Will more light benefit me?
- Thread starter terky
- Start date
Hushpuppy said:
I have a 900 sq ft shop. 400 sq ft of that is still garage and this area is also open above my grow. so I can walk around on top like a loft. Thats where all the duct, electrical, and ballasts are. Basically just hoods in the rooms. So the shop volume is huge. Its not insulated, shaded by trees, and a concrete floor so it stays about 60 - 65 all summer.
After the water is heated it will be pushed to the peak of the shop, about 17' or 18' off the ground. I will have it dump into a 6" or 8" duct, hit a splash plate about a foot down, then fall into the barrel. Basically a redneck cooling tower. I figure the evaporation should be able to dump the heat. I may put an exhaust fan on a dehumidistat in the shop if humidity is a problem, but the shop isnt sealed to well and has a ridge vent. I figure air should be able to move through it pretty easy.
I did the math and a 50 gallon barrel rasied from 60 to 90 will absorb 10,000 BTU. I couldnt figure out how to calculate the evaporative cooling. I figure my rooms will need about 10,000 BTU each. The air cooled hoods will take some of that heat out. And the water cooling only has to bring it down to 85. I figure the system will kick on, run for 10 minutes then be off for a while. Giving the water in the barrel time to radiate the heat. May need 2 barrels.
I might have decided to up the size of cooling coil. I learned there is sensible heat (actual heat in the air) and latent heat (heat you feel from humidity in the air). Being that this is not an actual chilled water system with 45 degree supply water, there will probably not be any heat loss from condensation on the coils. As I understand it anyway. I changed the coil to a 20" x 22" and will have 12" max fan pulling around 1200cfm. This coils sensible BTU/h is 25,000 and total cooling is 53,000 BTU/h. So I should be able to drop the temp. I figure if on the hottest day of the year I have to put frozen 2 liters in the water, thats ok.
I can get all this stuff at wholesale prices. So It may be a little more if you dont have a hook up. But probably still cheaper than installing ac and definately more energy efficient.
We will see how good my engineering skills are in august.
Hushpuppy
Dr MadBud
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That sounds very interesting. I look forward to seeing the results. I suspect though that you may have to actively exaust the air from the shop where the heat exchange is happening and pull in fresh air as the evaporative cooling is going to saturate the air within the space fairly quickly and that will end the evaporation and heat transfer. If you set up a direct feed of fresh air straight to the evaporative cooling center then let convection and air pressure push the heated, moistened air out the vented ridge you should be able to continually purge the saturated air and maintain the evaporative cooling. JMO 
Hushpuppy said:That sounds very interesting. I look forward to seeing the results. I suspect though that you may have to actively exaust the air from the shop where the heat exchange is happening and pull in fresh air as the evaporative cooling is going to saturate the air within the space fairly quickly and that will end the evaporation and heat transfer. If you set up a direct feed of fresh air straight to the evaporative cooling center then let convection and air pressure push the heated, moistened air out the vented ridge you should be able to continually purge the saturated air and maintain the evaporative cooling. JMO
Good Idea.
Maybe I will put a 6" tap at the bottom of the duct, 90 degree elbow at the top through a dryer vent. I can drill a hole through the elbow to stick the drain hose through. Booster fan at the bottom and I may be able to push 30 - 50 cfm through it. Would probably work as long as there is some air movement through the pipe.
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