Yes, Another Car Radiator Thread--56K Warning! - Page 3 - Overclock.net

Naja002 · 05-10-09

The Winter Rad

Last week I ordered this rad from the same company (ltiparts) linked to previously. It arrived in Good shape, as described as expected--$68.99 shipped:

Its a Dual-core (aka 2rows) and much smaller than the summer rad. So, we'll see how things go. :up: I may need to tweak a little "winter water" in from the summer rad outside, but that shouldn't be an issue if needed.

Front:

Back:

Inside-2 rows of flat tubing:

Rad Cap:

Possible Fan--may use the 9" ac fans like on the summer rad....not sure yet:

Plumbing supplies--should now have everything except the pump and any possible connectors to and from it:

Broken off over flow tube:

A little bit of Gorilla Glue:

The over-flow tube is an unnecessary component in this application. This system will never get hot enough to "vent", and the rad cap seals the system. But I might as well put it on, huh?

:

The fan is:

According to Killawatt:

24V= 2.10amp start-up, 1.76amp load. 184 watts load. Way too noisy.

:
Below--0.26amps/14watts go to PSU fans,etc:
12V= 1.51amp start-up, 1.30amp load. 92 watts load. Still too noisy.

:
5V= 0.62amp start-up, 0.47amp load. 29 watts load. Nice and quite and still moves a lot of air.

I have 2 of these fans that I ordered when I first set this system up. I haven't been using them, because I went with the 9" ac fans. Looks like I'll be checking one of these out in here this winter though.....:up: May do a 7v mod and see what that produces.

Still trying to make a decision on the pump and hopefully find one used at a decent cost-savings. :up:

Naja002 · 05-10-09

Just a Partial update. I have more to add when I get a chance:

I managed to pick up an Eheim 1262 at a $41 cost savings= $109 shipped. Added the fittings to hook up to the 1" ID tubing:

Specs:

Curve:

I've managed to get the rad fans mounted, wired and working. After messing with it and checking things out, I decided to go with 5V. Plenty of push/pull air-flow and ~43watts total for both fans:

Initially, I was just going to use 1 fan, but decided later to go with the 2 fans. Uncertain about the amount of amps that 1 fan would pull....I decided to wired it up to 2 sets of wires from the psu:

2x 5V:

Had to make my own double 5V Y-cable:

Sleeved it:

Connected the 1" tubing to the rad manifold:

I am further along then the end of this post indicates, but I will save the rest for more "Update Posts". :up:

Naja002 · 05-10-09

Condensation.......is a nightmare. :shakes:

Just wanted to offer a simple update:

Last week temps around here started dropping quite a bit at night. I've had several nights in the 60s, 50s, even 40s during the last few weeks. I was definitely enjoying playing with this seasonal rad setup. Its working very well overall.

But being the bonehead that I am....I had to see how things went as temps got lower and lower. What I found is that with the temps in this room around 80F and the temps outside somewhere between 48F-43F....uh....condensation occurs on the blocks. When I went to bed temps were ~48F. I left the rigs on the outside rad with a plan of just checking realtemp for the lows when I got up. That was my mistake: Not doing it when I would be right here to babysit everything. :shakes:

Yep, messed some stuff up. Been working through it. Still have some issues. Its been a royal pita. :yepp: Live and learn, I guess. :up: Either way, the Seasonal Dual Rad setup works great! :up:

I'll post more later.....:up:

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Another Update:

Bought a brand new Mag Drive 9.5 pump. I haven't incorporated it yet....not sure when or how I am going to....:shrug: I keep seriously thinking about eliminating the 55g blue barrel. So, that will help determine what happens. :up:

As stated above, the winter rad is setup, hooked up and functionl. 1 regret is that I used ball valves on the new seasonal manifold instead of gate valves. Gate valves would allow me to tweak cold water into the internal system...which would allow me to pinpoint a lower temp range for the PCs and even help regulate the ambient temps in here. Oh, well, I may redo the seansonal manifold...maybe not....we'll see....It works fine as it is...just doesn't allow for the "fine tuning" that the gate valves would provide. :up:

I've had the winter rad hooked up before the condensation issue above. But had to deal with that. 99% back up from that fiasco.

When I orginally hooked up the winter rad.....I found a leak! :shocked: A spraying type leak!

So, I had to figure out what to do, how to do it and all that good stuff.

: With the help of my buddy Hicks, I decided to try to repair it.......Uh, yeah,......Myself! :shocked: Think I would know better by now, huh? :slap: But I am glad to say that after a bit of a learning curve and going around and around in circles....I managed to get the job done! :clap:

It looks much worse in the pix below, then it does in life. Those are macro pix, so everything is a bit larger than life. I had zero prior experience of rad repair before this, so keep the learning curve in mind.

: Either way, it works, its leak free, I fix it myself and it only cost some time. :up: Long story short--I messed up a few times, but managed to get the job done:

As stated before--it looks worse in the pix than in life. The last pic shows that the damaged area is much smaller in reference to the overall rad then may otherwise be assumed. The blob of solder ended up being necessary in order to create a 100% leak-free seal. Did I mention the part about having no prior experience?

: Anyway, the rad is under the desk. The damaged area is toward the non-viewable side, so as long as it works....it works! :up:

I'll update more at a later time.....:up:

Naja002 · 05-10-09

I will be updating this thread shortly....:up:

Just added a new element to this setup:

The Hole…Geothermal Loop…56K Warning!

Check it out....money well spent. :up:

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Here's some pix already posted in the Geo-loop thread.

This is the current PC setup:

The cardboard is supposed to be temporary, but may just wind up being permanent. I can use it for a template to cut out some plywood to stain, but it's way on the back-burner for now.

It really helps cool that area though. :up: That's where the HDs and PSUs are....so it warms up pretty good. Temps stay ~7-10F above ambient in there now which is more than adequate by me. :up:

The indoor rad setup:

Connections made to the seasonal manifold:

The 2 tees/ blue tubes coming out of the floor are for the Geo-loop.

I've already fixed the creased tubing with an elbow:

Tubing, pump, etc:

Pump, Rad, etc:

This setup has worked out very well this year. It turned cold quickly, and I just turned on my main heater for the first time 3 days ago. I have run it 3x for a total of 3hrs. That's it. :up: Other supplemental heat comes from a single 1K w $20 space heater from Wally-world. It has been mostly off until these last few days where its been quite cold. And I have removed the dryer vent from venting outside, covered it with pantyhose in order to pump all that heat back indoors, instead of heating the neighborhood. It's run on perm press, not Hot. :up:

This is kinda how it goes:

There is a 9" fan from wally-world the center of which is 21" down from the ceiling. The door to this room is wide-open and the fan is blowing the warm air down the hall. That's 24/7.

With Daytime temps in the 60's and only the car rad heating the place...I end up opening the back door until temps outside drop to about 58F. Without opening the backdoor, temps in this room get up to 89F. The other end in the high 70's-low 80's.

With daytime temps in the 50's or below...the back door stays closed. :up: Temps get up to 84-86F in this room.

Heating with only the PCs/rad temps is fine until outside temps start dipping into the 30's....then it starts to become time to turn on the space heater. It has a thermostat, so it doesn't run constantly...just helps out some.

When temps start hitting about 30F or below....it's time to do some laundry (dryer heat) or turn on the main heater (below 30F).

The last few days the daytime high's have been in the low 40's to mid 30's. Night time lows have been low 30's to mid-high 20's, so the laundry is getting caught up and/or the main heater has been turned on....

So, since it's gotten cold early and quickly this yr, I have had about 6 wks with probably 98% of the heating supplied by these PCs. :up: The other 1.5% has been the 1K space heater and I guessimate 0.5% from the dryer/main heater....and that's only been in the last few days for the main heater and couple of weeks for the dryer vent (gotta do laundry any way...:up: ) It's been cloudy and rainy with fronts coming through, etc, so this place hasn't been collecting much radiant heat from the sun. :down:

If this plays out this well toward the spring, then I am looking at 3 months without adding any heat other then my PCs this year. :up: Lowest temps in here this year have been ~72F in this room and 65F on the other end. Normally they are much higher, but those are the lowest indoor temps and that is on the coldest nights with only the space heater adding help....sometimes. :up:

I am going to take some videos of the temps with the outside rad. The window is closed and the fans are off, so its totally passive. I'll post that stuff when I get it together.

Overall I am very happy with this setup. However, I am still moving forward. The Geo-loop looks very promising, but it will be used for super low-cost A/C this summer. However, it looks so promising that I am installing a 2nd loop dedicated to just the PCs. Slightly different setup and install, but I expect it to work very well. :up: The outside car rad is going into the living room for the low cost A/C setup. I expect all of this "experimentation" to start paying for itself.....about 6 wks ago. :up: So, hopefully, by this time next year the PCs will be geo-cooled (coming very soon), and all my efforts will provide at least the bulk of the heat and a/c at a greatly reduced cost to me. :up: I expect to have my 8K btu a/c unit available to be turned into a Geo-heat pump for supplemental heating next yr.

Naja002 · 05-10-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlucardCasull

That is incredibly awesomely cool. Nice work.

Thanx! :up: Still tinkerin' with it though.....

:

Well, it's been a long cold winter. Using the indoor rad has worked very well all things considered. The indoor rad has now been switched over to the geothermal loop linked above--the benefits of which are still yet unseen....warmer weather is just now getting here. Today was the first day in the 80's. :up:

For this summer I have gone back to the rad in the out-building, except this time: I have TWO rads sandwiched in the shroud. :up: Identical rads, except for the number of rows: 1x 3-row and 1x 2-row. They are setup in series. The water leaves the PCs and goes into the 3-row, then the 2-row, then to the pump and back to the PCs. The airflow/water flow are setup like this:

Those, of course, are not the rads I'm using....:up:

This is currently giving me temps of 1.2-2.3C (2-4F) above ambient! (with the fans on high=~90w) :up: Ambient being what is reported real time by the weather service--I'll need to do some type of check with a thermometer though.

Now I am currently adding a double bong cooler to the setup. Everything is bought, most of the work is done, but it's not completed yet. I will take some pix and document it. :up: I'm hoping to get temps below ambient--not much, but any little bit will help. :up: The setup will run:

PCs>Dual Rads>Dual Bong Coolers> Res w/ pump>PCs

Now I understand rads behaving as a heatsink and all that. In fact, that's the purpose/intent of the rad in the geothermal loop. Got it. :up: But here is what I am thinking with the Bong Coolers: Adding these BCs will actually make this an open loop, so some of the variables of a closed loop will no longer apply (like lack of vertical head, etc). The water will go from the res to the PCs and collect heat (energy). It will then go to the dual rads which will remove most of that heat. Then it will travel straight to the BCs where evaporation will (should) remove even more heat (energy) bringing (hopefully) the temp below ambient.

The biggest problem I see is the "tub" that I am using--It's not insulated, etc, so it may collect enough ambient energy to prevent getting below ambient temps. However, running at ambient would be cool by me. :up: So, an insulated cooler may be needed for a res, but at this point--I'm not going to sweat it. Just going to check it out for what it is and decide later where to go from there. :up:

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Altered the system. The Bong Coolers are installed and operational. Check it out:

Bong! Bong! Bong!