beat the heat for cheap

I took the easy way out for now, I bought a window AC unit to control the room temperature. I am working out the control system with some fans and a thermostat I'm trying to build.
 
Bk, I was thinking about the thin plastic thing. I have an old uv ster. and I think I'm going to try to use it in a bucket with some fans to make my chiller. I'll post some pic when I get it done.
 
since no one else has mentioned it I feel I must. I live in Utah and do commercial HVAC for a living. Due to the low humidity here evaporative cooling for process(what you are doing here) works extremely well and evap cooling for comfort works well also. The problem I see is if I remember right NJ has a high humidity level in the summer. As the humidity gets higher and your enthalpy increases you will not be able to evaporate water if you do not have A/C in your apartment. If you do have A/C you might as well just turn that down as all that heat you remove from the water will just put an increased latent heat load on the A/C. Also you will most likely develop quite the mold and mildew issue evaporating 7 gallons of water into your apartment per day. I love the idea but to work well you will need a secondary type system and a heat exchanger. Such as an outside cooling tower with a sump using normal water with a coil in the bottom running S.W. through it. If you want the right heat load calcs and sums for a cooling tower I can try to calculate that as best I can. As for water flow dont worry about a fine spray. Just try to slow it down with media that is cheap and easy to replace to abate the nitrate problem. Like I said though watch for the mildew spots on the ceiling .
 
Bruise, I researched this pretty extensivley before going foward with it initially. If you have a dewpoint that is at least 8 deg F below ambient the evaporation process will work more efficiently than a compressor based system. Even in highly humid NJ the system is still feasbile, although it will meet its match with 80% humidity. My job uses a very large evaporative tower (50 ton cooling i think) to cool water for process equipment and I'm sure they considered all of their options. It does jack up the humidity and I agree with your latent heat observation. For this next model I was planning on an external vent to exhaust the humidy outside of the apt. There is an old wall A/C socket in my wall right by the tank, I was going to use that. I did have some problems with the initial tower of condensation under the stand (because the tower was in my sump). So I taped up some plastic wrap all underneath the stand (upper part) and let it drape down so condensate could drip back into the sump.
 
Yes wet bulb is the factor in sizing towers...Most of the bulsings I work on average 150-200 tons on the evaporative side. Also one other consideration is calcium. Magnesium and calcium are the two contributing factors to scale build-up. As we dose both of these I would be curious as to the amount of scale formation you have previously seen.
 
Andy,
Correct me if I'm wrong, but couldnt you save a lot of space by putting the cooling coil IN the tower sump water. The heat removed is from the spray water that is recirculating from the tower sump. It seems the coil being submersed in the tower sump will have better heat transfer. Like the cooling towers for condenser water- you are cooling the water, not the air.
BUT, We have a closed circuit cooler (evaporative fluid cooler for a heat pump loop) at work that runs the tubing AS the tower fill.
Which is better?
 
H20eng

what are you gonna use for your coil? Wouldn't it be great if we could use copper tubing :rolleyes:

This is the biggest hurdle is establishing good heat transfer with reef-safe materials using a closed-loop. This is the route I was headed in, but to get the proper surface area for heat transfer, flow rate (for heat transfer), etc etc. The amount of thinwall tubing and the number of fittings makes this tough to do for under $150 at least for cooling my 72Gal tank.
 
I once had an aquarium in a restaraunt which was getting too hot, so I rigged up a chamber with a coil of copper tubing inside a sleeve of plastic tubing, then had a refrigeration guy run a line from one of the freezer compressors to the chamber.
as it was 10" pvc, the water slowed pretty good when it got in there; dropping like 10 degreees!
Pretty DIY, but I ended up having to get another heater for the tank!
 
that is kinda what i did this winter. I ran a coil outside my apt window about 50 ft of vinyvl tube that was pumped in and out of my tank. It worked pretty well. Using the sleeve you probably took away from your heat transfer by adding another layer. Having just plastic tube would have given you better cooling, but if it worked it worked :D
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7477186#post7477186 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rppvt
so I rigged up a chamber with a coil of copper tubing inside a sleeve of plastic tubing,
Click to expand...
I like your creative solution!
 
hey hey!

you just made a deltec eco-cooler!!!

http://www.deltecaquariumsolutions.com/coolers.php

only you saved $1774!!!

i am planning to make a similar chiller despite the fact that i already have a powerful fan for evap cooling and a 1/2 hp chiller!

the idea of the plastic watering can spout is a great idea!

to increase efficiency of the coolers initial design, you would want a vent to have the evap water that is responsble for cooling exit on the other side...to increase cooling efficiency even more!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6850727#post6850727 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bkiba
Rise and Shine!

Summer is just around the corner people. I've been working on my new design. Here is a crude mock up:

33736coolingtower_2000.GIF


Basically I'm running my tank water through a coil emersed in the column that will cool off. I figure I'll need at least 500GPH of flow to get decent cooling to my tank. I'm figuring on about a 1200W cooling system, that will need to evap around 7 gallons per day to meet all the cooling needs of my system.

Someone suggested I add dessicants and at first I dismissed the idea, but I will play with it as I think it could save the cooler in high humidity.

I've also added a programmable microcontroller and monitoring system for temperature, humidity, and flow rate of fans and pumps.

The new design solves two problems and creates one.
The problems solved are that we can now use metal parts for the pump and the spray nozzle to increase efficiency.
I can also not have to worry about salt spray anymore

Unforunatley there is no free lunch, so the big issue now is heat transfer within the coil.

Still in the early planning stages but I will have something with balls by the time the heat waves come around. If anyone else has done any experimentation please share so we can all beat another summer for cheap!

:D
Click to expand...


I just had a great idea! Just spend the 300 on a chiller
:lol:
 
H20Eng..yes every evap cooler I have ever seen is setup to have the coil directly immersed in the sump water or use the sump water for direct heat transfer. Finding some titanium or nickel crhromium tubing would be a great suggestion here but probably above the budget of this project. After buying the ti tubing you would be running very close to the cost of a chiller. Might want to check ebay for some titanium, the thinwall stuff you can bend with a cheap tubing bender as long as you keep your radius withing specs of tubing diameter.
 
You might get away with a whole roll of plastic tubing in the sump if you had a large enough pump to overcome 500 ft of pressure drop:)
 
Re: Beat the heat for cheap (and get the poo out!)

Re: Beat the heat for cheap (and get the poo out!)

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=5614328#post5614328 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mctabish
Would this work? Hook up the cooling tower to the inlet side of a beckett modified ETSS skimmer?
(see gallery)
101025Etss_Skimmer_with_Cooling_Tower1.bmp
Click to expand...
That could work
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
DIY Stand Help
Replies
6
Views
355
kharmaguru
kharmaguru
K
40 Gallon AIO Tank Repair?
Replies
8
Views
206
kingyking888
K
K
Removable glue for 3D PETG and Glass?
Replies
7
Views
827
kingyking888
K
E
Aquascape question?
2
Replies
30
Views
399
Reefing102
Reefing102
Niven
I'm back....and ready to jump back in, feet first in the deep end, speedo, everything!
2
Replies
20
Views
496
vlangel
vlangel
Back
Top