daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
i was thinking of making a chiller, pros/cons.....
anyone have ideas on a home made chiller..
- Thread starter daytonaconnecti
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mattleycrue76
Aquajunkie
I'll be following this. I'm curious myself
mmkeeper
Well-known member
Do a search, Last summer there was a thread about a home made chiller
DonW
R.I.P.
The biggest con is you need to know allot about air conditioning and refrigeration. That said you can buy a chiller cheaper than you can make one for an average sized tank. If you have a huge system a custom chiller may save a little but not much. Take a look at the prices of titanium heat exchangers / coils.
Don
Don
mmn_usn
bblhd reefer
I have a drink cooler that I would love to turn into a chiller.. I am following this to see what comes up
Tundra
Active member
i deivered to a home that had a 400g in wall system (thats what the wife said it was) it had an access closet behind it & a home made chiller in the garage. the husband wasnt home & the wife new nothing about it, i wish i would of left my number with them.
Ron Shimek has a pretty awesome cooling system. He uses cold tap water that he runs through a 100 foot coiled tube in his sump. He then runs the tube out to his lawn for watering.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1362110
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1362110
daytonaconnecti
Well-known member
i was thinking of using one of those little refrig, and use a coil of plastic tubing for the inside, and run the tank water through the coil and back into the tank...
danno14
That's Dumas!
Daytona- Your idea has been considered by many, and the thermal dynamics make it tremendously less efficient than a real chiller. You either pay up front or you pay long term. In other words- spend the $$ on a real chiller and pay less for the electricity to cool, or spend less on a home made version (fridge) and more on power.... forever.
Unless..... you have the time, labor, and inclination to do an external trench and coils! It will cost more than a chiller up front but the power cost will be close to nil. (My project for summer, using a lake to cool
Good luck,
D
Unless..... you have the time, labor, and inclination to do an external trench and coils! It will cost more than a chiller up front but the power cost will be close to nil. (My project for summer, using a lake to cool
Good luck,
D
Scooterman
Well-known member
Put a fan in the right place & you won't need a chiller!
mmn_usn
bblhd reefer
I have a fan right now blowing right across the water and only one of my MH on... the temp still gets up around 80 and the room temp is not over 65. When summer comes I am definately going to have to get a chiller.
Scooterman
Well-known member
WOW! You must have something else adding heat to your tank. I run two 250W MH 6" off the surface with room temps. at 80 & still not exceed 81.5
Now at one time I had a pump that added lots more heat & needed a chiller, so something to consider!
I havent built it yet, or even started a thread for it, But i am looking into building a heat pump type system useing peliter plates so that i could not only use it for cooling but also for heating. Still working on the setting up the rest of the system, this is kinda towards the end of the system setup. But if you are decent with electronics i would say do a little research on peliter plates, Could easiely get the equivlent of 1000 watts of heating and cooling out of a very small pakage. When i finaly get around to this i will start a thread in the do-it-your self area.
mmn_usn
bblhd reefer
Scoot... do you have a hood over yours? I didn't have any problems when I had the tank in Guam.. I had an open light setup and the lights had a fan pulling the heat out of the lamp.
burning2nd
Well-known member
im with scooter... a well place fan(s) will work just as well
Scooterman
Well-known member
jamiehill
Utini
Here is the chiller I put together last summer. It worked ok, but it had a hard time keeping up. I bought a small chiller and it does a much better job.
DIY Chiller
DIY Chiller
ecobalance
lifetaper
another red neck chiller
Sump in larger diameter tote that is either plumbed to a drain or has a sump pump to a drain.Ro/di waste water fills up outer tote and is either equipted with a drain with a bulkhead plumbed to a lower drain or a pump hooked to a upside down float switch that is plumbed to a drain.If you have a well this constant flow of really cold water through the outer sump will keep most tanks cool
Sump in larger diameter tote that is either plumbed to a drain or has a sump pump to a drain.Ro/di waste water fills up outer tote and is either equipted with a drain with a bulkhead plumbed to a lower drain or a pump hooked to a upside down float switch that is plumbed to a drain.If you have a well this constant flow of really cold water through the outer sump will keep most tanks cool
danno14
That's Dumas!
These are great, and are actually available in the industry for smaller systems. The cost of the hardware jumps significantly when designing for higher volume setups.
Fans do a great job in so many ways..... but do not disregard the energy used to "cool" the ambient air that is changed by what the fan removes from the tank. The absolute most efficient method is to use the temp differential inherent in the earth to do the cooling, and only use electic energy to move the water to/from the earth (pond, stream, well, whatever). Cost is a factor when you consider heat exchangers, digging, and labor. Piping, pump, coolant are not so much- PVC is cheap. The pump can be small as if you do it right there won't be much head pressure. Coolant can be water or a mix ($10/gal mixed 50/50 with water). The ongoing expense of running it is where the savings is, and most effective for larger systems.
There is still the factor of removing the room heat generated by lights and pumps. Water is a more efficient conductor of heat than air, so theoretically sending all the light and pump heat into the water, then removing it = the most efficient. Practicallity says otherwise, so having some type of AC or fans to cool the ambient in the room is important.
Just a little musing, as I am designing a better system for myself
D
danno14
That's Dumas!
Figure in the energy cost of running the well pump....but all-in-all a greatly effective system is you have the space!
Another thing I have seen done (and am considering) is looping the RODI supply line through the sump, which adds a little cooling to the sump and heating to the supply line. This elevates the supply to a level where the RO is actually more effective - killing two birds so to speak. Loops of 1/4" are cheap, but not tremendously effective at heat exchange.
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