Quote:
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Originally Posted by Volenti
any schemes to try and re-claim the evaporated water in any practical/efficient manner are doomed to failure.
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Hi - Cool! A bong forum lol.
Volenti mind if I argue your above statement? I'm building a bong too. (I have 8' of 4" 1/4" thick clear acrylic on the way
)
I have been following threads and articles and researching everything I can get my hands on to try and make this as different yet efficient as possible...here's what I've come up with.
In the evaporative cooling industry apparently the most efficient evaporative cooler is not the
direct contact evaporative cooler [EC], but a newly patented 2 stage
direct/indirect EC.
In stage one, the incoming air passes through a heat exchanger, drying it somewhat. This heated
drier air then enters stage two:
Where it passes through a wet pad. The greater the thermal difference, the greater the cooling effect.
Common EC reach wet bulb at optimum conditions. Using a 2 stage EC it is possible to reach much lower temps than wet bulb, maybe 4-5*C less.
Another major benefit of 2 stage EC is that the humidity leaving the EC is much lower. (55-65% Humidity if I remember correctly)
Being indoors and using central heat & air I assume this will be absorbed fairly easily.
Another significant advantage is that with reduced humidity, less water loss through evaporation.
This is my plan for building a simple 2 stage ECT. [Evaporative Cooling Tower]
2 Pieces of Acrylic tube 4"id x 24" & 18"H. (A 3rd piece 12"H will serve as a reservoir)
The different heights are basically for appearance - it should look something like a "spire" effect.
Pipe #1 (18"H) will have a fan blowing in ambient air. From the CPU etc. (hot water) Tygon tubing will connect from the computer (insulated) to 1/2" copper tubing coiled tightly inside #1. (*The water cooling pump will be housed inside this tube as well, to add any heat to this pipe instead of inside case*)
Now - Pipe #1 will be joined to pipe #2 (24"H) with a piece of the same 4"id pipe, cut to fit - and laid horizontally to form kind of a breeze way(?) for lack of better words...
The air will flow down through pipe #1 forced through the center of the coiled copper pipe and into the crossover tube. It then hits a wet pad as it enters pipe #2 and turns upward where it passes over a second series of wound copper coils.
Near the top of pipe #2 is a simple drip pan or tubes that deliver water from the very bottom of tube #2 to the top where it simply drips down onto the copper tubing and the vertically mounted wet pads. For maximum cooling the copper tubing (now basically a simple radiator) will be mounted as near the wet pads as possible, where the hotter, drier air will pass over the wet pad picking up moisture and immediately come in contact with the copper tubing....it will then continue upward where it will pass through the dripping water and on out of the top of tube #2.
This has other advantages aside from those mentioned above.
The actual liquid cooling the CPU or GPU etc. operates within a common closed loop. The liquid won't evaporate unlike the water in the ECT, and additives that most find noxious such as water wetter won't be an issue. UV dye can also be used w/o evapotration issues, not to mention the water being fouled like in an open scenario.
It probably sounds way more complicated than it is, but there are very few parts and it should be very efficient
if I get lucky and put it together right.... The biggest expense is copper tubing. Footprint is also small due to the increased efficiency. At least in the commercial model it is lol.
Anyway, my tubing should be here tomorrow and I plan to start right away. I plan to measure temps of both air and water at various entrance/exit points to get an idea of the overall cooling ability.
It's obviously not as efficient as cooling "air", but that can't be helped since I need to cool liquid.
If only pipe would clear my graphics card, I would put a 3-4" pipe straight up through my Antec to draw in that nice hot dry air from inside my case! Have that hit a wet pad 1/2 way up and pass over a coil at the top....now that would be sweet.
But I don't feel like buying another case just yet.
~Robert
Please feel free to correct me on any info I stated incorrectly. I have been debating this to myself for a week now and it would be nice to get opinions, suggestions, corrections..