New brewery in Texas!

[hatrickwah]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but could you point me in the right direction for how you converted your AC unit to a glycol chiller?

Can do. I'll get some more info up tonight. In short, I ripped the front of my A/C unit off. Little tricky with the digital controller, but I was able to bypass it in the end

 

[fuzzybee]

Thanks - looking forward to it.

 

[BadHorsie]

This is really awesome!!!

 

[hatrickwah]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but could you point me in the right direction for how you converted your AC unit to a glycol chiller?

As I look at the pictures, much of it is there. I can add a few more. The key is, the A/C unit coils on the front, the ones the air is circulated across to cool the room, are submersed.

Here, I cut a slot in the side of the large cooler to accommodate the piping for the coil. If you can help it, and I mean really avoid it like the plague, don't cut or modify the coil, aside from bending.

Proof that its a working. Have to love that Texas humidity. Not the digital controller in the left. That's told temperature controller, as part of the room cooler.

When I dug deeper, I found the starter. The round thing in front is a large capacitor try to not get to friendly with it. Its needed, and it STORES energy. But behind the capacitor there is a black box, that's the starter relay. I bypassed this, and tied it into my SSR that talks to the Fermtroller unit.
Fermtroller is then programmed to not turn on if it has been on in the last 5 minutes or so. A/C motors don't like being turned on and off rapidly.

Another look. Still have the old controller on it.

Long before everything.

You can kinda see the bypass here. This was the initial test of the relay. I have the A/C controller ON, and therefore was able to determine the black boxes purpose. Once I removed the A/C controller, I by passed the built on relay.

SSR doing to work. Was replaced with Fermtroller. Hope to someday have 4 conicals in my garage... As soon as Stout Tanks gets REAL cheap, like going out of business cheap. In all honesty... a few more years.

The cooling units inside my temp controlled boxes. This is a transmission oil radiator with 2 120mm 12v fans on it. I have them pulling the air across the radiator, with a the temperature probe on the back side measuring the ambient temperature.

The makings of a fine box.

Piano hinge

12v Valve. 1/2npt to 3/8 id tubing. Only had one problem early one, due to gunk in the lines.

Better shot of the valve.

I'm running Brewtroller's latest build. Version 2 was a huge leap from the original, took a phone call to the guys to get it working though, turned out a programming error (not mine) cost me 2 weeks of headaches. But it's been running flawlessly ever since.

 

[fuzzybee]

Thanks for the info. What valves are you using for the glycol?

 

[hatrickwah]

Thanks for the info. What valves are you using for the glycol?

This is basically it here. Different seller. Just a common 12v solenoid valve off of eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Electric-Solenoid-Valve-Water-Air-N-C-12V-DC-1-2-/160828212821?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25721bc655#ht_1879wt_1163

 

[BetterSense]

Woah this is elaborate. I think I would be more likely to pick a room or a big closet in the house, install a window unit, and make it a 'cellar'.

I brew in TX and use a SOFC. It gets me by, but I have talked to some other brewers around here and some of them just take a break through the summer.

 

[fuzzybee]

This is basically it here. Different seller. Just a common 12v solenoid valve off of eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Electric-Solenoid-Valve-Water-Air-N-C-12V-DC-1-2-/160828212821?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25721bc655#ht_1879wt_1163

Very cool. I may have to go to a 110 version due to some amperage issues, but that helps. No issues with the glycol on the valve?

I think my plan (currently) is to put the carboy (in a milk crate) in a water bath, use the radiator to cool the bath, and an aquarium heater to warm it.

 

[hatrickwah]

Woah this is elaborate. I think I would be more likely to pick a room or a big closet in the house, install a window unit, and make it a 'cellar'.

I brew in TX and use a SOFC. It gets me by, but I have talked to some other brewers around here and some of them just take a break through the summer.

Break!? What for? Its a cool72 degrees in Houston everyday of the week.

Honestly, I have my plans, the boxes are step towards conicals... which are a step towards 100 bbl brewhouse glory.

I plan test my cooling ability next month... can you say lager in Texas Summer!

 

[hatrickwah]

Very cool. I may have to go to a 110 version due to some amperage issues, but that helps. No issues with the glycol on the valve?

I think my plan (currently) is to put the carboy (in a milk crate) in a water bath, use the radiator to cool the bath, and an aquarium heater to warm it.

Love to see what you do. The reason for the 12v, Fermtroller can control it directly versus needing an SSR. If you use PID instead, game could be different.

 

[fuzzybee]

Love to see what you do. The reason for the 12v, Fermtroller can control it directly versus needing an SSR. If you use PID instead, game could be different.

Yeah - I'll be using an older AMX processor that can only handle about 1A per relay @ 12V. It seems a lot of solenoid valve require more than that - do you know what yours takes?

I have 6 Altronix RB610 relays here, so I'd planned to use the 12V to fire the 110 relay to hit the solenoid.

 

[hatrickwah]

Yeah - I'll be using an older AMX processor that can only handle about 1A per relay @ 12V. It seems a lot of solenoid valve require more than that - do you know what yours takes?

I have 6 Altronix RB610 relays here, so I'd planned to use the 12V to fire the 110 relay to hit the solenoid.

If I recall,the valves barely use even half an amp. My 12v fans draw more. I'm running off a 12v power supply with 5a max output.

-edit- Valves draw 250mA so a quarter of an amp.

 

[vinper]

Wow impressive build , I like the how clean and organized the equipment setup is . That window unit cooler,gives me the idea for my swimming pool chiller . my pool get hot in july /aug. 5 ton split system ..

 

[captrichc]

Sorry to dig up an old thread. I am in the process of redoing my garage and i wa Ted to put in a cold room to store my bulk hops, my 4 30g fermenters, and grain. The whole room will be independently insulated with a window AC unit installed through the cinder block wall controlled by a cool bot. This is my current idea. Would you recommend a better way since I haven't built anything yet. Maybe a glycol system running into separate boxes?