Terrarium cooling...

[Brian Barnes]

Hey Friends,

Just recently, I've seen these small personal "mini-fridge" coolers being offered on Ebay. They hold from single cans of soda, to some holding four cans. They are AC powered. I wonder if one was to buy a few of them and take the doors off, if they would be good terrarium cooling devices.

Has anyone tried these yet in their highland grow chambers?

Opinions appreciated!

Happy Growing,

Brian.

[stevebooth]

Hi Brian

I would do a little more research before you dash off and spend all your worldly wealth on them, the reason being that the heat absorbed from the fridge is rejected to atmosphere somewhere, not knowing which particular items they are, its difficult to say where, but normally through its caseworks.
Also the heat rejected is normally a significant amount higher than the cooling provided and the electrical energy absorbed, so they may well make better heaters than coolers.
The ideas good but the engineering may be against you.

Happy growing
Steve

[unstuckintime]

recently I have been toying with the idea of getting something like in the link below to cool a small terrarium. What do you think? It would require, however, slicing it with a small cell-phone charger, perhaps. What do you think?

www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-Blue-Ice-Chip/dp/B0009IKDT6/ref=pd_sim_e_6

[mycophile]

Tha amazon device is merely a piece of aluminum and a fan. It will not work to cool a terrarium. It is design to blow heat away from a very hot chip Ebay sells peltier solid state cooling devices that I have been thinking about. Same idea as the can cooler. I believe the can cooler would not work without a small fan and heat sink or two. They can be purchased for less than $5. Someone handy could add two heat sinks and small fans to create a highlands cooler. Requires 12 volts (or 24 volts for 2 devices). This will be my next project. Will document and photograph as I build it.
cgi.ebay.com/TEC1-12706-91-2W-TEC-Thermoelectric-Cooler-Peltier-/250654560936

[NavyBrush]

Look at this.

www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/hydrogen-inch-ice-box-water-cooled-heat-exchanger-p-2791.html

[justjack]

From the same site as the link above.
www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/active-aqua-50-hp-freon-free-water-chiller-p-2531.html
You could use this to cool a large reservoir, for even multiple tanks. Add a fogger...
Just frickin expensive. Would work for LARGE setups though.

[robthered]

If you have an air conditioner handy you can do something like I'm making

ontariocarnivorousplants.forumup.com/viewtopic.php?t=71&mforum=ontariocarnivorousplants

[lilly7430]

I have always wondered how to cool my plants in the summer. Has anyone tried using a "cool mist" humidifier? The hydroponic coolers are crazy expensive

[robthered]

Feb 19, 2011 2:55:55 GMT lilly7430 said:

I have always wondered how to cool my plants in the summer. Has anyone tried using a "cool mist" humidifier? The hydroponic coolers are crazy expensive

I use a reptifogger which is a cool mist humidifier. I dont see any real change in the temperatures when the unit is running.

Options for cooling are:
- Ice Packs
- AC (you can either feed the cool air directly into the tank, but you'll need some sort of device to keep the humidity up, unless you remove the evap fan from the unit and place the cooling rad directly into the tank - which i did.)
- Aquarium Chiller (expensive)
- Thermoelectric peltier device (might need a few)