Serious cooling using a water chiller

[s1214215]

Check this link. It shows an effective cooling method similar to what I am doing at home on a smaller scale using a fish tank and an aquarium chiller

Hydro Innovations - Ice Box - 8" You need to watch the videos too.

Brett

[Paul Mc]

Where did you find your aquarium chiller? I'm setting up a terrarium now with cool to intermediate growing orchids. So far, the temperature remains between 60 and 70F but I would like to see if I can't get the temp down a bit further at night. Could you provide a link to where you got your chiller from so I can look at it?

[keithrs]

I have seen a hydro setup that had a 7 ton chiller!!! Some serious light cooling!

I'm working on a system that uses the guts from a mini fridge to cool a small tank of coolant. Than pump the coolant to a CPU radiator with fans to blow the cool air in. Whole system will cost me $40 if it works.

Any aquarium supply place will carry chillers.... Try marine depot

[Ray]

Paul - just Google "aquarium chiller"

[s1214215]

Hi Paul

You need to think about how much space you want to cool before you get a chiller and how cold you want it.

I cool an area 120cm x 80cm x 70cm with an 1/8 horse power chiller. And its ok to keep at 23c when outside its above 35c, but you need to think about chiller brand (some wont chill to near freezing). Arctica will and Hailea Aquimedic will go to 4c.

I found with the space I chill with the 1/8 chiller, its ok.. but if I had gotten say a 1/2HP chiller, I could have made it much cooler

You can get chillers up to 4HP

What I read is that using a chiller method uses only 1/3 as much power. I think it is true as my system only put my electricity bill up a very small amount.

Brett

[keithrs]

Aquarium chiller don't cool to there full capacity. There only about 80-85% efficient, so go bigger!

In hydroponics they have chiller beyond 25 hp.....

Another tip.... If your going to run a chiller alot than I recommend cooling a reservoir. Then use a pump to pump the chilled water to a heat exchanger with a pull fan. The bigger the reservoir the more stable(temp) your supply will be.

Depending on the chiller you get and how your setup is.... You can reverse flow and get hot water to heat.

[Paul Mc]

Well, my enclosure is a mere 12"x12"x18", so I wouldn't need much I don't think. Plus, I only have a bottom reseviour (under my substrate - hidden) of about 1 1/2 to 2 inches. I have a pump that pulls the water up to a waterfall feature (still in construction). I am hoping that the moving water will help cool a bit as well as add more humidity.

I do not have room for anything else external in this construction, so it would have to be internal. This would pose a problem and I'm not so sure that this would work, but thought I'd check it out.