Air Cooled Condenser Baseboard heating element

[bikecartstill]

For various reasons i am looking into an air cooled condenser that would utilize a length of aluminum finned copper tubing commonly found in baseboard heating elements - see here http://www.accentshopping.com/product.asp?P_ID=151211#

My current condenser is a 2' length of 1/2" copper tubing surrounded by a 1" diameter cooling jacket that I pump water through. I'm looking at swapping this for a 2 or 3' length of 3/4" aluminum finned copper tubing but I'm wondering if 3/4" will be too large a diameter to get adequate cooling. It's difficult to find finned copper tubing smaller than 3/4" but i'm looking.

Anyone have experience using these as a condenser?

[rad14701]

The 3/4" copper with aluminum fins will work well but you may need more than 3 feet in length for adequate cooling... Of course this would be dependent upon whether you would be fan cooling the resulting condenser... Down the road you could cut it shorter a lot easier than cutting it longer...

Just the other day I was envisioning having a similar condenser permanently mounted on a shop wall at a very gradual slope that would have inlet and outlet tubes with fittings so a boiler could be moved into place and attached for each run and then stored away once the run was completed...

I have also entertained the idea of mounting such a condenser in either aluminum vent or PVC pipe along with a fan mounted in a Tee fitting at the bottom to force cool air up through the shroud...

Food for thought...

[NcHooch]

I've always looked at that stuff with a smile. I cant think of a single reason why not.
As I recall, you can buy it in 2,4,6,8 foot lengths.
I agree w/ what Rad said, start long.

[bikecartstill]

Ok thanks for the help. I found the elements in 1/2" diameter for pretty cheap at globalindustrial.com if you all want to make your dreams a reality.

[Barney Fife]

If you're tight for space, you can join several short lengths with elbow to create a nigh flow radiator.

Also, you can buy just the elements, and not the whole baseboard thing, for a big dollar savings. I bought two 8 foot long elements a while back with the idea of either a air-cooled system, or simply to prevent my barrel water from getting too hot before the run's end.

If someone here can tell us how, we should be able to do the math and find out how much length we'd need to knock down how much power, since the BTU per foot is known for these things. Add a fan, and it would be even more efficient.

[GuyIncognito]

I've got something very similar as the condenser on my 6-gal pot still. The finned section of the copper tube is about 2', and the pot is heated by an induction cooktop which ramps in power from ~1000w to 1800w over the course of the run. To get sufficient cooling it NEEDS to be coupled with a fan. I laced together 5 cpu fans that I had laying around and hung that from the pipe and it works decent. My fan solution could definitely be optimized (squirrel cage blower with condenser mounted in a duct), but it works and lets me locate away from running water which is a plus.