Will This Cooling System Work?

[MightBeSlimShad]

Hey gang,

I need your expertise in letting me know if this cooling system will work. Here's the plan:

• Pump in bucket 1 out to fridge with 100-200 feet of tubing
• Water through fridge to bucket #2
• Bucket #2 and #1 connected by tubing at the bottom

My concern is will the water feed from bucket #2 to #1 or will bucket #2 just overflow? If it will overflow how do I adjust this system to work right?

 

[Speed of green]

fill bucket 1 with the pump running, the water will level itself out. if you run the pump continuously the water will not cool, you have to cycle it with a timer.

 

[MJINC]

Are you using this system to cool the water for your reservoirs or to cool something else?

 

[MightBeSlimShad]

Are you using this system to cool the water for your reservoirs or to cool something else?

This is to cool the reservoirs

 

[MightBeSlimShad]

fill bucket 1 with the pump running, the water will level itself out. if you run the pump continuously the water will not cool, you have to cycle it with a timer.

Thanks, that's what I was nervous about. Wasn't sure the water would level between the 2 buckets.

How fast should the timer cycle be?

 

[queequeg152]

unlikely to work.

you have to understand that fridged are PISSY SMALL heat pumps. PISS SMALL.

some are literally like 800 btuh. contrast that with a tiny window AC at like 9,000 btuh...

im not saying you could not make it work... but its going to require alot more than your drawing would suggest. problem with your coil is that its only going to move a small fraction of the heat inside your fridge.

for example instead of the coil you could want to fill the fridge/freezer with a glycol vat that could be droped in temp over night when the res was not running, and the heat gain was tiny. you would also need to insulate the whole deal aggressively.

on the other hand... if you had a super beefy fridge, say a commercial one? that could actually work as they tend to be much higher capacity.

 

[n_d_ledz]

For best heat transfer in that fridge, you'd want copper as your coil. 100' of copper tubing isnt cheap, neither is realizing it does not have the capacity to do what you want.

Look into an inexpensive chiller on a site for Aquarium supplies, you may find the same model the hydro shop sells at a good bit less.

 

[Speed of green]

30 min off 20 sec on. you could probably chilll a gallon or two maximum with this setup, there are better options out there for chillers.

 

[MightBeSlimShad]

Thanks guys, I think I'll punt on this idea and look for something more efficient