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Sea of Green: Get a harvest every 2 weeks


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I went fan shopping and found that the box fans with rotating vanes were too pricey ($30-35 per, and I need at least 5), considering the (max 12 mos) lifespan of cheep Chinese fans in a grow op.

 

Decided to hang a standard $14, 40cm osc fan upside down and see how well it worked. Been hanging upside down for a week now and it is still going OK.

 

Didn't mess with making up any fancy brackets; I just removed the cross-bar stand from the bottom of the fan's telescoping vertical post and ran screws through the post's flange into a 2x4 screwed to the room's ceiling. Piece o' pie... so far, anyway.

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Thanks, billo. :bow:

 

The ordinary $14, 40cm osc fan is still working OK upside down. Nice that I don't have to trip over the effing things' floor stands anymore. Will get more out of my stockpile and fit them to the ceiling to replace the (now no longer oscillating but still blowing) tower fans. Soon, honest. :)

 

Gotta get off my arse and get my cooltubes installed. Bought 'em, there they sit on the floor... Got to finish installing the automated tank top-up system, minding the tanks is time consuming... Got manicuring to do.... blah blah blah... it just goes on & on.

 

I've had worse jobs, I guess. :)

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cool al

i look forward to seeing everything sorted

 

[...]

 

i strongly encourage u to get them cool tubes up man

the difference is phenomenal

 

k, sorted. Mostly. ;) The stuff is up but duct taped. I need to go buy some big honkin' hoseclamps to suit all the 150mm connections. Works, tho.

 

Testing in mockup on the garage floor with 21C ambient intake air indicated that exhaust temp from the first lamp is 28.8C, a 7.7C rise. This is an optimal figure, with only one lamp in line and no bends. I expect more rise in practise when installed. Some bends and squishing of the duct are necessary to make it fit.

 

med_gallery_12684_401_127815.jpg

 

If 29C air is then series fed into another cooltube, the output air is about 34C.

 

med_gallery_12684_401_97482.jpg

 

The tube sockets are ceramic, so at those temps, I didn't feel too bad about running the tubes in much mechanically simpler series instead of parallel, nor be terribly pedantic about orienting the tube socket towards the airflow. Works.

 

med_gallery_12684_401_64865.jpg

 

 

I did opt for a closed loop, drawing cooling air for the tubes from outside the room's airmass and also dumping outside. Since it's closed, no scent control is needed on the cooltube air circuit. Got an Allvent 150mm axial pushing it for now (in upper left of above pic), but I think there's a 150mm centrif in the future if but for lower noise. The axial will do the job for moving air through this system, but there's lots of bends and obstructions, noticeably reducing flow rate compared to other Allvent 150mm fans I have in use around here.

 

med_gallery_12684_401_57576.jpg

 

Input air during tests after installation was 22C. Output from cooltube 1 was 28C, output from #2 was 34C, rising about 6C for each 1000. I only tested it for about 15 mins as it's sposed to be nighttime in there now, but I'll get a look in later on when everything has properly started as usual and has been running for a couple of hours. I put a remote sensing thermo probe in the output duct to monitor the 'EGT' (Exhaust Gas Temperature for you non-jet jockeys :greedy: ), as it were.

 

These cooltubes came with a built-in semicircular reflector which would have interfered with the batwings' even distribution pattern. Out came the tin snips and the built-in refs are gone. This could be the first set of cooltubed Adjust-A-Wings ever made. :D

 

The cooltubes' blower is on a timer, set to start at lights on but keep running for about 30 mins past lights off, assuring the lamps and sockets are dead cold before shutting down.

 

Of course, I expect my peak temps to be lower, but I'm especially looking forward to seeing what the RH does. If the main exhaust blower has to run less often because it's not solely responsible for removing heat from the lights, I bet I'm better able to control humidity. My dehumidifier is presently on a timer, set to run on lights-off only, but it may now be useful during lights-on. Without the cooltubes, the nicely dried air is blown right out because the heat from the lights triggers the main exhaust blower. Quite often recently, the intake air has been over 70% RH, and if the exhaust blower is running all the time, that's the RH in the grow room, too. I really want it to stay between 30-50%.

 

We'll see how we go! :yahoo:

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These cooltubes came with a built-in semicircular reflector which would have interfered with the batwings' even distribution pattern. Out came the tin snips and the built-in refs are gone. This could be the first set of cooltubed Adjust-A-Wings ever made. :D

 

sorry Al

ive got 1 set up same

and ive seen others with em too

looks good

hope u get an increased yield too

wat distance from tops do u keep the light?

all the ebst

bil

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sorry Al

ive got 1 set up same

and ive seen others with em too

 

Yeah, I did reckon that mighta been a bit of a stretch. :D I just haven't seen pix of any other cooltubed adjust-a-wings yet.

 

looks good

hope u get an increased yield too

wat distance from tops do u keep the light?

 

About 600mm from wk1-4 plants. Vertical height limits cut that down to about 400mm or less with the taller wk5-8 plants. This room has needed cooltubes since day 1 because I only have about 6.5' from floor to ceiling. I'm quite sure they'll make a big difference.

 

As usual, I should have put them in weeks ago. I've already had one batch of runny buds due to summer heat. My local temps are pretty forgiving though, so I've got away with it a bit. Hopefully these will keep temps below 26C from now on.

 

It does get pretty cold here in winter. I may be working a diverter of some sort into the ducting so I can opt to put the warmed air in the room airmass in winter.

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Thanks billo ;)

 

I got a real bargain on these cooltubes- my whse had a couple of damaged 150x500mm tubes. A little silicone fixed an insignificant crack in one of them, which was missing a few bits. The other's glass was totally smashed but had all its hardware. Bought the other at the usual price. Got out of the shop with enough bits to make 2 working cooltubes for under $80.

 

I'm not expecting magic out of them but I know I have heat problems that these will surely help to solve.

 

Off to Bunnies here in a bit. Will look for some 150mm duct accessories like a Y tube with a vane to direct flow or something similar. This will make switching to winter operation a snap, just flip a couple of levers to source and dump cooltube air within the room's airmass. If I can't get the stuff at Bunnies, I know Tradelink or some other tradies' supply house will have them.

 

The duct tape failed sometime during lights-on (late nite for humans). My air feed duct fell off... :D Temp sensor on the outlet recorded an EGT of 48.5C; air must have kept flowing thru the remaining duct to the outside via convection, but it certainly would not have been good on the HPS tubes. Gonna get some big honkin' hoseclamps and a tube of silicone sealant and piss off the duct tape, should prevent a recurrence.

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Al-B,

Ya, duct tape and heat don't mix too well. I just joined your audience here and have a little reading to do to catch up. I have one ebb and flow table running now as a test and it's going fairly well. I've heard you're the E&F expert around here so I may need to ask you a few questions as time goes by.

Cheers,

Dee

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