Hey Freon.. will this work?

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andytv
Double IPA
Double IPA
Posts: 206
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2001 8:55 pm

Hey Freon.. will this work?

Post by andytv »

Theres been alot of talk lately about holding temps in the summertime. I use big plastic conicals, so it's really tough for me to use some of the methods that have been presented in earlier discussion. I have a spring house that is almost 80% buried. The combo of the cool earth and the cool water flowing thru give me a pretty stable 65F, but it is almost impossible to carry a 15 gallon fermenter to the spring house alone (its 50 ft from my house and down a hill). I want a better way to hold temps in the summer. I want to build it myself, and I don't want to spend alot of $$. Here's what I have; 1) An industrial grade recirculating water cooler, the kind used to cool lasers. Basically it just circulates water through your system, cooling it as it passes through the unit. 2) I have lots of 3/8" vinyl tubing 3) I have a immersionm wort chiller.
What do you think about wrapping my fermentor w/ the tubing, then an insulation layer, and using the water cooler to chill it? -or- sanitizing the wort chiller and letting it live inside the fermentor w/ cool water running through it. Has anyone tried anything like this??? My cooler is a really great piece of equipment, that i'd love to incorporate into the brewing process.

Andy
Freon12
Strong Ale
Strong Ale
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Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2001 8:27 pm
Location: WHITELAND, IN, US

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Post by Freon12 »

I know that wrapping it around the fermenter will not work, plastic is a good insulator. As for the 65f water, the wort chiller will be better. If the surrounding air is 80f you could hope for a 70f holding temp. Unless the unit you have has mechcanical cooling built in( most lasers have a centrivac chiller and one pump for each laser.) If it does, your in buisness. I don't think the vinal tubing will work, it will pick up heat on the way and the diameter will not be large enough to pick up the btu load from the copper tubing.
Try buried or insulated PVC sched 40(cheap) buy a diameter that will not strain your pump.i.e 3/4" for 1/2 to 3/4 hp. 1 1/4" for 1-1.5 hp etc. There should be a chart that comes with the pump for equivalent feet of pipe as 1' rise equals 1.5 feet of straight run.
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