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Unread 02/21/2017, 10:53 PM   #1
VolcomStned
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Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Santa Clarita
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PEX Chiller

In my garage I have around 200 gallons of water volume which is probably going to double in the upcoming months. I made a pex heating loop to my water heater to heat the water. It works so flawless and cuts down costs so much since I don't need to use electricity to heat the water. My garage reaches temps in the high 40's to low 50's in the coldest part of winter, but the real problem is going to be when summer rolls around in the next few months. It gets hot where I live and its normal to hit triple digit temps on the regular. My garage will probably be close to 90 - 95 degrees some days. My question is has anyone made a pex tubing chiller using your homes cold water line?? I'm not expecting a miracle to have this be my only means of cooling, but if it can cut down on the use of my chiller then I'd love to explore this option. Does anyone have input if this would work or does anyone have any experience trying something like this??

Thanks!


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Unread 02/22/2017, 06:45 AM   #2
EnderG60
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Atlanta GA
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What you are suggesting wont work well unless you have a constant flow of water through the loop, which would just waste water.

What you are thinking of is actually using water the ground has cooled to cool your tank, its why your tap water is colder than the outside temp.

Look into a PEX ground loop, thats how you do a PEX chiller.


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Unread 02/22/2017, 08:35 AM   #3
VGT
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Should look into a simple geothermal setup. Wouldn't need to be as extensive as a whole-house one, but what you've proposed wouldn't work as there's no continuous flow or cooling of house water.


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Unread 02/22/2017, 05:36 PM   #4
KrazyKuch
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Location: Clagary Alberta Canada
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I have done something similar I made a heat exchanger out of Cpvc, and the entire house water supply travels through it so everytime the toilet flushes taps run etc, the cold water in the exchanger gets replaced. Not the best but it is free cooling

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Unread 02/22/2017, 08:09 PM   #5
FamilyTank
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^^^ Pretty good idea,I like it!


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Unread 02/22/2017, 09:13 PM   #6
Gorgok
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KrazyKuch View Post
I have done something similar I made a heat exchanger out of Cpvc, and the entire house water supply travels through it so everytime the toilet flushes taps run etc, the cold water in the exchanger gets replaced. Not the best but it is free cooling

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Tapatalk
While remote, the dangers of that are pretty severe... If you spring a leak you have main supply in your tank, with basically an infinite supply of water (at least before the water company closes your tap for not paying). A small leak will mean city water coming in the tank, which may or may not be very clean. A large leak will mean total loss and quite possibly a flooded floor.

But that would mean you have to break it, which is unlikely...

Still, a separate loop would be my choice any day.


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Unread 02/23/2017, 10:36 AM   #7
VolcomStned
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Thanks for the input everyone.


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Unread 02/23/2017, 11:53 AM   #8
Synden
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Location: Denver, CO
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I am working on a system like this for my big tank build, inspired by some of the tank builds on here.
Current plan is to first make the heating unit, with a solenoid, hot water recirculating pump on the hot water heater, some pex and ranco/apex for controls.
I will also be building a similar system off my cold water line, that will also feed into my drip system that waters my yard.
Hoping to use the same pump for this and be able to switch between heating and cooling with another solenoid. Will have to see if I can get that part to work though, but if not, ill just add in another pump for the cold water.


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