lampshade wrote:
Love your ingenuity.
What are the pros and cons to using an air conditioner vs. a simple radiator?
One possible pro is the price. For $25 you get a radiator, fan, and controller; all connected together in a nice looking housing.
One con: It costs more electricity to run an air conditioner than just a radiator+fan -- for the same cooling capacity -- due to losses and the laws of thermodynamics.
One suggestion: Can you extend the cooler lines so that the air conditioner is located at a distance away from the water. If you did that, you could place the air conditioner in a window and pump the heat outdoors.
lets see pros and cons of this over a radiator. well first the obvious is that water doesn't go through a radiator, as the cooling coil goes in the water reservoir so depending on your pump head or flow rate this could make things easier. cost is not actually a pro as this will cost more to run then a fan with radiator (depending on your fan) but i will say it is much more efficient. having finally tried that rout i can attest that i was able to maintain cooler temps longer with this method over the radiator method.
another pro (at least for me) was the ability to pull the heat and moisture created from a warm reservoir out of the garage though the ducting on the back.
another pro that i have not tested yet but most definitely will be when its truly hot is adding the swamp cooler back but rather then using the cheap fan i had i will use the flower on the front of the AC unit which blows far more air and should provide a better prechill to the water returning so that the chiller will have no problems what so ever on long runs.
now to address the cooler line thing.. this is a big YES AND NO you see the lines have limited length, as you can see in the pics above. it is also a closed system so if you were to cut into he lines to solder an extension you would lose all the coolant and not have a way to refill. however there was a forum i came across that had an individual who was able to instal a refill valve onto the compressor after extending the lines and refilling and pressure testing the system. now i will say that this person was in the refrigeration and AC industry and said had he not had the know how and parts and tools this sort of project would not even be in the ball park as cost effective. something in the neighborhood of 2-3 hundred dollars to modify a $20-$30 AC. but like i said you can simply do as i did and add some make shift flex ducting to the rear to vent. now i dont have a pic of the final set up as i don't need it due to cooler weather (maybe next summer) but i will post pics of how i made this easier to manage.
first was to give my cooling reservoir some wheels
next was to give it a top with an opening for the radiator to pass into the reservoir
now all you have to do is place the ac on the top and wheel it out when its time to run. i plug it and let it prechill my cooling water as im filling my keg and getting things ready.
now i only had one chance to test it at the crazy temps we were having because now its much much much cooler outside and any further testing would not be a good control group. but in the one run i did, i will say again that it was 103ish in my garage and my reservoir was 150ish at the peak of my run. i was pumping about 3500 watts or so into my rig once dialed back from the full 100% to get it up to temp and at that these temps my old system just wasn't keeping up. i would start getting a vapor bypass when i was in full reflux. this thread i made can explain all the tricks i had tried to get my water to cool.
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =2&t=41660. but this time it was still blistering hot outside, but due to the AC pumping out all the hot air it was a manageable 80*F and the water temp was just a hair under that with the chiller.
for more on this method do a google search on DIY Immersion Chiller. now i will warn you all the videos and articles found on this will send you to sites on growing marijuana. this is because almost all major indoor grow operations create an exuberant amount of heat, and these types of chillers are sold commercially for several hundred to several thousand dollars to keep the hydroponic systems filled with cool water for the plants.
in one video there was a guy who used a dehumidifier (same concept as an AC) and did this exact same thing. he had a room that was well over 90*f however he was able to keep a series of reservoirs upwards of 200gal of water at a mild 65*ish constantly.
now if you don't find the need for this then that's fine but for me i just couldn't keep my water cool enough so this was a last resort. and like i said if i find i need a little more assistance ill add the swamp cooler in and then there is no way ill have issues.
