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tmcmaster
07-09-2013, 07:22 AM
What would anyone recommend for a cooling system for an AP system in a green house where space is limited and at a premium (read: SMALL)?

keith_r
07-09-2013, 08:01 AM
lots of variables with not enough info..
climate? type of gh?

tmcmaster
07-09-2013, 08:48 AM
climate? type of gh?

Central PA area. So, temperate, I guess?

It's a small 6X8 polycarbonate greenhouse. Have a 3X4X1 media bed with an external sump and the fish tank partially snak into the ground about 8 inches...

keith_r
07-09-2013, 08:53 AM
for cooling you'll need air flow through the gh, for a cheap solution, you could use a diy swamp cooler if your humidity isn't too high..
your gb will act as a heat sink, insulate if you can, or cover with something reflective..
running a chiller would get pretty expensive.. when it got real hot here during my first season, i froze milkjugs full of water and used them in the ft... i had 4 or 5 1gallon jugs that i would rotate out during the day

tmcmaster
07-09-2013, 10:55 AM
I was almost thinking of somehow running some of the water through some copper tubing as a heat exchanger... But, I lack that technical know-how...

Aloha Don
07-09-2013, 11:24 AM
I have heard of a cooling method that sinks aluminum stakes deep into the ground and comes up around and into the sump tank. This acts as a type of heat sink. The deeper the stakes into the ground cools them and transfers that to the sump....

15mules
07-09-2013, 12:21 PM
Be careful using the cooper tubing to directly run your AP water through, as some of the metals can leach into the water and harm your fish in some cases. For a small system such as yours I would think about digging a deep hole outside your greenhouse and burying a coil or so of Pex pipe, then either circulating your AP water or a portion of it through there, or preferably use clean water in a closed loop with a separate pump, connected to another coil in a sump with your AP water and use it like a heat exchanger.