Cooling towers will expose nutrient mix to atmosphere and get all kinds of pathogens you don't want in the nutrients.

A closed-circuit fluid cooler would be a better match and works the same. These units keep the nutrients pressure-isolated from atmosphere.

Also investigate swamp coolers.

They are rated in tons and 1 ton of refrigeration = 12,000 btu/hr.

Hi willard3
Gonna have to do some research into those closed-circuit fluid coolers, i had never heard of these so its gonna be another marathon on the net looking for info. Thanks for the quick response.

If you have a chance could you give me a quick run down how each of these devices work i would really appreciate it and once again thank you.

If anyone else has any ideas please chip in its useful.

Thanks

Echolab

Just a thought as i was looking through the net for info.
Wouldn't a chamber on the inlet of the tower (where the fresh air enters) with either strong ultraviolet light or maybe an ozone generator work in killing all pathogens that would enter the nutrient solution and still be way cheaper to run than a chiller.

I do use a chiller at the moment but this has only been used for a small test run and im starting to think that without finding a cheaper way of cooling the nutrient solution might be a hurdle to big to get over on our start out budget.

Just a thought hope some one has some ideas on this

Thanks

Echolab

You can bury a nutrient tank in the ground where temp is pretty constant at 55F.