interesting closed loop cooling system idea

[haze]

I have an idea for a closed loop cooling system with a very small amount of water. less than a litre.

I have no idea if it will work to dissipate all the heat in such a small amount of liquid but ill enjoy messing with it.

I just picked up this today for $20 secondhand.

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After some research on CPU water coolers i found that old Apple macintosh G5's had a over engineered system in their dual cpu machines. It was a failure for apple.. leaks were frequent and of course motherboards failed.

So, im planning to add PC fans to the radiator part probably 4 x 80mm units 2 on each side.

If thats not enough then i want to add 2 peltier coolers to the place where the old CPU's were.

similar to..

what do you guys think

mike

[Kimbo]

Mate,
keep us posted, it will be very interesting to see how it well it works :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[wynnum1]

peltier coolers use a lot of power to cool i think you need a lot more water in the system.

[haze]

yeh im thinking now that i cant avoid a bigger resevoir. but i want to keep it small.

and further research on peltier coolers wasnt great news. They get super cold and you can put a drop of water on them and it will freeze instantly but they will suck at handling contstant heat. So they are good at say cooling a can of coke when in a portable 12v esky but struggle to dissapate extra heat thats constantly added.

Further updates on this, pump is rooted. There was some sludge in the lines and im sure that is the cause. So i will need a pump if anyone has reccomendations. :think:

[Kimbo]

I,ve got an old A/C condenser i'm not using, if your interested, ill post a pic ;-)

[haze]

Messed around with this tonight. I put 2 x 120mm fans on each side of the small radiator blowing straight through. Used a pond pump to run water through it from a urn.

Ambient temp = 27degrees

1st test
Supply water was 33degrees
Exit from rad water was 31

2nd test
Supply water was 40 degrees
Exit from rad water was 37

1st test
Supply water was 64degrees
Exit from rad water was 58

Im not sure conclusions to draw from this. Not as good as i was hoping. I think the idea has merit but it needs to be upscaled to a car size radiator and a thermo fan - Davies craig style.

Anyone have a guess what temp the water out of a condensor/still setup like mine would be? (3" LM boka, not finished yet) Are we talking 40deg/50/60 ?

And How much water could i expect to use when i still a 50L mash?

Is this whole idea a waste of time? I know with my friends T500 the water supply is crucial to getting it working correctly. Its apparent to me that If i have a closed loop system that no matter how good i make the heat dissapation that its still going to creep upwards. Would the creeping water temps into a 3" boka condensor cause problems that would be a pain in the ass when doing a run. like constant adjustments ect.. or are boka systems much more forgiving

[Kimbo]

hi Haze,
at a guess, your water temp will always rise to some degree with a closed loop system. but remember, that the vapour temp is around 79ish degrees.
so as long as your coolant is less than that, then you should still be able to condense the vapour.(although your output may be quite hot)
so try running the coolant thru the product leibig then thru the coil condenser.
i recon it will be a bit of trial and error. but hey, if its all getting too hot, turn off the heat and try something else :-D
thats my 2 cents :handgestures-thumbupleft:

also, i notice that the hotter you get, the more your system is cooling,
ans it is not uncommon for the output water temp to be in the high 50's

[emptyglass]

I used to run a 2" pot on a 50 litre keg. I usually only fill it to 45 litres.
With a worm in a bucket condensor, I used to use about 50 liters of fresh tap water to do a batch, plus there was 25 or so liters held in the worm bucket.

I now use a car radiator on the same 50 liter keg with a plated column. I dont use any water, excepting for evaporation at maybe 5 liters a batch.

But theres a catch; where the worm and bucket used no power, the car radiator with a fan and pump does.

Take out of that what you will, but you will need to extract the energy (heat energy) you put in. If you have a big burner, you need to shed big heat, and so on.