DIY room cooling with Water experiment.

[Chillville]

Couple of things here: One, Just by happy accident I put my Iceflow boxes on an angle, and they drain most of the condensation off nicely. The rest does spray out and onto the floor, so I keep a towel down there. This does a good job of regulating humidity, lol.

Two, I've seen people suggesting that you pull air thru the iceflow boxes, and I have to respectfully disagree. Here's why: Anytime you run a gas- like air- through a fan (or any other compressor section), you're HEATING it. This is why when you PUSH air through your hood vents, the ducting and the hoods get hot. So don't do it, lol.

The Iceflow box is the opposite situation, hower; you want the compressd, heated air to pass through the Iceflow box to get the maximum temperature differential, thus maximizing efficiency. Then when the air decompresses (slightly, but it counts for a lot!) as it passes across the cooling core in your Iceflow box, it will be cooler than if you pull air through and then heat it on the way out with your fan. Don't believe me? Try it both ways, and let your hand or thermometer tell you which works better. Besides, I don't want condensation drops sucking through my expensive maxfans, so I wouldn't pull through even if it didn't work better.

This is known as 'Uniform Gas Law' in physics, and if properly utilized it will drastically inprove the efficiency of the cooling systems you use. Used improperly, well, you'll find yourself trying to overcome physics with horsepower and while that's possible, it's always expensive.

I have to disagree, IME all heat exchagers mated with fans the air is always drawn over the heat exchanger, not pushed over. Check your home air handler....100% of the time air is drawn over the condenser. This is because you get more efficient use of every inch of the heat exchanger putting it under a vaccum. Pushing air in to a heat exchanger causes turbulence and disrupts the flow. Most likely you are getting colder air pushing instead of pulling because you are reducing the airflow by pushing....which makes the air colder. Speeding up the airflow makes the air warmer....although its warmer you are still more efficiently cooling the room, it still removes more BTU the faster the airflow (to a point) no matter what the exiting air temperature is. Hope that makes sense.

 

[seebobsled]

update my diy

It is still work in progress but getting close.I have the 1/2 hp in a cooler diy flow threw chiller for diy ice boxes, 1hp drop in diy chiller in one 55 gal drum that feeds from bottom a 2nd 55 gal to the pump. I just got the 1hp in just need to wire and hook the pump. Then test RUN!! barrels passed leak test

On the 45 deg tilt can't you rotate 45 deg left or right instead of tilting it back or forward.

 

[seebobsled]

Chillville help temp controller settings?

I have a 12000 btu window ac made into a drop in chiller with a dual stage temp controller and wanted to know if this sounds right.

Set up is 120v- one stage for chiller fan and cap energized and stage two to run compressor.Do you need to precharge the cap before starting the compressor or will it carry from last start up?I followed the method the window bagger used but don't want the fan on always as it did.

I was going to put set points for stage1 at 64 deg with 3 min delay and off at 59 deg and stage 2 at 65 deg with 3min delay and off at 60 deg.

My thought is to cycle fan and energize the cap then have the compressor come on then turn off and let the fan stay on as the temp stablizes then all shuts down till next rise in temps with that 3 min delay to stop any rapid cycling killing the compressor.

I know I will have to play with temps a bit but does it sound about right or have I missed something?

 

[Chillville]

I have a 12000 btu window ac made into a drop in chiller with a dual stage temp controller and wanted to know if this sounds right.

Set up is 120v- one stage for chiller fan and cap energized and stage two to run compressor.Do you need to precharge the cap before starting the compressor or will it carry from last start up?I followed the method the window bagger used but don't want the fan on always as it did.

I was going to put set points for stage1 at 64 deg with 3 min delay and off at 59 deg and stage 2 at 65 deg with 3min delay and off at 60 deg.

My thought is to cycle fan and energize the cap then have the compressor come on then turn off and let the fan stay on as the temp stablizes then all shuts down till next rise in temps with that 3 min delay to stop any rapid cycling killing the compressor.

I know I will have to play with temps a bit but does it sound about right or have I missed something?

Sounds like you are making it harder on yourself than it has to be, I do the same thing lol. The cap should be precharged from the previous cycle if I'm not mistaken. I would use a single stage ranco controller and have the fan and compressor come on at the same time like a typical chiller. BTW Ranco model 111-000 I think. This controller has a setable differential that will keep the unit from short cycling.