Office water cooler

[thezfunk]

used search and didn't find much useful

At work we are getting rid of our water cooler. Not a water fountain (or bubbler if you are from the mid-west). Its one of those 5 gallon bottle water coolers. It has a compresser and everything. Since I was bored I took it all apart to check it out because I of course had diabolical cooling ideas with it. Anyone try using one for cooling or even if it will help.

I must state that I don't want sub zero temps. I don't want to have to deal with condensation. I just want something that will knock me down to or below ambient. Nothing outrageous. Thoughts, ideas, brain storms?

Oh and this would be used somehow to cool the water not directly on the chip.

[black_dante]

below ambient will lead to condensation as well

[thezfunk]

not if you are above dewpoint. Its winter here in wisconsin (well almost) and the air is really dry. I could run below ambient slightly and not have condensation. Summer when it is humid? Thats a different story.

[redleader]

Condensation isn't a real conern since you'd have to insulate the thing anyway. A cooler is going to be 1/10 or 1/12 HP. That'll get you relatively cold, particularly if you regas it, but it won't give you much capacity. It also won't use very much power either, which is nice.

[snowwie]

i played around with a water cooler before

the evaporator is usually a copper tube coil, surrounding the tub underneath the water tank (with jelly/grease facilitating thermal cunduction between the coil and the tank)

the easiest thing to do is just put the copper coil in a resevior. unfortunately, with ~100 watts loaded into the loop, the stock config probably wont cut it

how much work you willing to put into it?

[thezfunk]

Originally Posted by snowwie

i played around with a water cooler before

the evaporator is usually a copper tube coil, surrounding the tub underneath the water tank (with jelly/grease facilitating thermal cunduction between the coil and the tank)

the easiest thing to do is just put the copper coil in a resevior. unfortunately, with ~100 watts loaded into the loop, the stock config probably wont cut it

how much work you willing to put into it?

Thats actually exactly what I was thinking. Yeah the coil wraps a plastic tub. Not very good heat transfer. The coil is painted too. That doesn't help. But yeah placing it in water would be best I think too. I will put whatever work in neccessary into it as long as the end result is that it will work...but i guess for the sake of learning it would be worth it too. I have a watercooling setup now but I am less than satisfied with it. It works fine but I want it to work better!

Would that compressor even stand up to continuous use?

I was thinking of maybe a closed loop system running a rad in the res or just open loop but then I have to worrry about evaporation of my coolant as well as bacteria and stuff being able to get inside of my cooling devices. I had one fight already with something green and I would prefer to not have to wage that fight again. But an open loop would eliminate another heat transfer point.

Oh and I was also thinking that if this thing works and works well. There has to be a thermostat on it somewhere...adjusting it or replacing it could control my temps from the cooling standpoint to keep temps where I want them.