Madman_Joe
Member
Howdy y'all,
I'm a long time reader with my first post; I usually find what I need on here or the web, but I'm really stumped and need your help:
So I had the amazing fortune of finding several one-foot thick structural insulated panels. They are faced with powder coated sheet metal. They are used for building commercial kit freezers, usually ones for palletized products stacked on shelves several stories high. These kits are in the six-figure range. This one company I did business with accidentally ordered a kit that was too big, and I saw the extra panels in the back store yard. They were going to order dumpsters to send them to the landfill. Nooooooooooo Like any DIY brewer worth their salt, I offered to haul them away. Several months later, I have now figured out untraditional ways to cut, shape and connect these suckers. (I even made a door, sourcing hinges and parts from eBay; I had to special order extra long bolts for structural connections as the actual kit panel parts were **ridiculously** expensive).
Bottom line: I have myself a walk-in...:rockin:
Well...I almost have a walk-in. All is left is to cool it. However, a simple through the wall window or wall A/C unit won't work. The walls are sheet metal and the filling is one foot thick Styrofoam. Drilling through it is a pain. Cutting is extremely difficult, particularly with precision in mind. Besides, cutting a window sized hole would lose huge amounts of the insulation properties that make this setup desirable in the first place. So, I'm thinking a split cooler setup. The cooling line would require a decent sized hole, but more practical than a giant window sized cut. I'm thinking something like this: http://tinyurl.com/4z6y7cc. I like that it is off the shelf and ready to go. But...I'm already in deep in the wallet on this project. So I do have an in wall A/C unit that is in decent shape, maybe 10 years old, that I would be happy to sacrifice, if I can just get some real tips on how to turn it into a split cooler, if that is even possible. I did see someone's pics online that had pimped a fridge into a glycol unit, and they did all kids of stuff to the compressor and condenser. However, it was just pic/homebrew porn and not any detail. I am not above hard work or research. However, if it involves discharging and recharging the system, I bet that will eat away any potential savings. Just a gut feeling I have.
Oh, BTW, this walk-in will be more for red wine storage; I have literally maybe 50 gallons to bottle once this is all done. I may have some overproduction beer stored in kegs in there at those temps sometimes. But the primary goal is red wine temps, not lager or regular fridge temps. I already have separate fridges for beer fermentation, dispensing, etc.
So...thoughts? Ideas?
I just want to say thanks in advance. I appreciate all of your help. This is a huge deal for me.
MMJ
P.S. Already read the Wiki...hope I didn't miss something.
I'm a long time reader with my first post; I usually find what I need on here or the web, but I'm really stumped and need your help:
So I had the amazing fortune of finding several one-foot thick structural insulated panels. They are faced with powder coated sheet metal. They are used for building commercial kit freezers, usually ones for palletized products stacked on shelves several stories high. These kits are in the six-figure range. This one company I did business with accidentally ordered a kit that was too big, and I saw the extra panels in the back store yard. They were going to order dumpsters to send them to the landfill. Nooooooooooo Like any DIY brewer worth their salt, I offered to haul them away. Several months later, I have now figured out untraditional ways to cut, shape and connect these suckers. (I even made a door, sourcing hinges and parts from eBay; I had to special order extra long bolts for structural connections as the actual kit panel parts were **ridiculously** expensive).
Bottom line: I have myself a walk-in...:rockin:
Well...I almost have a walk-in. All is left is to cool it. However, a simple through the wall window or wall A/C unit won't work. The walls are sheet metal and the filling is one foot thick Styrofoam. Drilling through it is a pain. Cutting is extremely difficult, particularly with precision in mind. Besides, cutting a window sized hole would lose huge amounts of the insulation properties that make this setup desirable in the first place. So, I'm thinking a split cooler setup. The cooling line would require a decent sized hole, but more practical than a giant window sized cut. I'm thinking something like this: http://tinyurl.com/4z6y7cc. I like that it is off the shelf and ready to go. But...I'm already in deep in the wallet on this project. So I do have an in wall A/C unit that is in decent shape, maybe 10 years old, that I would be happy to sacrifice, if I can just get some real tips on how to turn it into a split cooler, if that is even possible. I did see someone's pics online that had pimped a fridge into a glycol unit, and they did all kids of stuff to the compressor and condenser. However, it was just pic/homebrew porn and not any detail. I am not above hard work or research. However, if it involves discharging and recharging the system, I bet that will eat away any potential savings. Just a gut feeling I have.
Oh, BTW, this walk-in will be more for red wine storage; I have literally maybe 50 gallons to bottle once this is all done. I may have some overproduction beer stored in kegs in there at those temps sometimes. But the primary goal is red wine temps, not lager or regular fridge temps. I already have separate fridges for beer fermentation, dispensing, etc.
So...thoughts? Ideas?
I just want to say thanks in advance. I appreciate all of your help. This is a huge deal for me.
MMJ
P.S. Already read the Wiki...hope I didn't miss something.