View Full Version : Suction line water chiller
matttheniceguy
08-29-2005, 10:21 PM
I'm part way through making my first single stage R290 unit, and had a bit of an idea. I am making a case for my phase system, and putting a radiator and pump in the same case to cool my GPU.
I was thinking of putting in a small "pipe in pipe" heat exchanger on the suction line near the compressor, and running the water loop through it. The idea behind this is to give a slight chill to the water (probably not more than a couple degrees though) and to prevent any liquid refrigerant from reaching the compressor. This way I can tune my charge for full CPU load, and when the cpu goes idle I won't have problems with liquid returning to the compressor.
I have drawn a bit of a layout below to show how it would all be connected. Think it will work? Good idea, bad idea?
jinu117
08-29-2005, 10:35 PM
Nice idea in my view. I dread installing that thing inside case though... :P
matttheniceguy
08-29-2005, 10:40 PM
It's a pretty large case. I'll throw on a picture of it so far in a second.
edit:
Here are a couple pictures of it so far. I'm using 3/4" paperface plywood for a few reasons. The first being I can get it for free, but it should also help cut down on the noise of the unit and I can make it look quite good as well.
esdee
08-30-2005, 03:45 AM
Unseen did the same thing a couple of months ago, take a look here
http://www.thelab.gr/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16553
s7e9h3n
08-30-2005, 03:36 PM
I was thinking about using my WC loop as well, but in a different manner:
http://img326.imageshack.us/img326/5096/desup7rp.jpg
What about running my desuperheater coil inside a water-filled cylinder which doubles as a reservoir? I know it may be overkill in terms of condensing, but at least it would look cool :p:
Do you know what size/length of captube unseen used for that?
esdee
08-30-2005, 04:30 PM
Do you know what size/length of captube unseen used for that?
if im not mistaken ~250cm of 0.031", but you should better pm him.
the rotory power if awsome, i had the chance to regass this unit dew to an accident it had (leaking shrader)
matttheniceguy
08-30-2005, 11:46 PM
Well I went ahead an made the heat exchanger. It's just a 3/8" suction line running through a 1" pipe with some 1/2" fittings stuck to it. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but considering the high flow rate I should have in the water loop and the fairly low amount of heat that has to be exchanged it should work well enough.
jinu117
08-31-2005, 10:41 AM
I was thinking about using my WC loop as well, but in a different manner:
http://img326.imageshack.us/img326/5096/desup7rp.jpg
What about running my desuperheater coil inside a water-filled cylinder which doubles as a reservoir? I know it may be overkill in terms of condensing, but at least it would look cool :p:
Me thinks someone is getting quite close to cascade now lol...
s7e9h3n
08-31-2005, 11:24 AM
Me thinks someone is getting quite close to cascade now lol...
Hehehe...no cascade yet...but autocascade will be here tomorrow ;)
Revv23
08-31-2005, 11:53 AM
hmmm... wonder if it would be better to have the rad before the HX as t oget colder water onto the suction line, possibly bringing water temps below ambient if heat transfer is good and it can take the load...
matttheniceguy
08-31-2005, 09:08 PM
hmmm... wonder if it would be better to have the rad before the HX as t oget colder water onto the suction line, possibly bringing water temps below ambient if heat transfer is good and it can take the load...
Whoops, I should have drawn the flow direction on the diagram. Now that I look at it I have the pump in the wrong spot too. The actual loop will be Pump->rad->HX->GPU->pump. This way the radiator should be able to dump most of the heat from the GPU and pump, and the HX should give the water a little chill, or at least make sure it is right at ambiant.
esdee
09-01-2005, 01:47 AM
Whoops, I should have drawn the flow direction on the diagram. Now that I look at it I have the pump in the wrong spot too. The actual loop will be Pump->rad->HX->GPU->pump. This way the radiator should be able to dump most of the heat from the GPU and pump, and the HX should give the water a little chill, or at least make sure it is right at ambiant.
there is a possibility that the water returning from the waterblock is at a lower temprature than the ambient, then you should remove the rad :)
matttheniceguy
09-01-2005, 07:33 PM
there is a possibility that the water returning from the waterblock is at a lower temprature than the ambient, then you should remove the rad :)
True, but I really doubt it will happen. I'm tuning the cap tube for about a 165 watt heat load, and running my mobile XP for all it's got. I'll probably have a NV-68 on the videocard so I'm sure the heat from the GPU and ram will be more than the extra capacity of the phase change. In any case I will just have to wait and see to be sure.
Bloody_Sorcerer
09-01-2005, 07:39 PM
what if you intentionally tuned for a higher load than the CPU will be giving? so rather than tuning for 165 watts, tune for like 195 to account for the chiller part?
matttheniceguy
09-01-2005, 08:13 PM
I could do that, but it would hurt my CPU temps quite a bit. I'm not really trying to make a chiller that really pulls the temps way down on the GPU, its purpose is more for ensuring that no liquid returns to the compressor when my cpu is idle (or even off), and hopefully keeping my water temps right at ambient.