Hot enough for ya???

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

In a cool ground floor suite, my unheatered reef tanks stay around 78F normally in the summer, but during the heat wave it was around 82-83F with fans going. That's not bad considering the max. room temp hit 83-84F on Saturday, which was still a lot cooler than outside. Sunday, I was able to leave my MH lights on their regular timer schedule & only shut off for a few afternoon hours on Sat. & Friday.

Anthony

[jgoldsney]

Dont know if it would help a tank but is sure is a cool Idea
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~gmilburn/ac/

[b_james]

Originally Posted by jgoldsney

Dont know if it would help a tank but is sure is a cool Idea
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~gmilburn/ac/

Hey jgoldsney, nice to talk to you again..

Great link, Actually if you were to coild the copper tubes around a 'very thin' walled pipe that is food safe and connect the thin wall pipe to a small pump for more contact time with the coil, you have just created a very crude exchanger. The theory is that the heat from the tank water slowly pasing through the coil section will be pull out. Essentualy you are creating a simple emmersion chiller. Here is a link to a cheap home made chiller used by people that brew their own beer.

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/equip/chiller.html

[b_james]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

but during the heat wave it was around 82-83F with fans going. That's not bad considering the max. room temp hit 83-84F on Saturday, which was still a lot cooler than outside.
Anthony

Another example of why I believe Central AC should be more efficient that employing chillers and fans - try adding up all the wattages of equipment being used to cool your tank. Also consider the other effects such as additional heat gain from the fan and chiller motors. Using fans to blow air across the surface of the water to cool is somewhat counter productive. Evaporative cooling cools by reducing the latent heat through evaporation - therfore by accellerating evaporation rates you will increase cooling, however as you increase evaporation you increase humidity levels in your space, therefore making it seem hotter and making it even more dificult to cool your home. Unless your RH is very low (very dry air) in oder to cool your home you will need to dehumidify.

Too complicated.... Simply put, if the room environment is kept at a constant cool temp, your tank temp should equallize maybe a few degrees higher without evaporating accessive amounts of water. My 2 ton system consumes about 6 amps - it keeps my house and tank comfortable.

[chwkreefer]

I totally agree. The interior of my home at present 71 degree F. Outside it's 30 degrees C. My tank is 77 degrees F. Everyone's comfortable and I'm paying a dollar a day to keep my house at that temp. I love my heat pump.

Bill

Originally Posted by b_james

Another example of why I believe Central AC should be more efficient that employing chillers and fans - try adding up all the wattages of equipment being used to cool your tank. Also consider the other effects such as additional heat gain from the fan and chiller motors. Using fans to blow air across the surface of the water to cool is somewhat counter productive. Evaporative cooling cools by reducing the latent heat through evaporation - therfore by accellerating evaporation rates you will increase cooling, however as you increase evaporation you increase humidity levels in your space, therefore making it seem hotter and making it even more dificult to cool your home. Unless your RH is very low (very dry air) in oder to cool your home you will need to dehumidify.

Too complicated.... Simply put, if the room environment is kept at a constant cool temp, your tank temp should equallize maybe a few degrees higher without evaporating accessive amounts of water. My 2 ton system consumes about 6 amps - it keeps my house and tank comfortable.

[Chaloupa]

I'm soooo very jealous that you have a heat pump!!! That is on our "to do" list over the next 2 years. And then I won't have to have chillers and fans and more fans ... and issues (like today) where you plan for a very hot day, turn on the fan over the 120g and leave...only to come home later to a tank at 74 (or 21 for us Canadians!) that is on the chilly side cause the house didn't get hot....Heat Pump here we come...one day.

[b_james]

Central AC... go for it, your fish will like it, you will like it and your pocket book will like it...