Temperary chiller idea. Comments please.
- Thread starter dburr
- Start date
sucram
Member
My central air unit broke about 5 days ago. It gets really hot on the top floor of my 3 story building on warm days. I have 4x96 watt PC's and found that keeping a fan blowing directly on the water's surface at all times made a remarkable difference in keeping the water cool. My aquarium heater actually couldn't keep up with it. Evaporation is a great method of heat reduction, as long as you have someone around to replace the couple of gallons you lose per day.
dburr
Active Member
Fishhead,
I got the crank style windows in my house. $450 bucks for a/c unit. <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" />
That is the best way and I probably do that.
I do have one of the big stand up freezers, I could throw in a bucket of water with tubing. The water would freeze and I would think that would work. I just would have to move it to the finished basement.
Hmmm...
still thinkin
I got the crank style windows in my house. $450 bucks for a/c unit. <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" />
That is the best way and I probably do that.
I do have one of the big stand up freezers, I could throw in a bucket of water with tubing. The water would freeze and I would think that would work. I just would have to move it to the finished basement.
Hmmm...
still thinkin
david s
Member
ice is like a battery it stores energy heat energy if u have proper air flow and right flow of water and right pipe it will work but then the ice would melt pretty fast. As far as fridge anyone have one workin can i have some comments i may build one but i think dorm fridge wouldnt have btu to do the job. Before computers i used to do refrigeration.
bammbamm74
Member
Hey Anthem,
Water is a great heat conductor. If he has the tube in the fridge in water, he'd want to put a small power head to keep that water moving. That way the warmed up water can reach the surface and exchange the heat for cold. It could work.
Water is a great heat conductor. If he has the tube in the fridge in water, he'd want to put a small power head to keep that water moving. That way the warmed up water can reach the surface and exchange the heat for cold. It could work.
von_rahvin
Member
why not use a small freezer. they do exist i have used them in the bahamas to keep our bait cold. same basic principle but you have more BTU's to work with, another thought, what about a thin wall PVC? it would have much more heat loss than the flex tubing , the only problem I can see is the cost of all the joints.
ofcourse all this is getting bloody expensive, what size tank are we trying to figure out how to cool anyway? (my hd fried and i had to rebuild my comp so i was out of cir for a bit)
ofcourse all this is getting bloody expensive, what size tank are we trying to figure out how to cool anyway? (my hd fried and i had to rebuild my comp so i was out of cir for a bit)
drkegel
Member
Bammbamm, the limiting factor is not how well you can exchange heat within the fridge, it's how well your fridge can get that heat out of the frdige.
Look at it this way - I can't use a fridge to cool my house. Why? I'm adding chilled air to my house, but the heat exchanger (the coil) is inside as well. All the heat being removed by the coil is going right back into the system. Unless my fridge is blowing that air outside my house at a fast enough rate, I'll never cool my house. Imagine your tank is your house. It doesn't matter where you pump the water, if you can't get enough cooling capacity you'll never cool it.
Von_Rahvin - I lost one of my two hard drives last week. 20 GB of MP3's down the tubes. I read these boards in silence now. A mini-freezer could work, you just have to know how many BTU's its rated to remove.
Tank size is irrelevant. The coil doesn't know or care how much water is in the system. It's only there to exchange heat. How much of a heat load is in the tank is the key. Water in and of itself doesn't generate heat, it just "holds" it.
Look at it this way - I can't use a fridge to cool my house. Why? I'm adding chilled air to my house, but the heat exchanger (the coil) is inside as well. All the heat being removed by the coil is going right back into the system. Unless my fridge is blowing that air outside my house at a fast enough rate, I'll never cool my house. Imagine your tank is your house. It doesn't matter where you pump the water, if you can't get enough cooling capacity you'll never cool it.
Von_Rahvin - I lost one of my two hard drives last week. 20 GB of MP3's down the tubes. I read these boards in silence now. A mini-freezer could work, you just have to know how many BTU's its rated to remove.
Tank size is irrelevant. The coil doesn't know or care how much water is in the system. It's only there to exchange heat. How much of a heat load is in the tank is the key. Water in and of itself doesn't generate heat, it just "holds" it.
von_rahvin
Member
yeah thank god for western digital. Hey if you still have that drive i have some software that allows you to save just about anything. I got paid like 2 grand to pull some stuff off of a crashed drive. it just takes some time. email me if you want the prog
varible
New Member
Hey everyone try thermoelectric devices (peltier junctions) they are cheap and efficient i made my own version of the commercially available ones (http://www.coolworks.simplenet.com/iceprobe.htm)
the peltier's are available from radioshack and you just attach a regualr PC heatsink fancombo and some sort of conducter to the water (i used silver sheet) its totally scalable to the amount you want to cool and can easily be attached to a thermostat.
the peltier's are available from radioshack and you just attach a regualr PC heatsink fancombo and some sort of conducter to the water (i used silver sheet) its totally scalable to the amount you want to cool and can easily be attached to a thermostat.
G
glazer
Guest
I had to get in on this, tell my tale of the homemade chiller, I will try to be brief but I'm a talker, hehe.
About 12, 13 years ago I was living in a fourth floor apartment that management would not allow window A/C units to go in the windows facing the street,(thought it looked bad) but you could have A/C's in any back or side windows, this allowed me to air condition my bedroom but the living room where my tank was was not so lucky... many times the temp would climb to over 100 even with fans and the bedroom door open. Choice were to take down tank and move to the bedroom, a chiller, which back then you couldn't touch one for less than a grand, OR watch everything in my tank croak and melt.
My solution... bought a small chest type freezer out of a bargain paper for 75 bucks... Had this idea from when I worked at a marina on boats and the heat exchangers. I don't know where you would find this but I am sure if you searched the internet you would have some luck... bought this 1/2" spiral glass (I think it was Pyrex) tubing from a place called American Science and Surplus for 50 bucks. I had this big aluminium pot from a commercial deep-fat fryer, filled it with almost twenty gallons of anti-freeze, attached plastic tubing to the glass spiral and plumbed it to the tank via the sump. THIS THING WORKED LIKE YOU WOULD'NT BELIEVE!!!!! Took alot of playing around with proper rate of flow but on a 75 gallon tank it would drop the temp by fifteen degrees! My homemade chiller for under two hundred bucks... Patted myself on the back for that one for months, hehehehe
Hey, it's all about sharing ideas.... maybe someone could take this info and make it work for them... I got central air now so let the summer begin!!!...lol
About 12, 13 years ago I was living in a fourth floor apartment that management would not allow window A/C units to go in the windows facing the street,(thought it looked bad) but you could have A/C's in any back or side windows, this allowed me to air condition my bedroom but the living room where my tank was was not so lucky... many times the temp would climb to over 100 even with fans and the bedroom door open. Choice were to take down tank and move to the bedroom, a chiller, which back then you couldn't touch one for less than a grand, OR watch everything in my tank croak and melt.
My solution... bought a small chest type freezer out of a bargain paper for 75 bucks... Had this idea from when I worked at a marina on boats and the heat exchangers. I don't know where you would find this but I am sure if you searched the internet you would have some luck... bought this 1/2" spiral glass (I think it was Pyrex) tubing from a place called American Science and Surplus for 50 bucks. I had this big aluminium pot from a commercial deep-fat fryer, filled it with almost twenty gallons of anti-freeze, attached plastic tubing to the glass spiral and plumbed it to the tank via the sump. THIS THING WORKED LIKE YOU WOULD'NT BELIEVE!!!!! Took alot of playing around with proper rate of flow but on a 75 gallon tank it would drop the temp by fifteen degrees! My homemade chiller for under two hundred bucks... Patted myself on the back for that one for months, hehehehe
Hey, it's all about sharing ideas.... maybe someone could take this info and make it work for them... I got central air now so let the summer begin!!!...lol
jodeman
Member
Why couldn't you place a rubbermaid tub into the fridge or freezer, fill with water, then use stainless tubing for a coil, and place this tubing into the tub (after the tub has been chilled).
[Would Stainless be bad for the tank?? The impeller shafts in my ph's are stainless.]
Just an idea, as I've never done such a project (I live in east tx, I have to leave my a/c on anyway).
You'd have to flush the tubing (I guess with vinagear?) to remove pollutants.
[Would Stainless be bad for the tank?? The impeller shafts in my ph's are stainless.]
Just an idea, as I've never done such a project (I live in east tx, I have to leave my a/c on anyway).
You'd have to flush the tubing (I guess with vinagear?) to remove pollutants.
vwboy
New Member
What do you guys think of taking a dorm sized fridge, removing the metal piece that separates the freezer from the fridge and placing that in your sump? A drop in chiller! don't you think? The refrigerant runs through the metal piece, wouldn't that work? That way your fridge wouldn't shut off because the "cooler" is in the sump, until the temp controller in your tank shuts it off. The only problem is that the connections aren't really long enough. I've tried the ice bucket method too and it works as long as your at home all day to put ice in it every hour.
drkegel
Member
Von Rahvin, I appreciate the offer, but the platter fel off, there is no way it will ever run again, unless I pay a good chunk of change for Seagate to fix it, but it's just not worth it.
Glad to see someone has had success with the homemade chiller idea. It is certainly possible. Glass is a much better conductor than plastic, in general.
As stated before, the key to making it work is how many BTU's of cooling your unit is rated for and then how well you can design a coil system to fully utilize that availablity.
Glad to see someone has had success with the homemade chiller idea. It is certainly possible. Glass is a much better conductor than plastic, in general.
As stated before, the key to making it work is how many BTU's of cooling your unit is rated for and then how well you can design a coil system to fully utilize that availablity.
drkegel
Member
Jodeman - Stainless steel is a relatively poor heat conductor. There are many better options to use other than stainless steel.
Stainless is harmless, will not corrode in saltwater. Galvanized steel, aluminum, copper, and a host of other metals will corrode in salt water, which is why they need a thin "coating" of plastic or some other non-corrosive substance on them.
Stainless is harmless, will not corrode in saltwater. Galvanized steel, aluminum, copper, and a host of other metals will corrode in salt water, which is why they need a thin "coating" of plastic or some other non-corrosive substance on them.
dburr
Active Member
I think glazer got it right, anti-freeze. With the glass tube and anti-freeze it would work(but very fragile). Add on the dorm fridge or freezer the fish would have to put on winter coats. <img src="graemlins//uhuh.gif" border="0" alt="[U-Huh]" /> <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" />
Maybe enough plastic tube I wouldn't need the glass. What does anti-freeze do to plastic?
hmmmmmm
Maybe enough plastic tube I wouldn't need the glass. What does anti-freeze do to plastic?
hmmmmmm