Cooling the darkroom

[pentaxuser]

Suddenly a topical issue at least in the Midlands and S.E of England. We've had temps of nearly 90 fahrenheit for about a week. Normally even in Summer and with colour processing the temp in my darkroom is just about bearable but not right now.

Anyone got a quick and easy and relatively inexpensive idea for cooling a darkroom down which they know works.

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[Flotsam]

Just shed your clothes.
Haven't you ever heard of Nude Photography?

 

[Paul Howell]

With the high humidity the only thing that I can think of is an AC window unit. Using Ice and a fan only adds to the humidity.

 

[Dave Miller]

Suddenly a topical issue at least in the Midlands and S.E of England. We've had temps of nearly 90 fahrenheit for about a week. Normally even in Summer and with colour processing the temp in my darkroom is just about bearable but not right now.

Anyone got a quick and easy and relatively inexpensive idea for cooling a darkroom down which they know works.

Thanks

pentaxuser

The inexpensive bit is the stumbling block, so this suggestion is too late for this year.
At the end of the summer, a/c units go in the sales for around half price or less. So make a note to go hunting for one in the Autumn; not much help now I know.

 

[FrankB]

It's a touch on the warm side up North too...!

Other than printing at 4am (and it's only a couple of degrees cooler then!) the best tip I've got is an evaporative cooler. Not as good as an aircon unit, but fairly effective, cheaper and you don't need to cater for an exhaust hose going out of the room.

I got one from B&Q for £50 a couple of years ago.

Aircon's better, though...

 

[blaze-on]

I installed a small a/c unit in my darkroom, enough to cool 100-150 sq. ft.
Draws 5 amps...works great. Cost=$85.00

Surely that's not much to shell out for what you get...

 

[Dave Miller]

I installed a small a/c unit in my darkroom, enough to cool 100-150 sq. ft.
Draws 5 amps...works great. Cost=$85.00

Surely that's not much to shell out for what you get...

Possibly not, but they don't come that cheap in the UK; $350 plus here - except in the sales.

 

[noseoil]

Another option for anyone who is planning on building and can do this in the design stage. Look at google and type in "mini split" for air conditioning. This is a small system which can be very efficient. It uses an outside unit and a wall-hung unit for the room. The nice thing about these systems is that there is no duct work needed to make it work. A small hole is made in the outside wall (3- 3 1/2") to allow for refrigerant lines, the unit has a remote control like a tv set. There are dual systems (heat & cold) as well as multiple zone systems which can do more than one area. Much nicer than running a duct system with return air, or making a large hole in a wall or window. They have units up to 19 seer now, very efficient on energy costs. tim

 

[FrankB]

Again, I think the UK/US price differential may not be quite understood. Over here, $350 (£200) gets you a bottom-of-the range, budget portable aircon unit. A self-install split system comes in at around $1500 (£820). Neither one falls into the category of what I'd call 'relatively inexpensive'.

I'd honestly love someone to prove me wrong though.

I suppose I could always turn my car into a darkroom...

 

[Paul Howell]

It's a touch on the warm side up North too...!

The best tip I've got is an evaporative cooler. Not as good as an aircon unit, but fairly effective, cheaper and you don't need to cater for an exhaust hose going out of the room.

It is my understanding that for an evapaorative cooler to work (here in the desert we call them swamp coolers) that you need a low dew point, as the dew point goes up the efficiency goes down and a open window for circulation. We have a piggy back system that uses both an evaporative cooler and an AC unit, this time of year as the dew point rises above 50 degrees we change from the swamp cooler to AC, my power bills also doubles. And you need an open window or a pop up vent system to allow for air cirulation. With the high humidity there in England I am suprised that a swamp cooler works at all.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks all. The problem in the UK really doesn't equate to anything like that of the U.S. or even southern Europe. We have maybe one or two spells of really hot weather lasting often less than a week in a summer. For instance I can't remember a similar period for the whole of last summer. So big bucks and permanent installation is a sledge hammer to crack a small nut.As I suspected the cheap and effective answer is to stay out of the darkroom for a few days!

I was really clutching at straws. Sounds like an evaporative cooler or maybe a cheap end of season portable aircon is the answer. For an experiment tonight I thought I'd try putting a tray of very cold water into the print dryer and turn on the fan minus the heating element to see what effect it might have. After nearly two and a half hours the answer is a big zero.

Just thought I'd mention that in case someone else decided to do a similar experiment.

pentaxuser

 

[Andy K]

I have been considering asking my boss if I can set up my DR in the refridgerated warehouse I run (it is a constant minus 20 celsius). But then I'd have trouble keeping my chems at 20 degrees.

 

[Dave Miller]

If you put your underpants in the freezer, and fill your wellies with ice cubes it may help take your mind off the problem.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks Dave, Andy and Flotsam. Look lads, I was desperately looking for answers but in your haste to be helpful you've assumed I was looking for desperate answers. By the way, looking forward a few months to winter darkroom work, do chemists in England sell sweating powders? They were always available in Scotland to lower heating bills.

cheapskatefully yours

pentaxuser

 

[FrankB]

Sounds like an evaporative cooler or maybe a cheap end of season portable aircon is the answer.

If you can hold out until the weekend, the weather is supposed to get cooler. That might give you enough of a help to last out until the sale price aircon units come around.

An evaporative cooler is a help, but it's not aircon by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[Paul Howell]

I rummaged though my notes and old proofs and I found a picture of a improvised darkroom we set in StanleyVill in the late 70's, no air and very hot, so we filled a cooler with dry ice and used a fan, the notes on the back say it dropped the room temp by 8 degrees, it was very small space maybe 10X10. I did not spend much time in it but the person who did our printing said it was bearable. It worked until we could not find any more dry ice.

 

[dancqu]

...quick and easy and ... inexpensive idea for cooling ...

All that spells thermoelectric cooling. Looks like an
easy DIY. Check it out. Dan

 

[Curt]

A small A/C unit it really the only way to cool it down. What stores are there in your area? A small unit in the US is about $60 to $100 dollars and they last for years. With increasing world wide temperatures we have had to get window units for our house. I have not had to have one in my 54 years here. I am going to get a small unit for my darkroom as the temps are up in the day time there too. Other than that it's fans and doing it at night when the temps drop, if they do.

Regards,
Curt

 

[Bob F.]

If you live in town, you can hire them or B&Q do portables at around 200 beer tokens (but I think I saw them at 150-ish in store a couple of weeks ago). There are cheaper "no-name" ones elsewhere from around 125 quid.

It's 3:25 a.m. as I type and it is 32C in my darkroom in which I am (finally) getting the postcards printed. The developer etc is at 30C. Incidentally, the Ilford Warmtone dev @ 1+9 has been in my Nova for over a month now - through all the hot weather - and it is still fresh as a daisy so whoever it was who said it does not last long once mixed to working strength needs to try again.

I have no intention of mentioning what I am, or am not, wearing - far too much information...

Cheers, Bob.

 

[Chris Lee]

Just wait a week! The schools break soon for summer, so it's sure to be raining and cold again, just like a english summer should be!!!

Chris.

 

[Matt5791]

Pentaxuser, I recently bought what seems like a very good quality portable aircon unit from Wickes. They do a 9000btu and 12000 btu.

The 9000 was £169, the 12000 £250 which I thouhgt was very reasonable, and as I say, it seems very good quality and thermostatically controlled. I set it to 20 deg and leave it running.

It also will work as a dehumidifier and just a plain fan.

I have a friend who used to supply Wickes and all the other DIY chains, and Wickes have by far the tightest quality demands from suppliers.

Matt

 

[Steve Smith]

As I built my darkroom in my roof space, I am staying out of it at the moment because it is far too hot. The forecast shows that it will be a bit cooler towards the end of the week so I hope to get some printing done then.


Steve.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks again for the recent batch of posts. For speed of action an aircon unit is probably the way to go although for most of the normal summer "heatwaves" an evaporator cooler might be sufficient.

My darkroom is about 10 feet by 8 feet by 7.5 feet high. At its hottest it gets to about 28-29 degrees C and this is the extreme. Last night ( the hottest yet it was 29 but I have checked right now (12:30pm) and its 26. I reckon I could live with a reduction of about 5 degrees C to about 22-23 although 8 degrees would be better in these expectional heatwaves.

Any idea how powerful an aircon unit has to be to meet the above requirement?

Matt. Would 9000btu be enough or even less? How long in advance of using the room does the unit have to be switched on to effect say a 5-6 degree reduction?

pentaxuser

 

[glbeas]

From experience I can say you do need to match the AC to the size of the space you are cooling. Making sure the walls and ceiling have sufficient insulation is a plus, to make sure you don't lose the cool you create. I had a closet darkroom at my fathers house when I was a teen and put an old AC unit in the window that was way too big for the room. This resulted in extremly high humidity in the darkroom and rust on any metal not made of stainless. My enlargers lamp housing eventually sported a sapphire blue paint job after I scrubbed all the rust off. The easel had to be redone in a similar manner. After a while I built a powered vent into the next room to share the cooling and drop the humidity. Still didn't help that much.

 

[Dave Miller]

Thanks again for the recent batch of posts. For speed of action an aircon unit is probably the way to go although for most of the normal summer "heatwaves" an evaporator cooler might be sufficient.

My darkroom is about 10 feet by 8 feet by 7.5 feet high. At its hottest it gets to about 28-29 degrees C and this is the extreme. Last night ( the hottest yet it was 29 but I have checked right now (12:30pm) and its 26. I reckon I could live with a reduction of about 5 degrees C to about 22-23 although 8 degrees would be better in these expectional heatwaves.

Any idea how powerful an aircon unit has to be to meet the above requirement?

Matt. Would 9000btu be enough or even less? How long in advance of using the room does the unit have to be switched on to effect say a 5-6 degree reduction?

pentaxuser

The a/c I use is of a similar size. It's effect is felt almost immediately, and within a few minutes the air temperature is reduced to comfort level, however it may take an hour to reduce the temperature of objects within the room since they hold more heat than air. The use of a a/c also reduces the humidity, and that helps with comfort conditions as well.