That's cool! What about if I stuck a water loop in to cool it? Would that work?

Halo_003

That's cool! What about if I stuck a water loop in to cool it? Would that work?

 
What do you mean stuck a water loop in to cool it? Where are you sticking the water loop? around the water cooled condenser?
 
The water cooled condenser has 2 paths in it. One path is for the refrigerant to flow, where it rejects or releases the heat. The second path is where the water flows and it absorbs or picks up the heat from the refrigerant.
 
If you wanted a closed circuit as your water loop you could do that, but your temps would be pretty high....and you would need a lot of rads to dissipate the heat as the condenser is discharging 85F constantly. As your condensing temps rise, so does your head pressure on the high side of the system....but now we are getting deep into the function of a refrigerated system which we dont need to be.
 
If you have access to your school water supply and a drain near by, just use that. Fresh, cool water from the supply absorbs the heat from the refrigeration system and discharges into the drain.
 
Short of that, you can use a closed circuit loop similar to that of one used in a water cooled computer, but you would need many many radiators, or a few big ones at the very least.

JaskarnSidhu

Halo_003

That's cool! What about if I stuck a water loop in to cool it? Would that work?

What do you mean stuck a water loop in to cool it? Where are you sticking the water loop? around the water cooled condenser?

The water cooled condenser has 2 paths in it. One path is for the refrigerant to flow, where it rejects or releases the heat. The second path is where the water flows and it absorbs or picks up the heat from the refrigerant.

If you wanted a closed circuit as your water loop you could do that, but your temps would be pretty high....and you would need a lot of rads to dissipate the heat as the condenser is discharging 85F constantly. As your condensing temps rise, so does your head pressure on the high side of the system....but now we are getting deep into the function of a refrigerated system which we dont need to be.

If you have access to your school water supply and a drain near by, just use that. Fresh, cool water from the supply absorbs the heat from the refrigeration system and discharges into the drain.

Short of that, you can use a closed circuit loop similar to that of one used in a water cooled computer, but you would need many many radiators, or a few big ones at the very least.

 
Well could you use a plated heat Exchanger? Have one of them be the "condenser" in the phase unit and have the other flow in the Exchanger be water? That way you could treat your HX as the heat source in the water loop, and it(the HX)would be the "condenser" in the phase unit.
 
I have a lot of rads on hand so it'd be no problem if I did do it. 

You could but thats exactly what a water cooled condenser does.
 
The heat exchanger would have to be able to handle pressures of between 100 to 500 psi (depending on the type of refrigerant used).
 

 
When refering to hot gas, thats the vapour in from the compressor. After it gets cooled, the vapour turns into liquid refrigerant.

And these water cooled condensers are faily cheap. I picked up a 1 ton water cooled condenser from RSL (local refrigeration suppplier) for about $90.

Sounds pretty neat, that was exactly what I was talking about, nice find. Thanks for the info. 

Halo_003

Sounds pretty neat, that was exactly what I was talking about, nice find. Thanks for the info. 

 
Np, glad to help. If you are intending on picking up one of those water cooled condensers (WCC), just make sure you get the right size. You can actually get away with have an over sized WCC so the refrigerant will stay in contact with the water longer and reject more of its heat. This will help ensure all the refrigerant vapor is condensed into liquid. On the flip side, your water temps will be higher so you may need bigger or more rads to release the heat from the water.
 
If there is anything else you'd like to know about air conditioning or refrigeration dont hesitate to ask or drop me a PM.

You could make bong cooler on the cheap.  I still have mine propped against the wall for a while now.  Collecting dust.

Hey Helo. I hope your choice of college works out. Question tho - was there any ambient geoclimatic bearing on your choices? Probably much easier cooling in Illinois than Florida.

Hahaha no not so far. Family in Florida where I am now, girlfriend of 2+ years in IL, so I figured those were both good options.