Heavy Light 117

I was taking a shower, running some experiments in my head on some water cooling solutions and then I thought up something really crazy. What if there was a way to use your computer in place of your water heater? I don't know about you guys but my tap water is really cold and I think it could cool my rig if setup correctly. Of course there are some obvious problems that could destroy the viability of such solution. Perhaps your computer could not completley replace your heater but it could lower the amount of work your heater has to do. Not only that but you would be making use of all that extra heat (Imagine all those folders out there they would be able to heat tons of water). The implications of successfully merging these two could not only change the way your computer operates but the way you go about in everyday life.

I researched this idea and I found this

http://www.cse.ucsd.edu/users/swanso...5_abstract.pdf

As you can see the idea is sort of out there but I have yet to see it in real life. I would love to hear some of your guys ideas. I have some ideas as well and will elaborate later after I hear from you guys

H3||scr3am

but tap water is full of hard minerals, and sediments, it'd do a ton of damage to the tubing, copper heatsinks, pumps, radiator *which is like IMPOSSIBLE to fix the interior of* and not tom mention, that the system would need to be on 24/7 and completely stable, power outages wouldn't cut the flow of the water...

__________________

I am 91% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?
OCN CS:S GG: overclock.nuclearfallout.net:27015
OCN TF2: 8.9.16.94:27015 (temporary)
[CSS GUN GAME ADMIN] Ban Hamma of Pwnage +5 skillz
[TF2 ADMIN] Ban Hammer of scouting + 20 scout powaz

Heavy Light 117

Yes I have thought of these problems as well. My solution would be to make the loop of the computer enclosed with only the rad interacting with the tap water. The rad would be cooled by the tap water from the outside and that would keep the harmful minerals and sediments away from the vital components of the Rig. Of course the rad would still have to be checked on from time to time to make sure its in working order. The heat transfer would be affected by this but with a large enough radiator there shouldn't be a problem.

H3||scr3am

so would the tap water flow past the rad? or would it stand still as it heats up then move on? or would it simply just sit there? if it flows past it, the paint will slowly wear off of the radiator, but that'd be all, and the system would be fine, the water would extract more heat then fans would... in suicides I invert my radiator into a bucket of ice water, or a snow bank... Canadian Winters FTW free cooling.

__________________

I am 91% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?
OCN CS:S GG: overclock.nuclearfallout.net:27015
OCN TF2: 8.9.16.94:27015 (temporary)
[CSS GUN GAME ADMIN] Ban Hamma of Pwnage +5 skillz
[TF2 ADMIN] Ban Hammer of scouting + 20 scout powaz

Heavy Light 117

I live in Southern California I'm lucky if we get anything under 65F.

I'm sure with a lot of work and tinkering there would be a way to make this idea work. With everybody turning to conserving power and becoming "green" I can see a solution like this being a huge success. There are so many appliances that exhaust heat that if harnessed could provide enough energy to heat our houses.

H3||scr3am

but the rerouting the waterlines of your house is what would hold it all back... plus the appliances would need to be on 24/7... which for most appliances with the large heat output, is simply insane, imagine your oven on 24/7... or your microwave... pretty much asking for trouble...

__________________

I am 91% addicted to Counterstrike. What about you?
OCN CS:S GG: overclock.nuclearfallout.net:27015
OCN TF2: 8.9.16.94:27015 (temporary)
[CSS GUN GAME ADMIN] Ban Hamma of Pwnage +5 skillz
[TF2 ADMIN] Ban Hammer of scouting + 20 scout powaz

Sonic

Where you at in Socal? It's been hot the past few days...

__________________
Got a Corsair 750tx and mouses available for anybody local.

Heavy Light 117

No doubt it would be an big undertaking but the idea of having a house making use of all that wasted energy sounds great.
(and the cooling think about the cooling )


Orange County and yes its been warm

XDRM

HI
so i have an idea too but its kinda wierd!!!!!!i believe you all have seen the usb small frige for beers.I was thinking if you could put the radiator in it wouldnt that cool the water even more???i know it is small and may not fit the radiator in it but what if there was a small frige like that big for a sigle radiator to fit we all could use one two or three usb ports for three radiators!I beleive its a good idea!

alexgheseger

No. It doesn't work. The problem is heat load. What would happen is the amount of heat coming out of the radiator would quicklly overwhelm the cooling capability of the fridge. Then, the fridge would work against you, since it is insulated. then your CPU would thermal out.

Now, for the task at hand. It's workable, but not entirely practical. The amount of heat a computer puts out is relatively small, so it would have little actual effect.

Of course, every little bit helps, but the amount of integration required just to get the thing built in to your water heater almost defeats the purpose.

Also, you wouldn't want the rad interacting with the tap water. That's asking for trouble IMO. The tap water would erode the rad eventually, and in that erosion, introduce metals into your tap water. You would want loops of tubing in a "pool", much like a heat exchanger.

That being said, it's a great idea... just make sure you find a way to set it up so the computer won't have to run 24/7.

__________________

Project: Slow Chemicals

P15027