...

 

[The Griffin]

AC are air conditioner systems.
The person I heard of using a stripped down condenser , I think put styrofoam all around the tank, too. Not much to look at, but I am sure it was better insulated.

Joe