Building a cool tube setup

[merlin2004]

]....and last but not least.........

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[pipeman]

very nice work mate and thanks for posting about it. cut off vase from crazy clarks huh? I like it.

[Frazz]

Its excellent merlin, good work mate and thanks for taking the time out to share it with us all

 

[merlin2004]

No problem..........

 

.......any ? just fire away............

[mull]

Good stuff merlin, great work

[wildflower]

cool thanks! amazing how it all fits!

just a question about the glass, what are watts of globes you use? Since the glass isnt tempered isnt it likely to crack?

great idea!

 

When you mean "turn the fan down" are you talking about the angle grinder speed?

[merlin2004]

I use 600w HPSwith the cool tubes and have and also used with a 400w.

 

A 1000w should be OK, providing you have a good fan. I use a 870L/sec and a 270L/sec fan, and when the lights are on with the 870L fan running you can touch the glass as it doesn.t get too hot.

 

As the glass heats up slowly, and cools slowly as the lights turn on or off, there is no risk of cracking.

The main danger is if you splashed water onto the glass when hot, but you wouldn't do that with your bulbs anyway, or they would shatter!

 

I cut my first 4 cool tubes with my angle grinder on full speed, but having a speed controller to plug the grinder into allows you to drop the speed of the grinder to cut down on vibration from the blade. Just check the wattage, my controller has a 500w limit, and my grinder is 500w.

[wildflower]

cool hey, im thinking of buying a dremal myself, should be able to do it with an attachment.

what i like about cool tubes is

*orientation, you place them at any angle.

*efficient air flow, air is constrained to a limited space and therefore efficiently placed over the bulb at all times.

 

Right now i have a custom air tight hood with a glass plate, but its a box shape, so air doesnt efficently cool the bulb. still keeps things very cool, even through summer. I also completely seperate the box/room vents from the light/box vent.

ok now im into it...

this is my reason.

hot air doesnt filter stench as well as cool air..thats the theory anyhow, and i agree with it.

actually i think its the carbon that filters better at lower temps..i forget.

 

So an air tight hood/light setup with no filters..venting air just passing in and out, works really well for me.

Its stench free hot air - heat the house in winter

 

You then have seperated filtered (carbon whatever) vents for the main box, of course you have seperate fans etc, But for 2 different purposes.

 

One is to cool the globe the other is to MOVE THE VOLUME OF AIR OUT/IN of the main grow area and also balance with the outside ambient temps.

 

My logic is since they have 2 completely different purposes, they should be seperated.

 

thanks for the plans! always wanted a cool tube..its the only way!

[merlin2004]

Sorry 'bout the bodgy hand drawn pic........

 

 

 

 

I have drawn a pic of my “filter box “and how it works.

 

The cool tubes are ducted into corflute lining on the underside of the floor joists above.

This air can pass long the cavity between the joists where it is drawn into the top of the filter box by ducting.

Two options here are, as in the top picture, on the left side to duct the air through only into the top cavity

…….or to duct through the top cavity (as in the right side of pic 1) into the second level and bypass the filter. This is only a option if you seal off all your ducting joins so the cool tube system is not sucking any air from the room, and smell with it.

 

My preferred option is to allow the ducting to leak at the joins to each cool tube, and remove any passive heat as well as creating a negative pressure.

I also have flaps cut into the corflute and these can be opened or closed to vary the airflow through the room and increase negative pressure.

 

I use zeolite as it seems just as good as carbon at smell removal. Is reusable forever, costs about $15 for 5kg. Carbon is for fish tanks, in small amounts.

( at $15k or whatever!)

 

As far as I know, carbon is not affected by temperature, but high humidity will render it useless. Zeolite doesn’t have this problem.

 

It's a great multi purpose and variable system, especially with a drying rack in the top!

 

By the way wildflower, Dremels with those small 20mm diamond blades are useless for cutting the glass....been there........the diamond chips are too fine for the amount of glass to cut.

[pipeman]

wow that looks like a very nice setup mate. and using the air space in your carbon filter for drying is also a great idea. first time I've seen that so if you thought that up yourself congrats on a very original and efficient solution.

 

and thanks for the info on zeolite too. If you could tell me where this can be purchased it would be most appreciated.

 

cheers,

pipe