calling all RDWC engineers...

Awfully baked but will strive to make this as clear as possible. I am trying to suss out a chiller alternative for my recirc system I'm brainstormin. Gotta have it implemented before the heat gets here cuz my veg room is in the upper have of my garage and it gets to COOKIN in the summer.

I lived in Japan for about 6 yrs teachin ESL and homebrewed the whole time. I purchased at a used restaurant gear store, a "Beer Server". Its a very common method of dispensing beer in Japan(a country starved for real estate even at the micro level).Basically its a unit about 12"W X 20"H X 22" deep. It is a rectangluar "cube" with copper filled freon coil running around the outside of this cube. You fill the resevoir and plug it in. In 6-8 hrs there is a 1-2" thick WALL of ice around the outside of the res. There is a SS coil(saving you all from getting blisters from breaking the sound barrier with your keyboards to ward me off for the dangers of leached copper... passing thru the center of the now 30-32 deg water. the beer is warm in a keg on the floor but the beer is ice cold by the time it makes a single pass!! Brilliant...Now wish to utilize it as a chiller!!

My dilemma is this...Its only got two settings...on or off!! When I use it for poker get togethers It takes 2 days to completely thaw and clean so it maintains a very high thermal value. My plan for ITS power control is simply 1hr on 4 hrs off by timer after the initial ice building. How do I manage my RES temp by passing through the beer chiller on demand controlled by an inline thermostatically controlled valve setup which will simply by that ARCTIC tubular path through "BeerLand" bring temps down into the mid 60's and then close valve bypassing beerland but not having to stop recircing???

I'm an intelligent enough dude(granted, a SERIOUS stoner) but can't afford servos and the Nasa Geek Squad to fix this. I know some of you dudes out there WOULD be workin for NASA if you weren't ALSO a stoner...

Anything you got would be great.

Quick rundown in case it affects the parameters of your thought process...

Let me start by stating that ALL of my girls(both veg and Flower) are currently in individual bubble buckets and and the workload is getting old!! First FR sytem goes online this weekend. Just waiting for Uniseals to arrive.

In my Flower room, 2 autonomous 8 site UC RDWC sytems modeled after CC's beauty. Hoping not to need chillers for that room as I have a really nice DH Port A/C unit I scored almost new on CL for $150!! But if in fact I am unable to keep res temps town with that I will go with Frozen bottle until I can score a used minifridge and devise TWO tube coilspassing through a bucket of water inside thus chilling both systems with one chiller. 2KW HPS in vented into attic on closed loop with a Dayton Blower that is listed at 465CFM but because I didn't have a stud to mount the flange to I had to build plenum out of a Wine box(WELL sealed with Silicone) but the fan has an intake port of 4" I think I will get much better effects when it's replaced with 6" inline vortex. Arrives with the A/C on the 15th. Have another 6" exhaust port into the attic for a 2nd 6" inline fan for FAE which I think will really help with the heat. If anybody has one they can part with for a fair price($65 plus shipping?) Please PM me. In the next few months it is my intent to also add 2 banks of VHO 4' 8 bulb units for side/underlighting. I have a Dehumidifer to do the work when fresh air is ripping hot already.

Veg room is a 6'X8'X6' room I walled in in the rafters of my unfinished garage. I actually use a ladder several times a day to service it, but its very out of sight out of mind. Have had numerous CL folks come into my garage to buy fridges and shit and never know its there...I just unplug the air pumps so they don't heart the thunder of 3 Eco 5's kick on...
I currently have a 400W MH in a vented hood Closed Looped on a 4" wind tunnel. I am planning to add 1 bank of VHO Flouros over head in there too. Dehumidifier. I will be housing the beer server outside the wall and plumb lines through wall like I have my Power cords and CO2 line, so no heat increase there. My plan for my system in there(here is where I expect to incur your wrath..."why not a 3rd UC system?") is a RDWC DRip system. Reason I went with drip over UC is so I Dont have to sweat the intial phase of getting babies roots to touch the water surface, and because it is a perpetual design the don't NEED that explosive growth for 3 full weeks(week to root then 3 before shift). They would simply outgrow my 16 site FR.

Im all ears. Thanks for listenin.

WW

PS, Forgive typos...didnt proof at all

You won't be able to "control" the temperature per se.

However, you should be able to get the on/off cycle calibrated to the point where your temperature drift is within reason.

JR1,

Thanks. Can you elaborate? I can't be able to constantly circulate through consistantly 33(ish) deg H2O without dropping sytem temps into detrimentally cold temps. I can't see(that by NO means indicates it can't be done) an easy method of constant recir but only intermittent passes throuch chiller...????

WW

What I meant was shut off the power before it gets to 32 deg.

You can do that by tying the chillers ac to a temp sensor or replace the temp sensor in the beer chiller.

wow, that sounds technically/electronically complicated. And the unit is Japanese, Im betting the first tech I take it to says "Yeah Good Luck wit dat kid."

WW

wow, that sounds technically/electronically complicated. And the unit is Japanese, Im betting the first tech I take it to says "Yeah Good Luck wit dat kid."

WW

http://www.grainger....Z412?Pid=search

Edited by jollyrancher1, 28 February 2012 - 09:22 PM.

Fuckin A man. Thankyou MAJOR for that leg work. Im embarassed I didn't look harder. How does that device connect to my beer server if you don't mind holding my hand just a LITTLE longer...

WW

You just disconnect the "on/off" switch and connect the wires to the PID control.

The sensor you stick in the tank.

Very simple.

I see you got your solution but i didn't catch what temps you were considering a problem for your system. Was it between 65-70 degrees or higher you never said.

right now with poor ventilation and a dehumie runnin I would guess in the high 60's low 70's only to climb from there. The beer chiller without the PID interrupt would be at a steady 33-35.

WW

Probably around 68-71 right now w/o proper ventilation and a Dehumie runnin...Only to climb from there.

WW

Edited by Walt White, 29 February 2012 - 06:48 AM.

Here's what i'm thinking 32 degrees is way LOW for a resv temp. Usually room temp is good enough with heavy airation. If your temp under the lite is 80 and your resv temp is 32 thats too big a shift for the plnts you're going to have problems.
I run my DWC system at 75-82 under the lite resv temp 65-72. There's usually a 10 degree diference between air and water. This being a 4.5 gal set up and real advanced.However if you're using a big resv water doesn't heat up that easy unless you got gear in your resv like continuously running pumps.
Are you sure you need to drop the temp of the resv so drastic? Whats your ambient temp of the room and then under the lite. I'm not seeing the depth of your problem as you are describing it

I run my soup @ 63 deg F.

Any lower then that I hit the dew point and water puddles form.

Your thoughts were mine EXACTLY, hence my question...how do I manage res temps with the dynamics of MY beer server...had to be one of two choices...Thermo controlled water diversion...simply Stop passing recirc through 32deg chiller when set point is hit or control to of resevoir through which it's being passed..ie JR1's solution of a PID wired in Pre compressor...

Here's what i'm thinking 32 degrees is way LOW for a resv temp. Usually room temp is good enough with heavy airation. If your temp under the lite is 80 and your resv temp is 32 thats too big a shift for the plnts you're going to have problems.
I run my DWC system at 75-82 under the lite resv temp 65-72. There's usually a 10 degree diference between air and water. This being a 4.5 gal set up and real advanced.However if you're using a big resv water doesn't heat up that easy unless you got gear in your resv like continuously running pumps.
Are you sure you need to drop the temp of the resv so drastic? Whats your ambient temp of the room and then under the lite. I'm not seeing the depth of your problem as you are describing it

you could use a digital thermostat like one for a house furnace but wired to a relay as a switch for the power just set it to kick on for a/c
and set as low as it goes or whatever you want

i know you wanted info/help on the beer chiller, but fish tank chillers are a gift from heven, easy to control the temp, small, quiet, and no dripping water from ice build up from a beer chiller.
middy