Remote Chiller Install

[acroholic]

Guys,
I decided that I wanted to remote my chiller to the unfinished area of my basement, instead of having it next to my 300 gallon reef. Made a lot of noise and put a lot of heat into the room. I also just added another 750 watts of halide light to the system, so I may need to step up to a larger chiller this summer. This remote pipe run is also in preparation for that possibility.

My chiller requirements have never been as high as if my tanks were on the first floor of a house. Being located in the basement keeps every thing cooler naturally. Current chiller is a 1/2 horse PCI heater chiller/heat pump type arrangement and actually works well.

I would like to give a big thanks and shout out to fellow ARC Members Dave "Grouper Therapy" and Eric "Eric B" for stopping by and consulting with me on this project. Dave and Eric are two of the nicest, most selfless people you could ever meet, and it was nice having two other sets of eyes and experience to help determine the routing method that best fit my situation.

I ran 1.25" PVC pipe to and from the remote location to lessen head loss as much as possible. Ended the runs on either side with unions, so now the hard work is done and if I need to go larger in the future, I am all set. I have a total of eight 90 degree PVC elbow fittings, two 45 degree fittings, four conduit 90 degree bends, four unions, threaded x barb fittings and some 1.25" ID tubing. Used gray wide PVC conduit bends when possible to avoid more elbows. Line runs from sump to under the basement ceiling, along the ceiling joists, and into the back unfinished pat of the basement. A total horizontal run of about 25 feet. Entire length is 1.25" ID except where I had to size down for the chiller. I was running my chiller with a BlueLine 40 HD pump, but switched out to a 55 HD for this, again so I can upgrade without too much hassle. Pics below.
Dave
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[porpoiseaquatics]

Dang Dave!!! Nice job!!

 

[rbredding]

curious why you just wouldn't plumb it in at the sump ? (was it to further remove the noise of the chiller?)

looks great, of course...

 

[acroholic]

Rbredding;617522 wrote: curious why you just wouldn't plumb it in at the sump ? (was it to further remove the noise of the chiller?)

looks great, of course...

I decided to use tubing for the actual connections to the chiller pump and return because of the flexibility of the hose, and because of the sheer size of the PVC pipe I used in this remote install. I have a lot of wires and tubing from my reactors that snake around the same areas as the chiller tubing, and it is easier just to bend the vinyl in/out tubing rather than have rigid PVC, in case I need to move other tubing in the area. Also, the angle at which the PVC would have to go to the pump would have required another 90 degree PVC elbow. The tubing allows a bend without the associated head loss.

My equipment space has some challenges. The area behind the tanks is long and narrow. When the previous owners of the house finished of the basement, they framed a wall about 4 feet from the foundation because of a large AC trunk line running on one side. This space is where my equipment is. The only practical space for the chiller pump is where the return pump to the tanks is located. This brings up another point: if you have to pull and return water to the chiller at the same area in the sump, how do you keep from just pulling and sending the same just chilled water back to the chiller again? This is another reason for the tubing return. The return chiller water goes to a Tee on the intake of the return pump. Vinyl tubing makes it easier to remove and replace this. Just more flexibility using tubing here. This way I can draw and return water from the return area of the sump without resending chilled water to the chiller again.

But, I can change to PVC if I ever decide to, since all I have to do is switch out a couple unions.
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[oz]

Cool.

 

[jcusmarine]

Nice!!

 

[rbredding]

I understand the use of flex (vs. rigid) and even why you pull from / return where you did.. I just was wondering why you didn't put it closer to the existing sump (as opposed to 25' away in another unfinished area of the basement)

I guess you answered my question - Not enough room near the sump (especially for an upgrade in cooling later)

again.. looks good...

 

[acroholic]

Rbredding;617583 wrote: I understand the use of flex (vs. rigid) and even why you pull from / return where you did.. I just was wondering why you didn't put it closer to the existing sump (as opposed to 25' away in another unfinished area of the basement)

I guess you answered my question - Not enough room near the sump (especially for an upgrade in cooling later)

again.. looks good...

Oh I see what you are asking. It is where it is because the unfinished area behind my tanks is an area about 20' x 4' only and totally sealed, totally enclosed and houses my sump, etc. Having the chiller there would be pointless because there is no way to vent the heat from the chiller anywhere, and there is a door back into the main area where the tanks are, so it would be venting right back into the room where the tanks are.

The unfinished area where the chiller is now is huge and unconnected to the small unfinished area where my equipment is. My house is a large "L" shaped ranch style. Hard to visualize. Suffice it to say the finished area of the basement where the reefs are is one side of the L shaped footprint, and the large unfinished area where the chiller is now is the other leg of the L.

 

[acroholic]

andregarcia_73;617586 wrote: Nice! What model Pacific coast imports is that? Been pondering the 1 Hp model for my big aquarium. Thoughts? Likes and/or dislikes?

I really like mine. It is a PCI CW-0500. It is the heater/chiller combination, and has worked for my 450 net gallon system for over a year without a hiccup. Only downside is I thought it would have larger inlet/outlet than 3/4", but it seems to work well for me. The 1 HP version has 1" inlet/outlet.

It is really nice not having to worry about heaters in the sump.

 

[jhutto]

Dave is always thinking before he does anything...

 

[elfloyd]

Looks good, Dave... The flex tubing gives me ideas!

 

[acroholic]

That's what it's all about. I really like the gradual 90 degree conduit pieces. They are avaialable in all diameters, and have built in couplers. Electrical Dept. at Lowes/HD.

The 1.25" clear vinyl tubing is expensive, about $3.25 a foot at Lowes. 1.25" unions are about $6 each, as well as the 1.25" ball valves.

 

[eric b]

Glad you got it done Dave! It looks like it came out great and not that difficult either...:up:

 

[rbredding]

Acroholic;617588 wrote: Oh I see what you are asking. It is where it is because the unfinished area behind my tanks is an area about 20' x 4' only and totally sealed, totally enclosed and houses my sump, etc. Having the chiller there would be pointless because there is no way to vent the heat from the chiller anywhere, and there is a door back into the main area where the tanks are, so it would be venting right back into the room where the tanks are.

The unfinished area where the chiller is now is huge and unconnected to the small unfinished area where my equipment is. My house is a large "L" shaped ranch style. Hard to visualize. Suffice it to say the finished area of the basement where the reefs are is one side of the L shaped footprint, and the large unfinished area where the chiller is now is the other leg of the L.

cool... gotcha... thanks for clarifying..

 

[jeffmuse]

Nice job in the chiller install... I know that you said that you did not have a lot of room in that space, but it really looks like it turned out well. I like the cable/ tubing management around the reactors, very clean look!

 

[acroholic]

JeffMuse;617824 wrote: Nice job in the chiller install... I know that you said that you did not have a lot of room in that space, but it really looks like it turned out well. I like the cable/ tubing management around the reactors, very clean look!

Thanks....anything that is loose and hanging gets tacked against the stud wall or the excess cable tied together. Cords of different reacotrs/DA PC4s going the same way get bundled and held against the studs with these cable clamps. Comes in varying diameters (1/4" to 3/4"). One of the handiest organizers I use. Buy at Lowes in the Electrical Dept. Easy to remove if needed.
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[schwaggs]

Sweet setup Dave, nice, neat work!

 

[acroholic]

After I was done with my remote chiller install, I realized my return pump/chiller feed pump situation left a bit to be desired. What I had before was a Pan World 200PS 1750 GPH pressure rated pump returning water to my 300/150 gallon reefs thru a manifold that fed my two BRS media reactors, calcium reactor, sulfur denitrator, and refugium. My chiller was fed by a BlueLine BL-55 HD (PW 150PS) 1100 GPH pressure rated pump. The pump took water fro the return section and returned it to the intake of the PW 200-PS.

I realized that this was wasting energy and could be done in a better way, so I just got done replumbing my water return system.

I switched the 1750 GPH pump to feed the chiller directly and the return from the chiller goes into a small manifold that returns directly to the 300/150 reef tank, so the chiller is now in-line back to the two tanks. I removed the 1100 GPH BL-55 HD and picked up a smaller BL-20 HD from MRC. This is now a dedicated reactor pump and runs all my reactors and media through a separate manifold, and uses 80 less watts.

Former setup:

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New setup:
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[seth the wine guy]

Acroholic;617421 wrote: Guys,


I would like to give a big thanks and shout out to fellow ARC Members Dave "Grouper Therapy" and Eric "Eric B" for stopping by and consulting with me on this project. Dave and Eric are two of the nicest, most selfless people you could ever meet, and it was nice having two other sets of eyes and experience to help determine the routing method that best fit my situation.

Dave

I couldn't agree more. Eric and Dave are the kind of folks that make ARC the great little community that is.