Chiller Question

[Shark Keeper]

When connecting your chilller. The directions say that the recommended pump is from 475 to 800 gph.

What should you shoot for? I am thinking the lower range so that the water has a longer dwell time or am I way off base on this?

 

[BeanAnimal]

It is actually somewhat the opposite. The faster the water moves through the chiller the more efficiently it can transfer the heat away.

Remember the greater the temperatre differential between two bodies, the faster the rate of heat transfer from the warmer to the cooler

 

[washingtond]

I just installed a 1/3 HP chiller that requires a flow of 480 â€"œ 2,400 GPH. I am running it at about 1,800 GPH. I am in Texas where it really gets hot in fact the house has been running in the low 80’s during the day now. When the four 250 HM’s are on the tank stays at 79 degrees where the chiller is set. The chiller is located out in the garage where the temps are in the 90’s now but will be much higher when we really get into the summer (100+).

Side note last year we ran the house central AC to keep the house at 78 in order to keep the tank from going over 82 during the hottest days but really paid the price for that in electric bills which is why I got a chiller this year.

What is important the chiller cycles on about once per hour now.

Someone else who knows more about flow vs. efficiency can comment on that.

 

[Shark Keeper]

Ok I think I get it but now the question is with placing the chiller in a different location from your tank do you have to use a pressure rate pump?

I was thinking about using a Mag 7 or something but now I am thinking that I should put the chiller in a distant location away from the tank.

 

[washingtond]

I am using a Mag 9.5 through 20’ of ½ in tubing without any problems. Overall I have good flow (900 GPH) right now through the chiller. Mag 7 should be fine depending on the overall distance.

 

[BeanAnimal]

The use of a pressure rated pump will be dicated by the total head you will be facing. If this will be a closed loop, then the head will be ZERO plus the friction loss of the pipe.


There is a decent calculator on the RC home page.