Chiller in Attic?

[Shane20]

Just started my UC adventure a week and a half ago. My 1hp chiller puts off some heat in the room. Was thinking of putting it in attic above epi and running piping thru ceiling. Also with airpump. Any drawbacks of doing so? Want to run Co2 also so that is another reason to move chiller and pump. Comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks in advance! ;)

 

[motherlode]

my attic is hot as hell in the summer - easily 120 plus

then your chiller is gonna make it worse - might effect how efficient the chiller is

 

[QuarterbackMo]

Don't do it unless you can exhaust your chiller... If it's possible the ideal setup would be some type of enclosure for your chiller that let's in cold incoming air and exhausts out of the roof... You can exhaust your chiller really easy with a vortex fan and a flex duct sitting right behind it about 6" away.

 

[Texas Kid]

If you have any leaks, which you will, they will come through the cieling and that is costly. It also takes a pretty big ass pump to get the water up a 10'-12' verticle climb.

Water components that are out of site out of mind are not good, something always happens, trust me

Tex

 

[stifler]

Surely using a small area near your main res would be best? I presume its in another area/room as most peoples are sp then its problem solved lol

Word from the wise ^^^ He is totally right about water leaks where u cant get to them easy

 

[Shane20]

Those are definitely some of the answers I was looking for. I will just fab a wall where closet doors were and vent to the attic. That way I can keep my chiller and air pump in there and expel hot air up and out. Thanks Peeps!

 

[Innov8tr]

The best place for a chiller is outdoors of course but is not always possible for different reasons. Heat from the garden is absorbed in the water and is transported to the chiller where it is exhausted. So if you have your chiller in your garden you are pulling heat out of the water and putting it right back in the room creating a vicious cycle of building and building heat. What makes it worse is that the chiller itself also creates heat. So for sure get the chiller out of your garden so at least you can break the cycle. Assuming that you can't put it outdoors and that you absoultely must vent it there are some things to consider.

One is that you need a large fan to do this pulling from a plenum attached to the back of the chiller. For a 1 hp you are going to need an 8" max-fan to keep it running efficiently which after pulling through the chiller pushing out all of the ducting you will still get the cfm that you need. To build a plenum for the chiller you would make a metal or ductboard box around the back of the chiller. This box must be spaced off the back of the chiller at least 6" to get even distribution accross the condenser (part releasing heat).

You are going to be pulling lots of air from the area where the chiller is located. If this is in your garden you could be exhausting out co2 if adding it. If you are pumping in a/c this cold air could be quickly exhuasted too. Obvioulsy when you are exhuasting air make-up air has to come from somewhere...which is back from outside. This air that will leak in from anywhere it can to relieve the slight vacumm that the fan creates. The outside air could be hot, humid, or could carry unwanted pests and spores. If you left the fan running constantly it would be like having a window open in your house 24 hrs a day. Lastly you could be venting out smells too.

If you must vent and you are mechanically inclined you can disassemble the chiller, remove the existing fan and wire the leads to the max-fan. This way you would only be running the fan while the chiller is running greatly reducing the amount of outside make-up air being introduced. You must make sure that the chiller fan wiring can support the max-fan, if not a relay would need to be installed.

I hope this helps!

 

[Innov8tr]

Oh and although its already been said...do not put your chiller in your attic unless it never gets above 90 degrees up there. After about 95 degrees the chiller's efficiency starts to drop significantly. If you have a cheap chiller then water leaks would be my second concern, but you could put a water heater catch pan underneath it (home depot). They have 3/4" pvc outlets that you could drain to a bucket in case there was a problem.