I was going to buy them, because I was thinking the duct connectors were going to be a bitch to make, but now that you showed me that I can save $100 per ice box I'll probably make them like you are, looks really simple and because I'm planning on doing one for each light this will save me a bunch of money. I'm thinking I'm going to go with co2 tanks rather than a generator, is ther a big difference as far a efficiency, and price?
Big difference in efficiency, price, and available too... No big deal going up once a month to refill a 6gal propane tank, now do that with a Co2 tank.. Like the store a block away has a $25 exchange... Done deal, yep we're cooking out today or sure I BBQ in the winter....
Couldn't I just add one more ice box on the same run as the lights blowing into the room, so it would go light-ice box- fan- ice box so the same fan for the lighting ice box as the room ice box?
Would the 18 k chiller still be enough if I went with a generator instead of tanks? Doesn't your generator produce something like 12 k btu's?
3K to 12K.... It's hardest hit is going to be when you fire up, after it fills the room with Co2, then it's going to only come on and off for minutes... I have mine set to 1500 with a 100 deadband... So on at 1400 and off at 1500 and by time it gets around the room, I'm like 1700-1800ppm.... That lasts for about an hour or so before it drops back low enough to fire again... Meanwhile, the chiller has already recovered in between the Co2 BTU hits...
So I was thinking of doing it the way Hydro Innovations showed it in their video, they had an ice box on the exhaust side if each light and then one more in the same line just for the room. Do you think the extra ice box for the room is needed?
Well the cool thing about this, if you do need more, you can always make another and add it to the end... Like when you build the manifold out, I'd add a couple/few extra ports... For future lights or maybe a stand alone, or add a couple more to the end, whatever...
Ok, so my friend brought two units, one was 12k the other was 10k The fan on the 12 k was fryed, but the 10k works fine. Do you think 10k would work for what I need to cool? He said there is an 18 k at the shop that he will try to get for me tomorrow, but who knows. So do you think 10k is sufficient. How fast will the water flow over the evap?? It seems like the water would have to flow very slowly to cool it. Any thoughts on this??
All of these big number talk!! With my little 5k probably will have to buy a 10k unit for summer time
Hopefully I will get the 18k today, but either way it ain't cheap (electricity). 10 k btu window unit draws about 10 amps at 120 volts, that's 1200 watts. So the way I see this you want the bigger unit so you don't have to run 1200 watts constantly. You want the chiller to really chill the the water in the res so that it only runs on periodically. No matter what the pump will run all the time when lights are on, but if water in res is super cooled then the chiller will only need to run periodicly. IMO that a bigger unit is going to need to run less being more efficient. So I think the bigger unit is going to be way more efficient, because the water will be colder
It's a balance of on time and start up time.... Because it draws most of it's power on the start up, so to have it start up 60 times an hour would be worse than running an hour... IMPO you want the system to handle everything at 75-80% capacity of the unit... I personally feel this is the best balance of running time and starting times...
Hey man I have both 250 and 400 gph water pumps, do I need the 400 or the 250 ok? Also should I use some antifreeze in the res? Any kind of treatment?
The slower you push the water the better heat transfer you'll get, so I'd say the 250, and I run a 40gph in mine...... Antifreeze actually lowers the heat transfer properties of water, so I just change my water once a month, and use Pool Shock, mixing it to 1 gram per gallon of water.... All the metal which is in the water will rust, but again, I keep the water changed and been running about a year now.... There are corrosion inhibitors which you can buy, but again, anything you add to the water is going to lower it's heat transfer properties....
Also my room is top floor so I have my carbon filter and exhaust from the lights in the attic. Do you think I could put the unit in the attic and just run the line down to the coil in the res?