Climate controlled grow fridge

I believe that allowing the lights to cool separately from the grow space is making a huge difference and the keystone to whether or not this type of build would work.

Roughed in the glass. Still have to trim everything out and seal it so it looks good. Did an extreme test to see what the reeferator can do. Let it get to 105f inside with lights on and no cooling in just 20 minutes, real hot real fast.outside ambient was 80f. Turned cooling on and system pulled to target temp (69f) in 15 minutes. With temp probe in the air, temp swings a bit to fast for me,climbing up 4 degrees at about 1 degree per minute, I dont like the compressor to short cycle, so I placed probe into a small bottle of glycol. That way the fluctuations of the fluid are much more gradual. Reading showing a slow climb from 69 up to 74 over the course of 20 minutes, then a 3 minute compressor cycle to pull the temp back down.

Started trimming out the light installation, sealed glass with adhesive foam gasket. Began building up and correcting the center foam areas where I cut out the freezer/fridge partition. Also starting cleaning up the spaghetti wire mess into some semblance of a wire harness. Going to build a small enclosure over hole in the top of the fridge and add maybe 2 pc fans to push air across lights heatsinks to aid with cooling and heat exhaust. I didnt want fans, but I also dont want a jagged gaping hole so it's the tradeoff for a clean looking prototype vs a hack job lol.it should still be more or less silent as the fans are small and wont need to run at full speed.

Looking good pal!

Wonder what humidity will b like
And if there will be any condensation issues

This is an interesting project. I'l be watching this thread. Hope it works works for you. But like weed- whacker^^ i wonder what the RH will be like

Now that the lights are finished, sealed and taken care of, I can focus on humidity control. After letting the systemstabilize, I've logged the data for 24 hours. Humidity is drawn down low 20% and rises in sync with the temperature. This is expected, as that's the nature of relative humidity. I will be adding a humidistat and vaporizing system to Bring my RH up during the seedling and veg stage. Then I may just leave the lower RH where it's at during flower. Also, once the hydroponic reservoir is inside, the RH may come up naturally

So far condensation is not an issue, the evaporator on its cooling cycle draws moisture out of the air and on defrost all that moisture drains into the condensate pan under the fridge.

Nice job mate

Always liked the idea of a fridge grow.

2 things to consider.

1. You can remove that driver form the LED and mount it remotely on the back or top of the fridge to take some of the heat out of the situation.
2. Don't put your thermometer under your light. Shade it from light to properly measure air temps.

Sorry if you covered the first point and I missed it, only quickly skimmed though.

I like your style!!

coreywebster said:

Always liked the idea of a fridge grow.

2 things to consider.

1. You can remove that driver form the LED and mount it remotely on the back or top of the fridge to take some of the heat out of the situation.
2. Don't put your thermometer under your light. Shade it from light to properly measure air temps.

Sorry if you covered the first point and I missed it, only quickly skimmed though.

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Thanks for the heads up! I'll place the temp probe under some shade and take another set of readings!

Started roughing in the thermostat housing

Almost finished correcting the center partition. After it's all smoothed out I'll finish with some fiberglass resin and paint white.
Next up I'll install the humidistat and humidifier. And work on modular shelving so I can raise my plants to the light to maintain optimal canopy height.still need to figure out what hydroponic style will work best and find a co2 controller.

The holidays have things going slower than I want, but as i wait for some parts to come in from china, i found this gem on ebay. Bought it for 40 bucks, which beats the heck out of paying 200-300 dollars for a co2 controller. It seems a bit out of calibration but i have nitrogen tanks at the house so i will nitrogen calibrate to zero, then it should be fine. Not much i can do until the humidistat comes in the mail. The cooler weather is making curing times of fiberglass resin and other compounds take forever.. just a few basic components left. An oscillating mini tower fan, a shelving system, wifi camera, door lock and humidifier/dehumidifier. After that the fridge is done. And I can look for ideas on type of hydroponic system I want. I have no experience in hydroponics so this will be a real challenge.

Very nice work. I really like how you finished off that center vertical seam. If you don't mind me asking, how did you do that?

MrFlatbush said:

Very nice work. I really like how you finished off that center vertical seam. If you don't mind me asking, how did you do that?

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Thanks! I used joint compound because it's easy to work with and for 10 bucks for a 5 gallon bucket,you cant beat it..to build up the dividing wall seam until I had things smooth and somewhat natural looking, basically just filled in on top the foam until things were even. But joint compound is porous and brittle when dry, it also dissolves if wet so it's not a suitable exposed wall unless sealed first so I finished it with a couple coats of fiberglass resin to make it rock hard and waterproof. It was simple because joint compound is extremely forgiving, and can basically be formed or sanded into any shape you want. Great stuff to work with when fabricating. But a topcoat of some type of epoxy, polymer, or resin. Is a must to make it permanent. Now I can prime and paint white to match and it should look like the fridge was built this way lol

Very clever. Thanks for the detailed reply. So the fiberglas has no problem adhering to your base layer of joint compound? I'm going to have to remember this one for future projects. Good luck with the rest of the build. I'll be tagging along.

MrFlatbush said:

Very clever. Thanks for the detailed reply. So the fiberglas has no problem adhering to your base layer of joint compound? I'm going to have to remember this one for future projects. Good luck with the rest of the build. I'll be tagging along.

Click to expand...

It sticks just fine. I got the idea from a car forum,Apparently it's a popular technique with guys who build custom speaker boxes for cars. Just have to do a final wipe of the joint compound with a damp sponge to remove any dust.

Painting is done and humidistat is installed.