My 7' Tall Evaporative Water Cooling Tower

Looking forward to these pics!

aren't you guys concerned about mixing metals and corrosion plus the longer and higher the run/loop I can't see standard pumps ddc or D5s handling what amounts to torture for very long. You must be using other type pumps right?

using the swiftech mcp 655.  $70.00  it is a monster. 

Here are some "improvements" that I did.  First here is a piece of 1/8" thick lexan that I cut as something to keep the nozzle centered.  Trying to prevent as much water from running down the sides as possible. 

Here is the plate installed.  Hot glue is the non-permanent adhesive of choice for this. 

Lastly, this is a test to see how much condensation will actually collect in the bottom to even warrant the drainplug.  Its only 6 feet of hose I think, but I can double that at any time.  I have extra hose.  I would like to pick up more, and vent the bong out the window... and draw in air from the outside to super cool this thing...

Sorry for the crappy quality, took the picture this morning @ 5 am on my camera phone. 

How's it doing so far as far as temps?

Good idea for centering the spray head. I had been thinking about some kind of bracket in there. I think I will hold off on the dryer hose, at first anyway but let us know how well it works. It will probably be next week before i can get anything going with mine, just too much on the plate this weekend. Ex will have the kids next week so I should be able to get it up and running, or at least sputtering. I wonder what a casual observer would think if they peeked into that room lolz.

I have no idea if the temps improved, I just did what I did and called it a night.  I will first use it to cool off the NB/SB/Vregs since my chiller is still hooked up to my vidcards & cpu. 

I forgot this picture:

I was wondering how you had that rigged up did you make that piece

yea, just a lexan sheet.

I fired up the bong and temps are sub ambient.  7°F below ambient, which tonight puts the bong temps @ 45.9°F. 
*cough* the windows are open and ambient is 52.7°F  *cough*

ok, so we just proved that we can collect condensation

This is a shot down the mouth of the output air tubing. 

nateman_doo

ok, so we just proved that we can collect condensation

 
Now it just needs to be refined.
 
Is there a reason that the liquid looks like urine?  Do you smoke nate?

heh... no, its Prestone windshield washer fluid.  Its what I ran through my chiller.  didn't want it freezing, since I piped to the outside air for a while

Now you know why I chose to design that part using pvc. That way it won't collect like it did in your dryer duct tubing.

i think dryer duct would be better being metal more would condense on it.  i think?

btw... it consumes a gallon a day of the prestone

nateman_doo

i think dryer duct would be better being metal more would condense on it.  i think?

btw... it consumes a gallon a day of the prestone

U got an inside contact at Autozone? Ouchie.

nateman_doo

btw... it consumes a gallon a day of the prestone

That's incredible.  It isn't a cooling tower, it is a humidifier.
 
I wonder how much worse the cooling performance will be in the summer when there is more moisture already in the atmosphere.  Cooling performance may plummet.

heh... Its prestone windshield washer fluid (<$3.00 a gallon), which is mainly alcohol, which evaporates quicker.  I vented the bong outside so there really wasn't an issue.  Plus I had all the windows open anyway.  humidity still around the 20% mark or so.

A slight refinement of the earlier box idea. Have a series of small curved pipes coming from the top of the evap chamber that go back down to the top of the box. Near the bottom have them angled inward toward the box with a wider flatted area, maybe 3 or 4 inches long that would come from the bottom of the pipe and go back down to the box. Moist air coming out of the pipe would hit the flattened area, the water would hopefully condense there, and drain back into the res. Couldn't draw that with paint but maybe you can get the general idea.
If you could build it out of clear acrylic, install led fans, and maybe add some more lighting, this could actually look pretty, uh, well "refined" might be a stretch, but it could look somewhat passable. Not sure how lights might be affected though. I guess you could shield them from the moisture somehow.

I want to try to make a mini bong tower (18"to 24") using mister nozzles. Maybe even take the one 1/2" tube from your PC hardware and split it to 4 tiny misters into tiny little tubes all to one reservoir.

You get a much smaller droplets, and you wont need a tower 3+ feet in height. You could probably get away with just a couple of inches with 4 or 5 tiny misters.

http://www.drsfostersmith...p;ci_sku=0070059000000

That one is quite large though, but you get the idea.


Another idea would be to use a car air filter on the intake fan. Since they keep moisture out, I would assume it would reverse in keeping moisture IN, which would allow cool air to flow in, but the moisture not to escape. This would cut down on refills a lot, and would make sure your room doesnt because a sauna. You would have to seal off your res though.


http://www.autopartswareh...gan=1&apwidU9LZ18T

keep in mind the droplets need to be heavy enough to withstand wind from fan. You could always go fanless and it might work ok but I doubt you would reach sub ambient temps.

I got an idea for you guys to think about.

I was thinking about turbo systems for sleds and bikes and what not. Generally turbos for sleds have a intercooler to cool the air coming into the motor as the turbo heats up the air coming in. With out a intercooler most sled motors would blow up as they can't get rid of the heat fast enough.

So, heres my idea for you.

Use your 7 foot bong.  Find a rad maybe a very small car rad off a honda or something. or whatever you have I guess with big inlets and exausts if possible.

Pump air into the rad from the bong and then pump the air back out of the rad back into the bong.

Your using a rad like water cooling, but instead you cooling the air inside. It works for turbos. why not for water cooling. Put a fan blowing through the rad to cool the air passing through it and then also the fans blowing in the bong to push air through the rad.

That should work. like an intercooler. and you should in theroy loose no water this way in your bong, but still cool the air down.

If you wanted to get creative. you could put the rad outside for more effect/

What do you think? heck use a 3 120mm fan rad with the 1/2 barb fittings and put 3 120mm fans blowing slow in it. and have a fan somehow blowing air into the rad and one sucking out of it inline.. sure theres a way 2 do this.

Not sure what you mean, but sounds expensive. 

alcohol is going to evaporate quicker than water for sure. I live in Florida avg humidity is 70% or more and I loose 1/2" of water in my pool per week and even more when the humidity is lower so you have that working against you too. The good news is with the added humidity static electricity goes away.  A note about cost I surely would not be using this kid of setup if it cost three bucks a day in fluid that sounds expensive to me considering what it's for.

well if it uses water, then operating costs are only the pump, and fans (which I ran an extension to my power supply).  I just figured i would try the alcohol, and hoped it would last a week.  Now i just dumped a gallon of tap water in there.  Eventually all the alcohol will evaporate and get displaced. 

As for making it pretty with acrylic tube... am I hallucinating, or is that stuff $45 a foot for 4" pipe!??

 @ Rudster.
I like the mister head idea, maybe for a box setup. Thanks for the link.  Looks like it would hit the sides of a pipe unless you could redirect spray, which should be doable. Low speed fans would apply for sure.

I haven't checked on acrylic, but 45.00 for 4 feet: rotflcopter. I was thinking about maybe a sheet of something clear and cut your own panels out of it to make a box. A co-worker suggested an old aquarium.  But hey, a clear tower could work, if you could find a decent price for the pipe.

wow, nice setup...

Darrell's talk of intercoolers got me thinking about air cycle cooling.

This is totally not plausible or practical for this application, but is still neat.  Air cycle cooling is very commonly used in transport aircraft.  The process takes turbine engine bleed air which can be hundreds of degrees celcius and cools it down to below ambient temperature.  The process is neat because it is similar to vapor cycle cooling (air conditioning), except for the refridgerant in this situation is the air.  So the input and output and the "refridgerant" (or its closest counterpart in this situation) is the air.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_cycle_machine

What does the heart of an air cycle machine look like?  Well, you've seen similar before.  ;)

It's just a centrifugal impeller compressor on one side which further compresses the bleed air.  Then on the other side, there is a radial inflow turbine on the other side which drives the compressor.  It is an amazing machine since the air (a very large volume of it) is what powers the machine and also is the final product.  The other amazing thing about it is that the air must pass through the radial inflow turbine in order to turn the compressor.  Why that is amazing is because as it turns the compressor (and thus esentially powers itself) it also is doing work in order to turn the compressor and this work it is doing is extracting the heat energy from the air and is therefor further cooling the final product.
 
If you look at a glowing turbocharger on a suped up engine, you will see that the manifold leading up to the turbocharger and the radial inflow turbine side of the turbocharger glows red hot, but the exhaust pipe leading away from the turbocharger and out the tailpipe is barely glowing and is much cooler.  This is because heat is extracted from the air in order to turn the radial inflow turbine.  This ACM (Air Cycle Machine) is using that to its advantage to power itself and also to further cool the air which is the final product.
 

 
How cool would it be to have THAT sitting next to your computer?

This is my idea currently with 4 misters. Since the nozzles would just be a foot or two above the pump, the PSI required to get the small droplets wont nearly be as high as if it were 7 feet. Only problem might be that the heat would build up too quickly. The 80mm fan would take the water vapor and push it towards that small res, where it would condense back to liquid form. Only the cooler liquid would be allowed to return to the main reservoir since the warmer water (if it is indeed significantly warmer) is higher than what connects the two reservoirs. The 120mm fan would cool the tiny water droplets instantly back to room temp since they are so small. The red thing is an air intake filter from a car. This would 'Seal' the chamber to a very high level, which would mean no frequent fill ups.

You probably wouldnt see sub ambient temps with this, but you would keep the liquid at room level at a fraction of the space required. It would take quite a bit more work\tools\skill to make however.

build it... and post some pics here!!

I think what I said would work.
I dont know how to save a picture of what I am trying to say to you tho.

ok. so. you guys know you can water cool a computer with a rad right.
you run the water from computer in rad, have a fan blow through the rad to cool the water

Its what I am running (mind you. I am running a dodge truck rad 4 core. its over 3 feet long)

So heres my idea.


you run your bong right. and lets just say your bong  has an intake port where you throw your 120mm fan to blow air through the bong at the bottom. and then you have a exit port at say the top of your rad with a 120mm fan blowing the air outside of the bong.

you guys are pretty much doing this now. fan blowing in, fan blowing out. only problem is your loosing too much water with the fan blowing out of the bong.

My idea would be, the fan that blows out of the bong, would instead of blowing out the air out into your room, it would instead blow the air out into a hose (air dryer hose whatever) into a rad. the rad would not have water inside it. it would just have air. (air from the bong)

and then on the exit hole of the rad, you would have your air dryer hose or whatever you want that would feed back into the bong intake  120mm fan. makeing a closed loop for the air of your bong

Your making 2 closed loops. 1 is your water from your water cooled computer which travels from the top of the bong to the bottom. and the second loop is the air from the bong intake to the rad back to the bong


Now to cool the air running through the rad you put a few fans blowing through the rad on the outside of the rad as you would normally do if you where water cooling the rad.


that would work. turbo inter coolers run air inside a rad and have outside air blow through the rad to cool the air down inside the rad
if I could send a picture it would make more sense but really u guys should be able to figure out what I am saying now.

Ok. I drew a picture. don't laugh. but you'll understand now what I mean. and it will work well doing this.
And you can use any rad you can find. heck theres a tri 120mm rad ncix.com for 58$ that would do this, but i am willing to bet you have a rad your not even using right now somewhere...

Oh the bottom part where it says air coming back into the rad i meant, air coming back into the bong

See thats an intercooler setup for air. air cooling down air lol but it works. Heck maybe one day I'll build a bong and try it out my self.

Well, an intercooler has larger tubes and less bends in it than a standard radiator.  A standard radiator would provide much more of a restriction of air flow through it than an intercooler would.  Either way, cool idea.  This would virtually eliminate the issue of water evaporation and humidifier effect.

Well we arn't trying to drop as much heat off as a turbo system would so I think it would be fine for this idea. and we don't need as much air flow through the rad because we arnt feeding a motor with its intake from this, so it doesnt have to travel really fast. we are just re circulating the air through the bong. I think it would work. Heck I am going to try to build this and see. (probley in the next 2-3 months when money permits

darrell262

Well we arn't trying to drop as much heat off as a turbo system would so I think it would be fine for this idea. and we don't need as much air flow through the rad because we arnt feeding a motor with its intake from this, so it doesnt have to travel really fast. we are just re circulating the air through the bong. I think it would work. Heck I am going to try to build this and see. (probley in the next 2-3 months when money permits

It's a really good idea because it completely isolates the atmosphere in the cooler from the atmosphere in the room.  Virtuall no water evaporation will occur.  The only water which will evaporate is what leaks out of joints and such -- which should be unmeasurable.
 
The other nice thing about it is that you won't have to worry about the water becoming dirty nearly as fast.  You don't have the issue of dust building up in the water and having it turn all muddy.  Oh, and it should be quieter.
 
I really like it.  I want to see some pictures of it finished.

Well guys I just got off the phone with my friend. he wants to build it this friday. So sounds like we are a go (i get paid friday)

So we are going to get a few beers going and go shopping for parts lol

I have a few questions tho.

What size tubing should I be buying? 3 inch 4 inch? isn't 4 inch 100mm or so? I want to power it with 120mm fans.
And. should I have the intake/exhaust at the bottom, or should I have the intake at the bottom and exhaust at the top like I have in my picture. 

Any other ideas I should be thinking about when I am going shopping at the hardware store? Guess I'll have to find a rad or buy one lol

You'll definately want the radiator/intercooler above the point where air returns back to the computer and the outlet below the inlet so that water which does condense in the radiator/intercooler freely runs back into the reservoir.  Otherwise, the condensed water will pool up until the point that it obstructs the flow of air.
 

 
The one issue I see with this is that the air inside the cooler will become saturated with humidity and may reach a point that the basic method of its operation no longer functions since water will no longer be able to evaporate into the air which is already super saturated with moisture.  There is only one way to find out though.
 
You might have to place the fan above the intercooler so that the air going through it is only saturated with moisture instead of below the intercooler where there will actually be large droplets of water potentially going through the fan.  Or else, you could make a S-trap (like a sink drain) where the water would pool and then have the water which pools run down to the reservoir (like Nate's dryer hose idea) seperate from the air so that only air goes through the fan, not water.

I want credit for this idea lol. Probely gonna be the 'new bong' idea for 2010 ....

And I like your drawing . I'm going to go with this idea on my bong

A person could from time to time take the top hose off to the intercooler and vent out the air and get new fresh air into the system. maybe once a week if that was the problem.

Do you think that the water would make the fan stop working? maybe... have to see I guess. I am getting excited already.

Here is a modification which has a drain hose going down the reservoir so that the fan doesn't have to process water.

The issue is evaporation.  Will the intercooler/radiator cause enough water to condense?  If the air blowing through the water mist isn't dry enough, evaporation and cooling won't take place.
 
If the intercooler/radiator is not effective at removing a large extent of the moisture in the air, the air circulating around the cooler will be too humid and will cause the required evaporation not to occur.  In that case, you would only have a huge water cooling kit.  So, you'll definately want a big heat exchanger and do whatever you can to most effectively remove the moisture from the air.
 
I was thinking that the bottom fitting should not be a "Y" fitting in this instance.  Instead, it should be a "T" fitting.  A "T" fitting would allow the air to flow less restricted and would cause the elbows required to all be 90 degree instead of needing one funky 135 degree elbow.
 
EDIT:  One thing I noticed working against this idea is that the higher and lower pressure side of the loop are in the wrong places.  Optimally, the cooling tower should be in the low pressure side.  It is sort of backwards as it is right now.
 
"What do you mean, 'pressure'?"  So, yes, it is only a low pressure fan.  But there will be a pressure difference before and after the heat exchanger none-the-less.  And you need to take advantage of any efficiency you can because this isn't very efficient to start with.
 

 
Since the air would only be humid and not containing a measureable amount of solid water at the top, I think the fan would be fine up there.

nateman_doo

build it... and post some pics here!!

Wouldnt have a loop to test it on. Nor do I have any money to build one

Tygers MSPaint-fu.... is that of a wise warrior.  You would certainly have to BOLT your bong to to a wooden floor plate cause that sucker would NOT stand up with an intercooler on it, but it sure would be sweet.\

Darrel... post as many pictures as humanly possible here.  I would LOVE to see this intercooled bong!


Here are the pro's and con's to "traditional" bongs:

pro's: 
sub ambiet liquid.
"inexpensive" (the NON-intercooled models)
low operating costs (compared to a chiller)
tremendous capicity to remove heat.

con's:
humidity in the air
consumes water
requires a killer pump

This is just off the top of my head.  The pump in an un-avoidable expense, so I can't quite consider it a con, but pumps aren't cheap.  As for the humidity, if we vent the bong outside a window with dryer duct, then that nips that in the but, but then the consumption of water is more challenging.  Water is cheap, and easily avaiable.  It sounds like your intercooler idea would nip everything in the butt.  You certainly have my attention.  You guys can post as many pictures, or builds here as you like.  Maybe I can convince a mod to make this a sticky bong-err... evaporative cooling thread.

just wondering ,
 
what shower heads do you guys use for this?

ive seen some at lowes but they all have really low GPM limits way below the ~350GPM of the mcp655

TWSS69

just wondering ,

what shower heads do you guys use for this?

ive seen some at lowes but they all have really low GPM limits way below the ~350GPM of the mcp655

The MCP655 isn't 320GPM, it is ~ 317 GPH.  (Gallons per Hour)  That is only ~ 5.3GPM.  You might have to settle for a shower head which is only 2-3 GPM though since a large shower head may not fit and may not provide a fine enough spray pattern.
 
^This is all by the seat of my pants.  No experience.
 
Nate: http://forums.evga.com/fb.ashx?m=129939
Post 39.

Scroll through the post you will see it.  I forget what page, but I bought it at lowes for about $5.00. 

Well, I got my tower together, but the water is just trickling out of the shower head. Not sure if it is airlock or if I didn't prime the pump good enough.
Any tips on priming a pump etc?

take some pics first of all...

  I am no where near a plumber but I think of this.  What is a common house pressure in the pipes?  35 lbs?  I honestly don't know.  I know something about the MCP 655 pump is like more torque, and less horsepower.  Imagine your 500 gph pump being a high horsepower Ferrari, or your MCP 655 being a tractor.  One is high speed, for fast flowing water, the other is a high torque for power.  

I may be talking out my rear, but I tried a Danner Mag 350 and it was a joke.  The mcp 655 at it for lunch. 

how tall is your tower cade?
what diameter tubing are you using?

if there is no "head" listing for the pump, guugle up the model # and you should be able to find a decent spec sheet listing the ratings of lift in feet vs pipe diameter.

As for priming, you could tilt the assembly to a 45 degree angle till you see a steady stream flowing (no air).
doing this you may also find  the lift capacity of the pump (approx)

I would suggest playing like that with the computer off, or perhaps rig it up in the bathtub?  no harm getting water in the bathroom ;)

I am using a 5 foot pipe. With the Y base it is a little over 6 feet. The pump I am using now is a pond pump submerged in my reservoir. It is rated to put out 375 GPH at a height of 7 feet. When I first fired system up yesterday with the 655 pump my temps were around 20 degrees C. Around or slightly below ambient. Nice. I don't know exactly what happened. My idle temps now are in the mid 30s which I can do with air(1.3 volts). I have my tower setup just like Nateman's. Only difference seems to be the way I attached the shower head. I used a plastic half inch adapter coming out of the head. I then glued a section of pvc pipe to that then made the U shaped bend at the top using curved pieces of pvc. Where the assembly points back down the tower I came out with a half inch pvc barb glued into the bend. The hose is clamped onto that and goes to the water block. I am using half inch ID hose, primochill. I suspect airlock but don't really know how to effectively deal with it. I used a good bit of extra hose so I could move my case around independant of the tower and res, so I'm not sure how I can pull off tilting everything 45 degrees. The tower yes, but the extra hose has its own thing going own. Maybe too much hose? I am going to take apart the water block tonite, if I can find the tool, and check and make sure debris hasn't clogged in there.

Woah! sry, didnt realize ya hooked it up to your rig already. Figured you were just in the building and testing different nozzles and pump variations like I've been (in the garage). I'm a bit preoccupied with the latest type of chemotherapy my Dad just started yesterday.

the tubing diameter I was refering to is from the pump to the shower  head. 1/2" may be a bit much for a pond pump depending on the impellor type.
some use a fixed solid brass impeller and some use a somewhat bendable rubber impeller that weakens in a short time. the blades do actually fold sometimes.
A thinner tube for the lift may help certain pumps but may not offer the needed pressure at the shower head.

if it didnt get air bound, my guess would be impeller fail  or a plugged strainer screen left in the shower head

 

First off... TAKE SOME PICS!!

second.. TAKE MORE PICS!!    seriously, we wanna seeeee!

ok, one thing that I noticed goes a long way is CPU mount.  Is your block crooked?  is the board warped, are you using standoffs?  I wouldn't imagine air would be a problem, the water would just fill in and displace the majority of the air. 

haha, pics pics n more pics :)
 some pics of blendered up 3d design I've been working on. Actual prototype  in the garage is copper/aluminum.
The large pipe on the right will house a vapor pump (not yet in the mock-up) to pull pressure from the large chamber (to lower the boiling point) and increase pressure in the top res
  http://www.engineersedge.com/h2o_boil_pressure.htm
  upper res receives a portion of the pressure. the remainder joins with incomming water.
pipe from pump (not shown on lower left) will need a backflow preventer.
 
Heat from vapors to be extracted from large chamber via the fin/fan assembly.
To increase the  inside surface area I'm thinking of drilling many many holes and shoving in copper nails. brazed to seal.
 
(I will soon  edit in some arrows n such)

OK, YOU are starting to worry me!!  If the feds see that thing, they are going to think you are building an ICBM or something?!

lol,
you should have seen all the flashing lights on my street last year when I blew the power grid.
j/k

ps its only 24" tall

str1d3r

It looks very similar to a burner can from a turbine engine.

And a few older chiller systems I've worked on
the ring has a series of very  small holes drilled on the inside edge facing down to center at about 45 degree angle
where the water enters the can.
that fan blade is not to scale at all and is a fixed non-motorized blade to swirl the incomming air.
 
been scrapping some sprayer versions, this one seems to work ok. the vapor pump pipe diameters are what I'm toying around with now.

In the closeup pic you can see the ginourmous air bubble in the clear intake hose.