LianLi V2000 Drop-In Chiller

[PhilippF]

Hi guys!

I just completed a very time consuming project. Somebody from the German forums needed a chiller for a LianLi V2000 case which he could just "drop in" as he already had the case. After some considerations, I used a Danfoss SC12G, R134a, an Cold_Ice Deluxe condenser, a Danfoss TXV with 01 orifice and a plate heat exchanger.

The chiller should have a large reservoir so it would not turn on very often an operation should be fully automatic after pressing the computers power button (chilling down, then starting to boot).



The unit is mounted on a 5mm aluminium plate to prevent bending of the very thin base of the LianLi case. I did put about 20 M3-threads in there to screw the base plate later into the case. The condensor is mounted a little on top of the base plate to use the full opening in the case front and also to be able to use the front-USBs.

To collect liquid refrigerant, 2 connected 22mm copper tubings were used. All in all it was really tight in there...



After insulation and doing the first wiring...



... and the back...



For the reservoir 3 5,25" slots were available. The res. was glued together from PVC plates, connections were threaded in and also glued in for safety.



With 6mm Armaflex insulation and in place...



The controller came from B+B Thermotech in Germany and can do a lot more than a standard Dixell: 4 Outputs, 3 thresholds, PID, and, and, and...



To get rid of the about 1.5 kilowatts of heat during cooldown via the little poor deluxe condensor, I had to provide some venting: The used diagonal fan from EBM Papst should be some of the most powerful fans on the market. 270 m3/h, 6000 rpm, 21W power. The most ingenious thing of this fan is, in contrary to the Deltas, it is made to provide max. dressure differential, not max. free blowing air volume. I reached a wind speed of about 5m/s through the condensor, with a Skythe UltraKaze 3000 I just reached about 2.4 m/s...

The only really downside of this fan is its price: 94 Euros (about 137 US$)...

The sound is something annoying after a time, so the controller switches the fan from 12V to 7V if water temperature drops below 13C. This level of sound is ok.

With this fan I reached at max. 50C liqu. temp.



Electrics...



... and mounted!



Themost annyoing of this project was that everytime I tried to fit something i, some few millimeters were missing...



And its backside.

To do: Switching the wooden plate in the back (for mounting PS) and the white PVC plate (for mounting the controller) to aluminium.

I am satisfied with the power: It cooles down almost 3 liters of water from 24C to 10C in about 3 minutes.

And now I have some workspace back for another project...

Regards,

Philipp

[godmod]

Lo me encanta amigo!

PS. finally you have got space and time for your *real* project

[n00b 0f l337]

Looks very good, would have done a little bit different but otherwise very nicely done. I think a single pipe for receiver would have workd better, that connection looks like it'll trap liquid.

[PhilippF]

A single pipe did not fit in. I calculated the volume I had to have with some safety plus. I had the same concerns about using 6mm pipe connections, but I did an experiment with the same 22mm/6mm pipes using water flowing through and it worked fine. The really annoying thing about this project was the VERY limited space inside the case... but also the challenge

Regards,

Philipp

[killermiller]

That is a pretty clean setup.

[PhilippF]

Thanks

[n00b 0f l337]

I do like the flip around of the compressor though, I end up doing that with FFI12HBX's from Embraco as they are oddly angled. Makes a desuperheater loop a bit more odd however I simply do a vertical standing coil if need be.

[Polizei]

Excellent work.

You really jammed that all in there and still made it very clean. Well done.

EDIT: $137 US for that fan!?

[godmod]

Remeber, thats a Fan for Men

[n00b 0f l337]

http://octopart.com/info/EBM-Papst/DV4112N
$65~ a pop

[Marvin]

60 db...
man thats is loud

[PhilippF]

http://octopart.com/info/EBM-Papst/DV4112N
$65~ a pop

Aaargh, I ordered it dirctly from the German Papst distributor... maybe I should move to the US...

60 db...
man thats is loud

It is just during the first cooldown until water has reached 13C. Then the fan runs at 7V and it sounds quite comfortable.

[killermiller]

What about under high load conditions or high ambient temps?

[jan]

thats a nice chiller

but two questions:

1. which load does it handle, e.g. which watertemp is possible at 350 watt?

2. the reservoir is not that big, how long does it take until the compressor kicks in again? with a 3.5l reservoir and 400watt load the watertemp raised quickly during my tests

[godmod]

2. the reservoir is not that big, how long does it take until the compressor kicks in again? with a 3.5l reservoir and 400watt load the watertemp raised quickly during my tests

What were your testing conditions? Did you use a SC12G and evaporation temperature of ~ 10°C?
A reservoir does not influence how fast temperatures rise (except the losses that you have if the water is colder than ambient and you have poor insulation).

edit: But it acts as a storage (of negative energy *tricked the laws of thermodynamic*), so it delays the point of time the compressor has to start again. (So i did not want to say that your first statement (the reservoir is not that big,...) is wrong.)

[tiborrr]

German precision building, nothing else to add here...

[DagoDuck]

Excellent work, my friend. Keep up the good work.

[PhilippF]

It takes about 3 minutes to cool down 3 Liters of water from 24 to 10C. So the mean cooling power over this temp range should be 4.2*3000*14/180 J/s= 980 W. Power at 10C should be a little less as the power decreases with the evaporation temp.

I have to do excessive testing, unfortunely my load tester has gone south, I have to build a new one today...

German precision building, nothing else to add here...

LOL, thanks

Regards,

Philipp

[Polizei]

German precision building, nothing else to add here...

*German*