Water chiller made from dehumidifier systematized plan

Ok do it yourself folk. This is what I'm throwing together tonite. Already built the water chiller out of an old humidifier last night. Tonite I plan on connecting the two reservoirs and building the ductwork. Might end up needing an inline fan to help push the air out, we'll see how that goes. Question is, what are the odds that thermosiphoning will be sufficient to keep water circulating without a pump? Guess there's one way to find out!

How did it go.

Good Question.

ChrisDuke said:

View attachment 3776161
Ok do it yourself folk. This is what I'm throwing together tonite. Already built the water chiller out of an old humidifier last night. Tonite I plan on connecting the two reservoirs and building the ductwork. Might end up needing an inline fan to help push the air out, we'll see how that goes. Question is, what are the odds that thermosiphoning will be sufficient to keep water circulating without a pump? Guess there's one way to find out!

Click to expand...

Up date man the suspense is killing me . And I don't quiet understand the process dose the water circulate around the cooling core in the dehumidifier .

I would vote not so good .

Well, it went. Lol.
Actually guys, I decided to completely redo my entire setup. I ended up ditching my big 35 gallon tote res in favor for making up a RDWC with five gallon buckets. My main reasoning was that I rarely grew out more than three plants under my 400W, and I want to be able to move them around, at least just a bit. So I'm using five buckets: three to grow in, one as a return res, and the fifth I have the cooling coils from the dehumidifier in. Been playing with bagseed in it for a couple of weeks, just seeing how well all three grow buckets exchange water with the small pond pump I'm using. Just got some WW, LSD, BC, and Red Diesel beans a week ago, so germing a lsd and ww right now. Still need to clean the room up though. So.... that's how it went.

ChrisDuke said:

Well, it went. Lol.
Actually guys, I decided to completely redo my entire setup. I ended up ditching my big 35 gallon tote res in favor for making up a RDWC with five gallon buckets. My main reasoning was that I rarely grew out more than three plants under my 400W, and I want to be able to move them around, at least just a bit. So I'm using five buckets: three to grow in, one as a return res, and the fifth I have the cooling coils from the dehumidifier in. Been playing with bagseed in it for a couple of weeks, just seeing how well all three grow buckets exchange water with the small pond pump I'm using. Just got some WW, LSD, BC, and Red Diesel beans a week ago, so germing a lsd and ww right now. Still need to clean the room up though. So.... that's how it went.

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So you are actually circulating the chilled water then? I had doubts that relying on thermal movement would actually work.

Budley Doright said:

So you are actually circulating the chilled water then? I had doubts that relying on thermal movement would actually work.

Click to expand...

Budley, I am.
I do think the thermal movement might have "worked", to a degree anyway, but you're probably right that it wouldn't work very well. Might be a future project down the road for shits and grins.

I'm known to do a bit of water chilling, myself.

When I ran RDWC, I kept the cooling circuit water separate from nutrient water, it's much better for everything this way.

To circulate the cold, I placed a copper water to water heat exchange coil in my control bucket. The pump feeding the waterfalls in every RDWC tubsite drew its water from the control bucket and water returned there from the tubs via 1" flexible tubing and gravity. This worked great to maintain the desired water temperature in the RDWC.

Since I had kept my cooling water separate, I could and still do use that same system to service water cooled air handlers for environmental control. These not only cool the air but remove moisture by condensation.

I'm also pumping cooling water from the cooling system through my COB LED lights, not only to remove excess heat from the grow room but also to encourage optimum performance from the LED chips; it turns out that the colder you can keep them, the more efficiently they operate!

How long is the copper is it 1/2" or 3/8," 1/4" and how fast is the pump running. Or should I ask what size is the pump?
Thanks and peace out Bare

ttystikk said:

I'm known to do a bit of water chilling, myself.

When I ran RDWC, I kept the cooling circuit water separate from nutrient water, it's much better for everything this way.

To circulate the cold, I placed a copper water to water heat exchange coil in my control bucket. The pump feeding the waterfalls in every RDWC tubsite drew its water from the control bucket and water returned there from the tubs via 1" flexible tubing and gravity. This worked great to maintain the desired water temperature in the RDWC.

Since I had kept my cooling water separate, I could and still do use that same system to service water cooled air handlers for environmental control. These not only cool the air but remove moisture by condensation.

I'm also pumping cooling water from the cooling system through my COB LED lights, not only to remove excess heat from the grow room but also to encourage optimum performance from the LED chips; it turns out that the colder you can keep them, the more efficiently they operate!

Click to expand...

ttystikk said:

I'm known to do a bit of water chilling, myself.

When I ran RDWC, I kept the cooling circuit water separate from nutrient water, it's much better for everything this way.

To circulate the cold, I placed a copper water to water heat exchange coil in my control bucket. The pump feeding the waterfalls in every RDWC tubsite drew its water from the control bucket and water returned there from the tubs via 1" flexible tubing and gravity. This worked great to maintain the desired water temperature in the RDWC.

Since I had kept my cooling water separate, I could and still do use that same system to service water cooled air handlers for environmental control. These not only cool the air but remove moisture by condensation.

I'm also pumping cooling water from the cooling system through my COB LED lights, not only to remove excess heat from the grow room but also to encourage optimum performance from the LED chips; it turns out that the colder you can keep them, the more efficiently they operate!

Click to expand...

Yeah man, I took the easier route for now, but that's how I'd like to a system in the future. Right now I just use my chiller bucket as needed. It's elevated, so basically I pump the water from my control bucket up to my chiller bucket, and it gravity feeds back to the control after the chill bucket fills. I really think the closed loop method of your setup is the way to go though.

Bareback said:

How long is the copper is it 1/2" or 3/8," 1/4" and how fast is the pump running. Or should I ask what size is the pump?
Thanks and peace out Bare

Click to expand...

I grabbed a coil of 1/2" OD copper HVAC tubing, wrapped it around a round buck so the coil would fit inside the 5 gallon control bucket. I forget exactly what length but something like 10-15'.

Thanks

ttystikk said:

I'm known to do a bit of water chilling, myself.

Click to expand...

Lol....understatement of the year.