Current situation. Have a window AC unit with digital thermostat. Lots of parts. How do go forward getting this thing to a cooler while keeping the digital thermostat?
Making a Glycol Chiller with Ac unit
- Thread starter BruGuRu
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 27, 2017
- Messages
- 4,681
- Reaction score
- 4,525
- Points
- 113
Do you want to submerge it at all? If not just pull the safety shutoff and you can do whatever you want. If you do, same thing but don't put the sparky bits in the liquid. I have a floor AC unit chopped up for this exact purpose.
Very cool! I saw a fellow on YouTube mucking around with one of these turning it into a glycol chiller.
From your question it seems that you don't have a lot of experience with Refrigeration. There are 2 main components you should become familiar with. The Condenser & the Eveporater. Both of these coils are pressurized with Freon in a sealed circuit. If you cut into the circuit, before the Evaporator coil but after the Expansion Valve, the Freon will be released.
If you don't have welding equipment & knowledge & aren't able to recharge the circuit, it's probably not practical to use the AC unit directly to cool a Freon to Water (or Glycol) Heat Exchanger.
That leaves submerging the Evaporator in a tank of water/glycol & circulating that to a immersion coil or counterflow heat exchanger in the Kettle. So, maybe the most practical approach is to use the Evaporator & Fan to cool an insulated box. Then use a 2nd coil circulating water/glycol & back to the immersion or counterflow heat exchanger.
Air is a relatively inefficient Heat transfer medium but it is probably sufficient for this use. As this doesn't require cutting into the circuit, it seems the more practical solution.
BTW, you didn't say how you were planning to use this project. You could be using it to cool the Wort to yeast pitching temp or you could be using it in a Fermentation Compartment. If a Conditioning Compartment, just build an insulated box big enough to hold the carboy & place the Evaporator in the bottom of the box. Use the fan to push the cooled air into the box & return that air to the Evaporator Fan with a bit of ductwork.
Good luck. Seems like an interesting project.
If you don't have welding equipment & knowledge & aren't able to recharge the circuit, it's probably not practical to use the AC unit directly to cool a Freon to Water (or Glycol) Heat Exchanger.
That leaves submerging the Evaporator in a tank of water/glycol & circulating that to a immersion coil or counterflow heat exchanger in the Kettle. So, maybe the most practical approach is to use the Evaporator & Fan to cool an insulated box. Then use a 2nd coil circulating water/glycol & back to the immersion or counterflow heat exchanger.
Air is a relatively inefficient Heat transfer medium but it is probably sufficient for this use. As this doesn't require cutting into the circuit, it seems the more practical solution.
BTW, you didn't say how you were planning to use this project. You could be using it to cool the Wort to yeast pitching temp or you could be using it in a Fermentation Compartment. If a Conditioning Compartment, just build an insulated box big enough to hold the carboy & place the Evaporator in the bottom of the box. Use the fan to push the cooled air into the box & return that air to the Evaporator Fan with a bit of ductwork.
Good luck. Seems like an interesting project.
This is the clip I saw on the U tube
