Never before seen (I think) DIY Cooling idea ...

G

Gatorguy

AC Members
Jul 31, 2006
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Central Fl
So I have this 110g tank that has been running 84ish °F since I added AH Supply lighting. I have glass tops. The temperature has been stressing me. So has the pricing of chillers. I do have two cooling fans in my canopy and have recently removed part of the glass tops to facilitate evaporation and thus cooling effect. I don't like that idea as a permanent solution.

I got to thinking... I wonder if I could get some kind of coil, like a radiator in your car for example, and a fan to blow across it and pump water through the coil with my magdrive pump that I use for filtration (Ocean Clear Canister) to reject some of the heat from the water to the room air.

Here's the breakthrough (maybe). I came across this product in a sale brocure for an HVAC supply company (I work in the industry). See the product here . You might want to click on the second link under product literature on the right side of the webpage.

The product (called a kickspace heater) is made to heat parts of your home by piping hot water through the coil and blowing air across it. I am in central Florida and have never seen such, but the idea of using this for my aquarium intrigued me. I can plumb my water through it, it already has a built in blower motor and coil for heat transfer. Admittedly, the coolest the aquarium could get is equal to the room temperature, but being in Florida, my house stays around 76°F max so I would be happy to cool to my room temp (or even 78-80°F).

Initial Cost: Small model is $140ish, medium is $180ish, large is $220ish.

Operating Cost:Small and medium models pull .5 amp at 120vac which is about 30 watts (nothing).
Large unit pulls .75 amps at 120vac which is about 67 watts (not much more)

I am thinking I can either get a thermostat controller to switch power to the blower motor, or simply run the blower on one of the timers I use for my lighting to run the blower only when I have the lights on.

So, what do you think? Crazy idea? Let's talk about it.

P.S. Here is another manufacturer of a similar product. I don't have pricing info on these.
 
I'm willing to bet that if you rigged up a pump with some copper tubing bent into a whole bunch of coils or rows and set up a fan to blow over that, you could make your own makeshift chiller for around $30 or so. If you wanted to take that a step further, set it up over a bucket, and have one of those $5 reptile drippers drip water onto the copper tubing. The evaporating water will pull energy from the surface of the copper, cooling it off, thus cooling the water inside of it. I know this sounds like a really rinky-dink idea... but with propper planning and a bit of effort, I bet you could get it to work just fine.


One thing to keep in mind though... any device to remove heat from your tank is going to pump it directly into your room. (might me nice during the winter tho :joke: )
 
I understand that it will be pumping heat into the room.

The fact is, anytime the lights are on, they are generating heat which is being transmitted into my room in one way or another. I actually want to help the process. I want the heat to be put into my room rather than into my aquarium.

Heat is being radiated into the room through the glass. My cooling fans are moving heat into the room. And now that my glass lids are off, I am evaporating water (which is taking heat from my aquarium) into my room which is an additional load on my A/C (called latent heat).
 
wackydan said:
I've been looking at those AH supply lights.

Some questions...

1. Was it the retrofit kit for an existing plastic hood?

2. If so, how hot does the plastic get? and what kit did you buy?
Click to expand...


I have 4x55w mounted on the underneath side of a wood canopy top. They are BRIGHT! I have no plastic parts under there. I am thinking of adding more light, but I have an uphill battle with the wife. She can't understand for the life of her why I need more lights when she is already being blinded anytime I lift the canopy lid. :)
 
Ohms law, P=V*I, 120V * .5A = 60w, not 30.
 
sploke said:
Ohms law, P=V*I, 120V * .5A = 60w, not 30.
Click to expand...

You are correct. I know that. I copied from the manufacturer's data and didn't verify the math. I wonder why they list it the way they do... Maybe the listed amerage is a maximum drawn amprage, as in the "in-rush" as the motor starts. Maybe the listed amperage is not normal running amps.

See page 5 of this .pdf

There is also 746 watts in one horsepower. They list the motor as .034 horsepower, which equates to 25.3 watts which is a tad bit under their rated wattage. Who knows.

Bottom Line: It isn't very much power consumption any way you look at it.
 
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I know this is totally off topic, but by those figures, the engine in my r/c car produces along the order of 950 watts. (not bad for a 3.5 lb car :-P)
 
Come to think of it, a buddy of mine and I discussed this once before... and we came up with a good solution. (or so we thought) Buy a cheapo mini-fridge from target. It will cost on the order of $40 or so. Go with the copper tubing idea from earlier, but have a serpentine section of tubing inside the mini fridge. (drill small holes on either side to insert the section, and use sealant to make sure the cold air doesn't escape) I don't know how efficient it would be, but for a total of $60-75 to make, I'm sure it can't be worse than blowing $300 on a 1/10hp chiller.
 
DO NOT drill holes through the side of a mini fridge. I learned this one the hard way. If you are going to drill, put the holes through the door.
 
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