Help: Terrarium A/C idea

[Syotos]

Hey all, I was wondering if you guys could help me with an idea I've been playing around with for a few weeks. I saw another forum post here that came close to this and was hoping to build off of it. I had an idea of using a wine cooler, drilling a hole in the front glass and running an insulated tube from the fridge in to my terrarium to pump colder air in to make the sal more comfortable in hotter months/colder months when house heating is on. I'm not an engineer or whatever and I don't know exactly how refrigerators work with humidity but was hoping that I could find a temperature setting on the refrigerator that would keep the terrarium in the 60s just by pumping the cold air into the terrarium. No idea how much power this would use to run the wine refrigerator or how exactly to better insulate the terrarium without cutting the oxygen supply. Anyone try anything like this or had any other ideas? Having not seen any solid ideas other then freezing everyone in the house with the house A/C that people can buy/do fairly easy to cool off our spotted friends I was hoping we could get a think tank going and hopefully figure this out once and for all.

 

[Syotos]

Actually may have a better/more cost effective idea. What about just throwing an air pump inside the wine cooler? Cut a few small notches in the door seals for air tube and power cord and just pump the cold air directly into the terrarium. Find a temperature that keeps the terrarium at the desired temperature and done. No obnoxious tubes everywhere, don't have to worry about cutting glass, just a small tube into the top of the terrarium. Might have to insulate the air line with a foam insulator to help against heat loss and you still have a working refrigerator if you don't need the A/C anymore.
Thoughts?

 

[Syotos]

So due to lack of any response, I purchased the supplies for my idea as it stood and they mostly arrive today. I got a small 6 bottle wine cooler, small air pump for aquariums, 8 feet of air line tubing, foam tubing insulation for the air line to help keep it cool and a couple foam pads for on top of the screen canopy to help keep it cool inside. Going to place the air pump into the cooler and run the air line out, insulate it with the foam cylinders, run the tube into the terrarium behind the styrofoam background and coming out of a small hole at the bottom of the terrarium through the background hidden by plants/moss. This will hopefully pump cool air into the terrarium and sense cold air is denser then warm air, it will push the warm out and stay cool with all of the insulation. I'm hoping to find a set temperature for the cooler to be set where the terrarium stays in the 60s. Last few parts are being shipped now and once its all set up and runs for a few days I'll let you guys know how much if at all it works. (If anyone cares)
BTW I finally was able to check the temp on the inside and at one point it was 82 degrees F (27 degrees C) but mostly stays around 76 degrees (24.4 C) so I need this to work badly.

 

[chezr]

Hi Syotos,

I had recently been living abroad where my bedroom was reinforced and completely air tight with the door and window closed for protection in the case of chemical attacks. I was frustrated with the air conditioning for months because I thought it was automatically shutting off the flow into my room when I would shut the door. I later found out that the AC would run fine with the door closed if the window was cracked open (even just barely), and I realized that the reason the AC was stopping was because air couldn't flow into an air tight room without also having a place to flow out.

It seems obvious to me now, but I'm telling you this because your wine cooler idea sounds like it will be completely sealed and I'm not sure how well an air pump will be able to provide oxygen in this case. You may not be able to pump air out of the wine cooler if there isn't air flowing into the wine cooler at the same rate. I'm thinking you may need to make a third hole in the cooler's seal for this to work. Just something to keep in mind in case the pump isn't providing air and you can't figure out why (since it took me 8 months to realize the problem myself).

I'm living in Phoenix and the number of newt and salamander species that I can keep in my house is very limited due to my weather here also. I hope your idea works well!

 

[Syotos]

Thanks for the tip. Fortunatly i did not even need to poke holes in the seals and the door seals perfectly with the power cord and the air line going in. Right now with no insulation (amazon still hasnt shipped it yet) a small amount of air is going in the terrarium but not that cold. I might put a larger pump in there (one i have is only ment for a 5 gallon aquarium apperantly) for more air flow but if it sill seems like it isnt running as much as it should ill put a few small sections of air tubing in the doors for more air to go in