Cooling my 450 - Trying something new.

[Egon]

Here in AZ the temperature is outa control!

Do to bad planing on my part and laziness, I'm running two submersible pumps on my 450. That coupled with the ambient temps (84 during the day in the house) my 450 gets up to 87 ish. I want to try to maintain temps at around 80 with just a fan. (I'm cheap that's why the house is at 84 )

The 8 foot tank has two very large overflows on each side. Normally I have a blacked out glass cover that goes over each overflow. I removed the covers and on the right overflow I wired together 4 small fans I had laying around. The fans are silicon glued to a 1/4" sheet of styrofoam. The styrofoam makes a good seal with the top of the tank and wont be hurt by the moisture. The fans are set to blow out/up and away from the water. Cool, dry air sucks in the other side of the tank hopefully blowing across the 8 foot surface collecting enough heat and cooling the tank.

I'm using a Aqua Logic temperature controller set to send power to the fans when the water goes above 80. So far it's holding but it's early June lol.

The first pic is the top of the tank, the overflow cover on and the fan assembly next to it
Next the cover off, then the fan assembly is placed over the opening.
Last pic is the controller set too, and hopefully maintaining, 80 degrees.

I will update this thread and let you all know if it works. Anything below 87 is a win for me.

 

[Gill Blue]

so you're pulling the tank air across the surface of the tank, into the overflow, and out the top?
looks interesting.
I'd be concerned about using computer fans, they aren't really intended for high moisture.
it kind of surprises me that no one I've seen has tried something like a stainless steel radiator. maximum non-refrigerated cooling with no water loss.
doesn't surprise me you haven't, being cheap, but maybe something to consider in the future if you end up having to throw money at it.

 

[DIDYSIS]

Fans can cool a tank allot good luck and sounds like a good plan

 

[Egon]

so you're pulling the tank air across the surface of the tank, into the overflow, and out the top?
looks interesting.
I'd be concerned about using computer fans, they aren't really intended for high moisture.
it kind of surprises me that no one I've seen has tried something like a stainless steel radiator. maximum non-refrigerated cooling with no water loss.
doesn't surprise me you haven't, being cheap, but maybe something to consider in the future if you end up having to throw money at it.

The fans were free, the whole thing cost $20. If the moisture gets to them but the system works I will buy better fans. If it doesn't work I will move on to a chiller, I see a lot of them used for cheap on CL I just don't want to pay the electric bill on one of those

 

[Egon]

Fans can cool a tank allot good luck and sounds like a good plan

Yes! I agree. I have an open top Goonch tank, 210 gallons, that's at 10 degrees cooler than the house temps just from the rooms ceiling fan blowing directly on the waters surface. This should work. I'm just not sure my 1 amp four fan system is enough power to pull the heat out of a 450 gallon tank?

 

[dxdx]

Wow you must be really cheap to keep the house at 84, I wouldn't be able to take it! Although I guess since you have crazy heat in AZ that's like 30 degrees cooler than outside.


Good luck with the fans, I hope they work for you. Price wise, if you had to run a chiller, would it be cheaper for you to just keep the house around 80ish? penny wise and pound foolish or something like that?

 

[aclockworkorange]

Hey Egon, it's raining up here.


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[Oughtsix]

The dry air is causing the tank water to evaporate which takes a good amount of heat out of the water. It looks like a great idea to me! I wouldn't be to concerned about the moisture on the box fans... like you said if they die just replace them but I think they will be fine. The moisture from the evaporated tank water is not a condensing moisture that close to the evaporation surface.

I don't think a radiator approach will cool the tank water to any thing below the ambient temperature.

Is it possible to vent the moist air outside so you aren't raising the humidity level of your house? I guess any air vented outside will be replaced with outside air which is probably hotter than your inside air so probably not a good idea to mess with external venting.

I like your idea of using the temperature controller to switch the fan! Great idea!

What is the temperature of your tap water?

 

[MTBjake]

Egon, great idea using the temp controller. I have been looking to do something similar. Is the output from the controller 120vac or is it a dc output? I'm in SoCal and on warmer days I use a small 120v fan to cool my 80 which is in my garage. Only prob is on days where I'm at work for 12hrs, automation would be a much better option.


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[kevinfleming21]

nifty