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Another cooling system

  • #201
i havent made the final bends in the A/C pipe as im waiting till its put in the window but heres what im lookin at. one larger pipe and one very small one.


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  • #202
Rob, you're getting some really good temps but do you think you would be able to get the temps lower? For an ultrahighland tank for example? Since the cooler stays 5-10C and the tank gets down to 14C, would using a bigger pump and/or increasing the size of the radiator bring the temps down?
 
  • #203
Rob, you're getting some really good temps but do you think you would be able to get the temps lower? For an ultrahighland tank for example? Since the cooler stays 5-10C and the tank gets down to 14C, would using a bigger pump and/or increasing the size of the radiator bring the temps down?

I'd just have to set my night temperature setting lower on my hygrotherm.
 
  • #204
Rob,

You were right. After all the messing around, tweaking, reconfiguring, insulating.... I am giving up on the water cooler based water chiller. Yesterday my 133cfm 120mm fans arrived, and even installing one of them on the radiator did not make any difference. Same 20F drop from ambient temperature.

Friend from work is donating me his broken dehumidifier (dead fan) and I'll try this: http://www.jonolavsakvarium.com/eng_diy/chiller/chiller.html
What do you think?
 
  • #205
Gill,

Once upon a time i was a sears service man for about 5 yrs, worked on tons of similar DH's. Those fans failing were uber common.... no one ever oiled them.
Even if you oil it now and get it to work, it wont work long.... they never did..... the windings have already been damaged at this point.

Anyways, you will still need that fan to be operational to cool the condenser coil.

BTW, the control will also be a humidistat and not a thermostat ;)

and now back to your regularly scheduled programming
:)
 
  • #206
"For my birthday I got a humidifier and a dehumidifier. I put them in the same room and let them fight it out . . ."

-- Steven Wright
 
  • #207
I do wonder who won.... i bet the humidifier
 
  • #208
Av,

I forgot to mention i have a spare motor from a fan that suffered an unfortunate fall and broke the stand. It is working. Ill try to either wire the motor in once I get that DH and figure out whats wrong with its motor or just run the fan separately so that it cools the condenser.

Dave,

LOL I almost soiled myself.
 
  • #209
I'd just have to set my night temperature setting lower on my hygrotherm.
Could you elaborate on how you have it set up inside the cooler? Is it a closed loop with some kind of heat exchanger in the cooler or are the ends of the tubing open in there?
 
  • #210
what a bad day.... went to put the system together n the A/C line sprung a leak. so dam frustrated right now :( my tanks are ripped apart n now i dnt have an a/c to get everything put together.
 
  • #211
Could you elaborate on how you have it set up inside the cooler? Is it a closed loop with some kind of heat exchanger in the cooler or are the ends of the tubing open in there?

There is no heat exchanger in the cooler. Here's a diagram i made quick in paint to show you how I have it setup in the cooler.



If I were to do it again i wouldnt have put the holes for the tubing in the lid. It was a real ***** trying to get the tubing on the pump. I'd suggest have the tubing come out the side instead, but as close to the top of the cooler as possible.

@ Myles, that really sucks about your AC rad. Look on craigslist and kijiiji, I found mine there for 20 bucks.
 
  • #212
i just went n bought a nice lil compact 5000 btu unit at home depot last night. got the bend in it np this time :D i just got the cooler cut and sealed up with the water cooling down to 38 atm. When this is over, imma be so dam happy!!
 
  • #213
i just went n bought a nice lil compact 5000 btu unit at home depot last night. got the bend in it np this time :D i just got the cooler cut and sealed up with the water cooling down to 38 atm. When this is over, imma be so dam happy!!

Sweet Myles! Keep us posted on your progress :)
 
  • #214
all done!! :) so far so good!!! the A/C cooled th ewater down to 35 in notime and hasnt kicked on since. tonight will be the best test when its asked to drop the tank to 55. will time to see how long it takes.

this cooler is PERFECT for the job. put it in sideways so as not to mess with the cover. cover still opens n closes and i uses foam insulation to seal up the hole on the side.

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  • #215
Hello,

I managed to follow in mylesG's steps and while moving the evaporator coil out of the dehumidifier bent and broke one of the tubes :( Will get an AC unit sometime after next week and will start over :)
 
  • #216
hope you have better luck next go around gill!

my system has been doing great, the only prob is the fans on the radiator arent quite strong enoough. i will be putting a 50 cfm fan on with one of the current 35 cfm fans to boost the cooling power a bit. want to get low 50s anmd only getting mid 50s atm.
 
  • #217
I guess that AC units over there are so cheap that it's not worth getting an AC engineer to replace the broken tube and re-gas?
 
  • #218
Well, I can find a used AC for around 40 bucks on craigslist or I can buy a new small with analog input in walmart for 100. I could parhaps try and find someone to replace the pipe and refill the system with coolant, but it seems simplier to find a new unit.
In addition I was using a dehumidifier and the system was designed in such a way that it was using the evaporator to cool down condenser core by puling the air through both. Thus by removing evaporator core I was afraid that the condenser core will overheat anyway. I also had to replace the old broken motor with the weaker one lowering the efficiency... Whatever happens happens for a reason.
 
  • #219
Fair enough. AC units are more expensive over here and domestic ones are not commonly available... we don't really get the weather that justifies owning one :) I guess an advantage with getting an AC engineer who could do it would be that they'd be able to extend out the piping, but I guess that the labour hours could work out expensive, unless you had a friend who was one.
 
  • #220
I was thinking of going with a small chest freezer, ~$60 used on craigslist plus I wouldn't need a cooler.
 
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