Idea! Using air to insulate a resevoir???

[wmandra]

I was sitting up last night unable to sleep trying to come up with some interesting new design ideas for a w/c setup when I thought of this... I'm building my new w/c rig in a YY cube and wanted to convert all 6 external 5.25" bays into one large acrylic/lexan resevoir, of course the only problem is if I add a chiller I would have to insulate the res to prevent condensation which would make an acrylic res useless. So after alot of thought I glanced over and looked out the window (lightbulb!!!) insulating windows. The idea is fairly simple a small space of air trapped between two pieces of glass insulated the windows in your home, condensation only forms in the small space between the two pieces of glass. So why not use this same principle for an acrylic res?? Make 2 acrylic boxes where one would fit inside the other leaving a small space of air around the entire res??? Of course it would definately take some patience during construction making sure all your connections were completely sealed (in both boxes), but it could definately be done...... The only question is, would it actually work???

Bill

[dmcm01]

*yay first post!*

hm.....looking at my window i get condensation in the gap and on the warm side (wich would be on the outside of the outside wall, the inside of your case) sillica gel would help a bit if you put it inside your case as it absorbs moisture (you usually get packets of it in new shoes) could you perhaps go and pick some insulation from your loft and place it between the two walls instead of air?
remember insulation keeps cold things cold and hot things hot :p:

hey if you got your hands on some serius kit, you could create a thermos type res (the vacuum would stop the outer wall dropping below room temp thb) :confused:

[wmandra]

Well I have access to an industrial vacuum (used for vacuum formed plastics and such) so sucking the air out of the gap initially wouldn't be a problem, but sealing it and maintaining a vacuum probably would.

Bill