Chilling water without a water chiller

[texasluv]

I've been having problems with my reservoir temps (between 76-82 degrees) and found a really quick/easy way to drop my water temperature about 10 degrees. I use a 50 gallon rubbermaid Brute trash-can as my reservoir. When filled with "cold" water from my faucet the temp was between 81-82 degrees!!! If I let the water sit overnight the temps would drop down to somewhere between 76-78 degrees, which is still way to warm for my liking.

Since my reservoir is positioned directly under my window AC unit, I decided to use 4" ducting from the AC unit into the top of the reservoir. I used aluminum tape to mount the 4" ducting over about a 1/4 of the AC air outlet and ducted it right into the lid of my res. Now anytime the AC kicks on it is pouring COLD air directly over top of my water. I leave the lid slightly cracked so the cold air can escape. It has only been set up like this for two days and my average reservoir temp is 67-68 degrees. The lowest it has gotten is 66.8 and the highest is 68.5. I was worried that ducting air directly over the water was going to cause the humidity in the room to go up but since the air is so cold when it comes in contact with the water, no water seems to be evaporating into the air. My humidity levels have not fluxed at all since the modification.

I know this isn't really a water chiller, but it dropped my 50 gallon reservoir temps about 9 degrees and it didn't cost me a penny. I used about 2 feet of 4" aluminum ducting and some aluminum tape and voila, all my reservoir temperature issues are solved!

Just thought I'd share. It sure is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying a $300-400 water chiller. Obviously the chillers work better, but this will work to drop the temp just a few degrees without the need for expensive equipment and using more power. There are plenty of us out there with window AC units that could use the res temps to go down a little.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the idea mang =]

 

[Sad247summer]

Another thing that works quite well for those of us who live where it gets cold and snows.
Fill a clean hose with a glycol/water mix throw that ****er out in the yard on a closed loop attatched to an inline pump, Make a "coil" out of the hose and put it in your res.
Or if you are that confident about your pump and have a battery back up just let the res liquid circulate thru the hose, but it has to be constantly moving or it will freeze.
The glycol method is nice and can be controled by a thermostat.

 

[Guest]

Another thing that works quite well for those of us who live where it gets cold and snows.
Fill a clean hose with a glycol/water mix throw that ****er out in the yard on a closed loop attatched to an inline pump, Make a "coil" out of the hose and put it in your res.
Or if you are that confident about your pump and have a battery back up just let the res liquid circulate thru the hose, but it has to be constantly moving or it will freeze.
The glycol method is nice and can be controled by a thermostat.

Thats a great idea, I was thinking about doing that same thing, except running a closed loop into a mini fridge with a copper coil inside to help cooling. You wouldnt want to put a copper coil in the res though, so just put a coiled up hose in there like you said.

 

[The Slickster]

Nice share, this A/C idea is a sure way to keep the water cool and thus better aereated for cheap during the hot months. This along with a water pump will provide for optimum water circulation and oxygenation. For even lighter water heat problems, a fan over the water and only airstones to lessen heat transfering into the water from the water pump/s will do just as well during the colder months without the A/C.