Concrete Slab water cooler loop - Hooked up!!!

Hmmm, okay hear me out, this probably would sound abit 'far out' but...
Think this, you go to your local copper pipe store, and you purchase 'x' meters of one lenght of pipe.
NOW, you get another length of copper pipe, wider than the first length (wide enough to fit the first length inside the second one.) If that makes any sense at all.
Bend that into what ever shape you want, so that it covers the right amount of area to get decent heat transfer.
You would end up with double layerd pipe, so that if any damage was to occure, it would effect the outer layer, leaving the inner layer intact.
It would help solve atleast some of the issues that could present them selves sometime down the track.
Stupid i know.

LOL

 

Hey guys thanks for all the positive comments and help. Very much appreciated. Hopefuly this thread will help inspire some of your ideas. With the OCAU group mind anything is possible

Yes I agree lennie, I realy dont think expansion or chaffing is going to be an issue. If I was running boiling water through the pipe then yes for sure. Adding 10deg to 6m of pipe will be minimal expansion. Im sure there would be a calculation for it... google. I just need to make sure its well away from the steel reo to stop any form of corrosion. I did get advice from the local plumber and he doesnt see any issues.

Hey Carbon_death not such a bad idea the only issue I see is trying to bend the pipe. I think the internal pipe may kink without the bending tool providing support and I dont think the heat xfer would happen as well with an insulating air gap between the pipes.

 

Hey ravencs, I didnt want a reserve underground/slab because I was worried about algae and having to flush the system with a reserve that I couldnt get to. Also I want to run Feser One Fluid at $30 a litre its a bit expensive for a massive reserve.

Yep, this will reduce the heat exchange between the copper and the concrete so Im going with raw copper.

Hey breech I didnt want to go straight down into the ground because of the extra "head" preasure on the pump. The smaller the pump the less heat it can introduce into the loop. Wow the copper as a lightning rod didnt think about that. I was going to use plastic tubing from the copper to the CPU block but water is still conductive The Feser One is non Conductive Cooling Fluid. The copper wont actualy be touching the ground so it shouldnt act as a lightning rod. Maybe Ill turn it off during a lightning storm

 

Just use distilled water and a couple of bottles of UV blue dye?

It has the added benefit of being less than a dollar a litre, and 30 dollars will get you enough dye to do 10 litres of water, you'd be way ahead

http://www.gammods.com.au/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_90_125&products_id=544

 

to the guys saying buy the copper pre lagged
NO lagging is used as an insulater on the hot water side of hot water units to
SLOW the heat transfer from the water through the copper
in this instance the OP needs the heat transfer to be as fast as possible making lagged copper bad bad idea

also putting the pipe in pipe method is not a good idea
as the op said bending it would be an issue and with the op having 1/2 or 15mm pipe and the next size up is 20mm there would be an air gap around most of the pipe again acting as an insulator not what the op is after

 

What about concrete hardening temperature, it could go over 50C...?...just a thought.

 

The fact is, by the time house is built, the concrete will be hard and cool. The copper pipe will not have been effected although it would have been good to wrap it in electrical tape to stop abrasion. Council will be fine with this as long as you have it in the plan, or an addition put in by the architect/engineer. So hope it goes well and cant wait to see some temps in time.

Charlie

 

Personally, i think this re-defines the term "extreme cooling" in terms of how its going to be set up.
It's definatly unique.
Well done, OP.

 

Yet again you amaze me Gig's, your creativeness and resourcefulness in thinking outside the box comes up with the goods again.
So the Boss is going to let you bring your computer “stuff” inside from the shed

If I ever get around to building I will have to contract you to come and consult and build me that beer cooled PC

 

I'm looking forward to benchmarks once the house is built.

PS - make sure you cover up the ends of the copper pipes, to stop water/dust/creepy crawleys/dirt from getting in the pipes.

 

That won't tend to bother things like lightning. I wouldn't worry about it since if lightning hits close enough to fry the pc through something buried in the slab or the ground, the fact that your pc is fried is probably going to be the least of your concerns.

 

I like the Feser fluid because it has got all the anti corrosion / anti fungal inhibitors etc but I guess you can buy them seperately like the dye in your link. Might have to look into it thanks dazzawul.

Agreed disco frank

I have no idea what temp the concrete will get to while its hardening but we are in Tassie so the air temp is only about 10-15 this time of year. I cant see it getting to 50deg maybe if it was quick setting then yes maybe but the slab is just standard concrete.

Thanks Charlie

LOL thanks carbon_death this is a very simple thing to do. It literaly took 5min to bend the copper and throw it in under the reo. Not really that extreem just a bit of thinking ahead. I hope it works.

haha Hoonda yep slipped this one past the boss! I think we can build you a custom PC cooling solution bassed on Coopers Keg and a beer in-line cooler. Maybe even throw a tap on the side of your case for topups during those 8hour TF2 poopsock sessions

Might have to see you about getting some steel for the house build at some stage

 

No prob, we have an O.S. banch down there

 

Do a bit of FEM modelling of it

 

For the benchmark I am thinking about using an aquarium water heater. I have one at 150watts. Does this mean that it will put 150watts of heat into the water? This is about the same as an i7. So I can setup a loop with the heater turned on full and measure the water temp over a period of 4 or 5 hours to see the difference between the hot side and cool side of the loop. Does this sound like a legit experiment?

The ends of the pipe are covered off with electric tape.

Yep would be bigger things to worry about like lightning bolt coming through the roof

Sweet, thanks Hoonda Ill give you a call some time. Still quite a few months away for that.

 

hey Benno please excuse my ignorance but wtf is FEM modelling

Im thinking females in bikins modelling next to my PC

 

Finite Elements Modelling

Queue Long Winded Wiki Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_element_method

Can be applied to a bazllion things, but often to heat transfer through materials.

 

Oh wow thats way over my head Benno got an Idiots Guide to FEM?

 

great idea

told a guy at work who is building a house at the end of the year, i think he is gonna steal your idea...ill link him to this thread

 

I honestly don't know much about the water heater, but the experiment sounds good. Just run the hot water through the pipes for a few hours in order for the copper to absorb the heat. Then just take a temperature test of the water going in, and the water leaving the pipe. See what happens? At the end of the day, even if it doesn't do much - you have an extra x litres of fluid circulating through your system. Should do something for water temp..