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Anyone know the pump head loss due to a 1/4 hp chiller? I called the manufacturer who said they didn't know and no one had ever asked them ?!?
What is the pump head loss due to a chiller?
- Thread starter jrosenblum
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I think in order for you to get a close ballpark, we'll have to know how it's plumbed in. Does the chiller have a pump on it (in-line) to inject the conditioned water back into the system loop or does the water just loop right through the chiller off of system pressure?
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It is plumed in-line with the return pump.
If that's the case, then I suspect you would lose a fair amount of "head pressure". This is becuase the condenser tubes will be roughly 1/4" in size. The only way I can think you could calculate the loss of head pressure, is to have a guage measuring the incoming pressure and the discharge pressure (or return pressure) and that would give you the "Delta" (diffrence).
Not entirely true. It depends on the chiller. My 1/2hp has 3/4 tube all the way through it while my 1/6hp also has 3/4" tube...just not as much of it. Typically, most of these chillers are set up so there's a cooling chamber inside the chiller. There's a titanium probe inside that chamber that chills the water. In my 1/6hp unit, it's 3/4 in and out with a chamber that's about a half gallon sized container.
The water doesn't go through the condenser tubes. There is a heat exchanger that transfers heat from the water to the refrigerant. (Aka the evaporator). The compressor pumps said refrigerant to the condenser where the heat is transferred back to the air and cause the refrigerant to CONDENSE into a liquid. Hence the name.
To answer the ops question. @the flow rates when kept within design of the chiller. Very little head loss would occur. Not enough would occur to even count it into a head loss calculation.
Now if you try to flow to much through it. Significant pressure loss would occur.
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This isn't correct, at least with my 1/4 hp chiller. My chiller has clearly and dramatically reduce GPH. Additionally, I see references on-line estimating a drop of 3-6 feet of head pressure.
I agree.
But the other heat exchanger is the evaporator and its transferring the aquarium water through it constant. Then being controlled by a thermostat. You have two types of units, air cooled and water cooled. The refrigerant in the condenser tubes (If water is in your compressor it's the value of scrap metal) allows refrigerant to boil and absorb heat from water. Then cooling water in the condenser removes heat from the refrigerant gas, condensing it back into a liquid. Then the metering device maintains the seal between the condenser and evaporator. So you have condenser water in and you have condenser water out.
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The chiller in question is an AquaEuroUSA MC 1/4 HP
OK my guys can't find any info either. But you can calculate it.
Take the pump off the chiller. Time filling a 5 gallon bucket. Hook it back up. Time the filling again.
Do a little math to convert GPM to gph
Yes I know its not extremely precise. But should get you close
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Take the pump off the chiller. Time filling a 5 gallon bucket. Hook it back up. Time the filling again.
Do a little math to convert GPM to gph
Yes I know its not extremely precise. But should get you close
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:yuk: Sigh... I can't think of a better way... I'll post my answer after the experiment.
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So I did a quick experiment as follows:
1. I shut off my pump resulting in the water level of my sump rising. I calculated the volume of water represented by this increase, and then I turned on my pump and timed how long it took for the sump level to return to normal. This gave me a GPH of ~ 230 GPH. Thus, my GPH including chiller seems to be a terrible 230 GPH
2. I used the reefcentral.com head loss calculator to calculate what my GPH *should* be given my set-up minus the chiller. That answer came to about 562GPH @ 8.17 feet of head pressure.
3. I adjusted the vertical height on the calculator until it calculated an answer of 234 GPH with a resulting 11.8 feet of head pressure
Thus I estimate the chiller to contribute approximately 3.63 feet of head pressure (the equivalent of raising a Danner Supreme Mag 9 approximately 7 feet).
So, a 1/4 HP chiller adds about 3.63 feet of head pressure... Can anyone corroborate or have an intuition about the correctness of this?
1. I shut off my pump resulting in the water level of my sump rising. I calculated the volume of water represented by this increase, and then I turned on my pump and timed how long it took for the sump level to return to normal. This gave me a GPH of ~ 230 GPH. Thus, my GPH including chiller seems to be a terrible 230 GPH
2. I used the reefcentral.com head loss calculator to calculate what my GPH *should* be given my set-up minus the chiller. That answer came to about 562GPH @ 8.17 feet of head pressure.
3. I adjusted the vertical height on the calculator until it calculated an answer of 234 GPH with a resulting 11.8 feet of head pressure
Thus I estimate the chiller to contribute approximately 3.63 feet of head pressure (the equivalent of raising a Danner Supreme Mag 9 approximately 7 feet).
So, a 1/4 HP chiller adds about 3.63 feet of head pressure... Can anyone corroborate or have an intuition about the correctness of this?
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