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LAN_403

Zum Beispiel

Thu Feb 15 2007, 08:16PM

Registered Member #514 Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 12:27AM
Location: Somewhere in Pirkanmaa, Finland
Posts: 295

I was inspired to build this thing because the last summer was so damn hot (atleast here in Finland). I drank a lot of coke during the hottest months, but there was just one problem: When ever I bought a new bottle, it was warm and I had to put it in the fridge and wait for it to cool down. Of course putting it in the freezer made it get cold faster, but I'd just forget it and it would get frozen.

I thought to myself: "Hmm, what would be the best way to cool 1.5 liters of coke to +5Â°C and make sure it won't freeze"

So I thought of this thing (sorry for the awful picture quality, the pics were taken in a hurry)

1171567182 514 FT1630 Setup

More pictures here (again, sorry for the horrible picture quality)

It works just like a regular freezer. The aluminium box in the background houses the evaporator (there is 3 cm of insulation between the evaporator and the box surface). The evaporator is made into a coil so that it makes a firm contact with the bottle to be cooled, for the best heat exchange.

I made this thing from mainly recycled or leftover parts, so the cost was pretty low. It has a lot of things it doesn't really need, like the pressure gauges or the two pressure switches in the back (low and high pressure cut-out), but I threw them in there cause there was no other use for them. I also added a pair of cold cathode lights in there, just to make it a bit "cooler"

It uses r22 as coolant, mainly because the only compressor I had on hand was for it.

So about the performance. It cools a liter of water from 22Â°C to 0Â°C in about 30 minutes, but I think it could do a little better. The evaporator is a bit under powered, so I'll probably have to make a longer one. Other than that, it works just great! I'm happy.

It took almost 8 months to build, but seeing it work makes it all worth it. It might not shoot sparks or anything, but it's my baby.

Let's just hope that next summer will be as hot as the last one

Wolfram

Thu Feb 15 2007, 10:40PM

Registered Member #33 Joined: Sat Feb 04 2006, 01:31PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 971

Impressive work. Creative, interesting, and actually useful too.

Can't think of anything more to write right now, I'm quite tired.

Anders M.

Billybobjoe

Fri Feb 16 2007, 12:47AM

Registered Member #396 Joined: Wed Apr 19 2006, 12:55AM
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Posts: 176

That really is impressive! I"m assuming you've done work with refrigerant before this? It seems like that would be the trickiest part.

uzzors2k

Sat Feb 17 2007, 10:57AM

Registered Member #95 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:57PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 1308

Pretty 1337, and the presure gauges are awesome!

Tonic

Mon Mar 05 2007, 11:04PM

Registered Member #528 Joined: Fri Feb 16 2007, 10:32PM
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Posts: 166

Wow, those parts are high quality.. Danfoss, Electrolux and Refco, they're the one of the best refrigeration companys I know.

A tip from me. Flip the dryer (this filter thing after condenser) 45 degreeses with outlet pointing bottom. In that way more liquid will be accumulated, more liquid will enter evaporator, and, at end, the evaporating efficiency will increase and pull down time might get lower. That's theory, but it might work, though.

Would you mind filling my curiosity? What are presures, when you achieve lowest temperature?

Zum Beispiel

Tue Mar 06 2007, 12:48PM

Registered Member #514 Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 12:27AM
Location: Somewhere in Pirkanmaa, Finland
Posts: 295

I know that in theory the dryer should be mounted as you described, but many commercial refrigeration systems use the same horizontal mounting, so I don't think changing it will affect performance very much.

The evaporator is underpowered compared to the rest of the system, so the suction line pressure goes pretty low, depending on the loading(2-1 bar when nearing 0C), and the return gas temperature is low (-25C). This is why the evaporator is fed from the bottom: This way there isn't much of a chance of liquid state refrigerant getting into the compressor and blowing the valves up.

The high pressure line runs a little cold too, around 30-40C (11-15 bar) depending on loading.

It can get the box to almost -30C, but at that temperature the pressures go too low and the compressor turns into a ball of ice

But it does work well for operation at 0C.

I'll probably have to make the evaporator coil longer. I'm also thinking about mounting a fan inside the box to move air around the evaporator. This should give it a little more power.

I hope I managed to answer your questions.

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