Hope this is the right place to post this. While living in Thailand, in an apartment got to about 40c in the day sometimes and with a fish tank that I was not able to use due to body corporate idiocy, I converted it into a cooled wardian case. This was using the fish tank, lights, an aquarium water chiller and a mile of tubes and other bits and pieces.
I am now back in Australia and have modified an old display cabinet along the same lines. The water in a reservoir is chilled to 18c, and pumped into the wardian case to filter through a radiator with fans. The air blowing over the cold radiator chills the air in the case to a nice 22c (constant in summer) and now its winter to about 17c at night and 22c day. It oddly seems to stop the temps dropping too low also. I presume even though its cool, the radiator is at night warmer than ambient in the room. Eventually I want to get a larger chiller so to drop the water to really cold temps, and get a comp controller so that I can drop the temps at night by 10c or so. This chiller is rated to drop water to 4c, but it cant handle it for this volume of water and heat exchange as it has not got enough horse power (aquarium chillers are rated up to 4hp and this one is only 1/4hp I think).
Currently it does not house any Paphs or Phrags, but I am going to try some of the smaller species that don't mind it on the cool side. Suggestions are welcome.
Here are some photos.
The case with the 150 watt metal halide (5700K tube). I cut a hole in the top of the case to fit it. No heat gets in as the case has a glass false ceiling.
I am now back in Australia and have modified an old display cabinet along the same lines. The water in a reservoir is chilled to 18c, and pumped into the wardian case to filter through a radiator with fans. The air blowing over the cold radiator chills the air in the case to a nice 22c (constant in summer) and now its winter to about 17c at night and 22c day. It oddly seems to stop the temps dropping too low also. I presume even though its cool, the radiator is at night warmer than ambient in the room. Eventually I want to get a larger chiller so to drop the water to really cold temps, and get a comp controller so that I can drop the temps at night by 10c or so. This chiller is rated to drop water to 4c, but it cant handle it for this volume of water and heat exchange as it has not got enough horse power (aquarium chillers are rated up to 4hp and this one is only 1/4hp I think).
Currently it does not house any Paphs or Phrags, but I am going to try some of the smaller species that don't mind it on the cool side. Suggestions are welcome.
Here are some photos.
The case with the 150 watt metal halide (5700K tube). I cut a hole in the top of the case to fit it. No heat gets in as the case has a glass false ceiling.
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