FEATURED Case based Evaporation cooling (aka bing's bong cooling)

[Shelnutt2]

As of 9:20pm (21:20) EST it is operational. It's been a long hard fought battle. Almost ruined it at the end, nearly set my place on fire! (vacuum cleaner started throwing sparks ) and my self build fan enclosure is soaked. HOWEVER I got near ambient temps at idle. And overvolted and overclocked idle only raised my temps by 3 degrees .

I've taken many picture and learned a lot in the process. Some teasers are below. I'm running a 30 minute prime run to see what the max temp is. After that I'll go through the build log .

One last thing though. For the moment my fans are powered by some stranded wire I carefully placed (shoved) in a floppy power connector and then I ran it to the fans. From there I alligator clipped a second and third set of wires onto this original line. The 2nd and 3rd lines are once again carefully placed inside the red and black wires of the fan connector. I tried the black and yellow but the yellow wouldn't run without the red, so I just left the 12v in the red. Safe? Not really. Good solution? For what I have on hand. Overclockers style? Hell yeah!









P.S. Here is a quick vid for sound.


edit:
Final 30 minute results. 70C





double edit:
Woke up to a soaked towel this morning. I'm not sure why but water was continuing to leak out my fan mount, the cardboard is soaked. I'm not sure if the wind + falling water is causing some sort of backlash and splashing water out. However I've replaced the towel underneither the setup and now its on a slight 15 degree angle. Temps don't seem effected and the water isn't leaking out any more as far as I can tell.

I also don't think I need an exhaust because the handles of the tub have 3 1/4" holes in them for venting. Got a built in vent and I didn't even realize it

 

[Shelnutt2]

One thing I've noticed with this cooler also is the room itself is actually cooler! Yes there are lots of variables and I have my fan on. However I also have a window that faces east. Its partially blocked by a tree but I still get a lot of heat. All in all even when folding on my gpu my room is at the same temp as the rest of the house. Usually this room is 5 degrees higher or so. The lid of my bin is also cold to the touch. All in all I think this cooler is working out great! I just need to figure out an autofill, I might look at adding a second smaller bin "reservoir" to the loop and put my autofill in there. I need to get some iron/brass tubing for it also. The whole thing is really quite until the pump stats sucking air.

 

[Bobnova]

Awesome! Two birds with one stone is always nice

We need some pictures though!

 

[Shelnutt2]

Awesome! Two birds with one stone is always nice

We need some pictures though!

check post 2 and 3

 

[Shelnutt2]

Well my pump is dying, the flow and pressure are barely there. Temps aren't effected at all but I've got no spray. Its a via aqua 2300, does 2300 lph (600 gph). There are a few pumps in the classifieds but they are have a much much lower gph. Anyone know of a good (cheap) pump that puts out good pressure?

 

[ssjwizard]

Im pretty sure the VA-3300 has a head height of like 11.2 feet and has a max flow rate of like 980 gph min of ~290gph for a decent price. With the pressure it takes to push through those sprayers your probably just bogging the pump down a bit to far.

 

[turbohans]

That is pretty much it (what bobn and shellnut sketched). The number of planes and drops could be tweaked to whatever is actually doable in your setup, but if I were using this approach to evaporative cooling, I think more planes to increase surface area would be beneficial.

I made another terrible drawing, because everyone loves terrible mspaint work.

View attachment 96833

With the layers flat like that you could drill small holes in them too to make water drip.

 

[Shelnutt2]

Im pretty sure the VA-3300 has a head height of like 11.2 feet and has a max flow rate of like 980 gph min of ~290gph for a decent price. With the pressure it takes to push through those sprayers your probably just bogging the pump down a bit to far.

Hmm Dr. Foster and Smith doesn't have them in stock and I don't see a good place to get it from. Anyone else have any other ideas? My pump is barely running, and its getting hot. I think its got only a little time left. I checked the impeller as best I could and I don't see anything tangled, not that there should be anyway. I feel like either its just dying from the abuse before hand or I've got too many nozzles/too much back pressure and I killed the thing. I'm debating about breaking it down and rebuilding with only 3-4 nozzles?

 

[spitter3]

How about no nozzles at all, my evap cooler is working very well with a length of pvc with drill holes.

 

[ssjwizard]

less sprayers will actually increase the amount of back pressure that you have on the system. I think its pretty much just need a pump with more head pressure.

 

[SuperDave1685]

Wow. That's a pretty nice drop in temps! I'm really inclined to try an evaporation cooling setup when I build my next rig. Seeing as it can be done for relatively cheap, I think I just might! That's awesome that your room is cooler now too. My man-cave here is about 5 degrees warmer than the rest of my trailer as well. All the more reason to build on of these!!

 

[Conumdrum]

The problem with evap coolers is they release humidity back into the air. So the room will become more and more humid and the cooling potential of the dry air is gone. Some food for thought.

For example, I use evaporative cooling for my 2400' house in las vegas. When it's 110F outside and 5% humidity, my house is cool and pretty dry feeling. About 75F. When the humidity is 30% and the air temp is 105F, the house is over 80F inside and sticky............

So I could use one in the cooler months, but in the summer..... Ack no way.

 

[ssjwizard]

I actually have a portable (2x2x1') evap cooler in my bedroom and im thinking that this winter will be a great time for some testing. Plus in the winter the humidity will help keep the house warmer!

You may have to rethink your sprayer system for something with less flow resistance.

 

[Shelnutt2]

Anyone have any pump ideas? All via aquas 2300-3600 are OSS everywere. I can't find anyone who has it in stock. I also can't find another pump with similar gph head (at least 600gph and 6' head). I'm looking for $50. I'm running out of time because this guy is bearly moving the water. Temps are over 60 now. I need a pump by this weekend

 

[Bobnova]

Try unscrewing the nozzles and see what kind of flow rate and temps you get. It'll be an interesting exercise.

I have a MagDrive 350gph that is quite happy sending water through my enzotech sapphire block, I think it's a 9.5' head operation.
The larger magdrives have similar heads and get quite beefy flow wise. Don't know cost wise though.

Stick "magdrive" into ebay and you get a few decent looking results.

 

[ssjwizard]

The danner pumps are of excellent quality but run about 50% more than a comparible via aqua.

 

[Enablingwolf]

Hit a big box store near you, for a (submersible) pond/statuary/waterfall pump. I seen Lowe's has a few 350GPM/60" + pumps for not to much.

Alternate, you could hit up a local pool supply company and see if they have pumps used.

 

[Shelnutt2]

Try unscrewing the nozzles and see what kind of flow rate and temps you get. It'll be an interesting exercise.

I have a MagDrive 350gph that is quite happy sending water through my enzotech sapphire block, I think it's a 9.5' head operation.
The larger magdrives have similar heads and get quite beefy flow wise. Don't know cost wise though.

Stick "magdrive" into ebay and you get a few decent looking results.

There is a 500GPH magdrive thats looking good. It has a 10.5' head. A little less gph but the pressure should be much better.

Its only $45 shipped. I can't beat that!


edit:
I took my current pump apart and did some experimenting. Setting it in enough water to cover it but to leave the outlet exposed, with the 1/2" barbs on there it shoots about 3-3.5' straight up. Now if I hook a tube to the inlet I only get about 1-1.5 feet. If I hook a tube to the outlet I only get 6-8 inches of water. I'm using 7/16" tubing but that shouldn't make that big of a difference! I'm thinking this pump defiantly has some pressure problems. Under "free flow" it is fine but as soon as there are restrictions it just starts dying. I'm guessing either the impeller shaft is slipping or the motor it self slipping. Its a mag drive design also, I tried to use some n42 grad magnets I have to alter the magnetic field and maybe give it enough wobble to get back in line but no go. The magnets stuck to the side pretty good but had no effect.


As is right now, it can't even push solid flow of water though the line. Its solid up to the peak of the system then there is a large air pocket on both sides of the block that it can't push through. The peak of the system is right at the one foot mark .

 

[Shelnutt2]

Got my new Mag 500 pump in yesterday. Hooked it up, same damn problem.

Took everything apart and I know its hard to tell but the inlet of the waterblock was full of cardboard bits! I'm not sure how this happened but it must have been from my cardboard air setup. Some backwash must have happened. Spent an hours cleaning it out, carefully with a tiny screw driver and running the water in reverse. Its clear as I can tell now and its spraying wonderfully again. This new pump is slightly more noisy, but I think it might because its not sitting quite level. The pump is leaning toward the inlet slightly on the carpet. However at idle my temps are now 2 degrees Celsius below ambient. I'll run the benches again in a little bit.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Bummer that the pump wasn't the problem, but glad you figured it out. Looking forward to more results.