hack your swimming pool

[bentech]

what the most practical way
to use an unheated swimming pool as a sink
to draw heat out of your grow?

i know,
no state changed so more expensive than ac

but still,
seems like theres alot of potential

[Munchy]

Water Cooled Lights
...water cooled growing lights have been in use by the hydroponics industry for a number of years now...

Lights as a Pool Heater
Another option is to waste the heat from the lights to a swimming pool. For people who don't have an in-ground pool installed in their back yard, a coated steel above-ground pool is a great alternative. They are cheap, easy to install, and enjoyable. You not only can get rid of the heat from your greenhouse or solarium, but you also get a heated pool.

pool_heater.gif (6.9 KiB) Viewed 5034 times

http://www.hydroponicsbc.com/watercooledlighting.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bentech]

ive seen adds for such

ya think cooling the lights thusly is more advantageous than cool the air move throught the system?

[stupid question; of course cooling the lights is better]


what the deal on condensation?

do these systems introduce dripping issues?

[bentech]

hadnt.thought.bout.water.cooled.lights.in.a.long.time
was.thinking.of.a.heat.exchanger.for.the.fans.and.air

i.dont.think.you.could.heat.a.spa.with.it.though
mabe.a.waterbed

[Munchy]

i think it shouldn't be too efficient at the heating aspect,
because as the water gets warmer, it would be less efficient at cooling the lights.
but a pool would have a large enough capacity to prevent "overheating" your cooling liquid.
likewise, in an air-cooled system, the air gets heated up,
but at least then it gets exhausted, instead of recycled back in.
but still the intake air would be best if it were cool to begin with,
as opposed to the 86f room temp i'm currently using... which is why it's still 93f in the closet.
aside from a basic inline fan, i can't afford to run the a/c much or anything else to cool the intake,
but i do run the lights just at night, to avoid the heat of the day.
i dunno about leaks and condensation, one would hope not,
but offhand, it sounds like a quite valid concern.

[Sun]

It would pay for itself in the long run to drop a 5000btu ac in your room. If not in weight in quality. I've only been in a few rooms that run at those temps where I couldn't tell the smoke was grown in a hot humid room.

[Munchy]

I tried that long time ago, and my power bill shot up to $750/mo, so I had to take it out.
Just can't afford bills like that, and it's only for personal meds, so there's no money coming back.
The airflow keeps the humidity in the closet a lot lower than the host room.
Although the lights are off right now, it's currently at 24%, while 43% in the host room.
It only gets so warm during the hottest summer months though,
usually staying about 5 degrees warmer than whatever the ambient temp is,
so the rest of the year it runs at around 75f.

[Sun]

Can't you get on the care program or does your wife make to much?
I've had a 12k room that wasn't part of a house, it was on its on electricity and it wasn't much more than that.

[Munchy]

I'm not familiar with the "care" program, but she probably does make too much.
Your electricity apparently costs less there, about half of my rate, according to a quick calculation.
Without any growing, my bill already gets into the 300% of baseline (bend-over) tier,
so the grow itself all costs about 34 cents/per kwh, probably about the highest rate in the country.

[bentech]

some.places.have.outrageous.tier'd.pricing


seen.any.of.the.solar.ac.units?

read.about.a.single.room.window.unit.years.back.but.never.saw.it.again
now.they.have.systems.hyped.to.cool.your.home.with.one.panel.that.doesnt.need.direct.sunlight

80%electrical.savings.is.the.addvertisement.on.the.one.i.saw.was.made.in.austrialia