neopole Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 hi all, been reading a few threads where chillers are mentioned. i made a chiller last week, and have been testing it this week. the results are great. i got the tank down to 14deg the other night by leaving it on too long!!!! fish tank is 5ft long and sits in a sun room, during the day the temp was getting well over 20deg. the chiller. old cast iron bath tub dug slightly into the ground behind my house, ( south side) in the tub is 20m of irrigation tubing and water. from the tank to the tub is another 20m of tubing running under the house. the water is pumped using a small 10watt power head. i run the chiller from 10am to 10pm same as my lights. with chiller running, max temp is now 17deg. i was going to add aluminium plates covered in sacks to the tub to get cooling via evaporation, but as yet no need, maybe next month i'll do that. cost tub free piping + fitting $35 pump $35 labour 4 hours ( 1 hour to move the tub on log rollers) anyone can do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Wait until summer when the air AND ground start to get warm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neopole Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 do you understand what happens during evaporation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 do you understand what happens during evaporation? Evapowhation? Never heard of it. Is that what happens when you put two drunken teenagers together? I don't think that will be nearly enough to keep the tank cool once it starts getting really warm. Will cool the water in the tub a bit, and shading it will help, but I don't think the temperature in the tub will stay very low, and once it starts to warm up...Well, obviously it won't be able to cool your tank below the temp of the water in the tub. I think it'd work great in cool weather, but in hot weather it won't. I hope it does though, I'm all for cheap cooling systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neopole Posted October 28, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 apreciate your thoughts, we live on a farm, and last summer i noticed that the troughs stayed cool as did our household water tank, obviously the volumes are much greater. but the cooling came from evapouration threw the concrete. as the tub is now, the only cooling effect is threw the base and cool nite air. once the ali cooling panels are on there will be several sqm of evaporation surface, this is what removes the heat. a simple experiement is to wrap the bulb of a thermometer with tissue and wet it and hold it outside in the shade on the hottest day, same principal applies. any way time will tell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted October 28, 2004 Report Share Posted October 28, 2004 Your idea has set me thinking Neopole, but I want to completely illiminate any rise in heat, so I am thinking around these lines... We are on tank water here, and the main tank holding 5000 gallons is 8 foot underground, and the temp of the water summer or winter is a constant 13 to 15C. My intention is to do a similar thing as Neopole, but use the cold water in the main tank. I will coil 100mtrs of 15mm pipe in the 5000gall tank and feed it into the tanks via a pump. The pipe of course will be fed with salt water from the fishtank, and will at no time come into contact with the main water system. It will be on a flow in flow out cycling system, so that the salt water passes through the cold water inside the 100mtr pipe and is returned to the salt water tank, which could be like a mini rise and fall of the tide. A timer will be set to control this happening, which will depend on the temp, or I could even set up a thermostat system that will do it automatically. The only exposed piping will be a short length where it enters the house, and the rest will be buried underground. Ira said: I'm all for cheap cooling systems. This could be something to think about Ira, as I believe you are on tank water also. Thanks for the inspiration Neopole Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kermit Posted November 3, 2004 Report Share Posted November 3, 2004 Hi guy's, just thought i'd put some other ideas across ya's that might help with cooling. I engineer and program BMS (Building Management Systems) and with this i control commercial chillers, cooling towers. Cooling tower is a simple unit, very much what your discussing above. A tub that has water circulated from the bottom basin through a water full entering it and a fan to draw air over it to increase evaporation, beleive it our not this use to be a common cheap form of cooling in some buildings but most have been replaced with a chiller as bacterias love to breed in these conditions. So if you want to increase evaporation then this may do, (you may want to put a ballcock filler in to keep water in the tub as when summer hits man its going to go through water). Also a nother thing to think of is if the air temperature is high (lets say 30deg c) it might actually heat the tank then cool it. running a huge coil through the ground is another good way to cool as the ground temperature stay's reasnobly constant. becoming more common these days too, just don't dig it up when doing the gardening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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