A cheaper way to heat your tank.

Great idea!

 

very cool idea. wonder if the same idea can be used for your refrigerator for the summer?
thanks for sharing

 

Great Job!!!

 

You could...

 

yeah ive actually seen other DIY chillers using parts from spare refrigerators. (thats all an aquatic chiller is anyway.. )

 

great setup you have there.

 

pretty cool

 

Neat idea...I will be interested to see if you get enough heat exchange through that plastic tubing. That has been the problem with people that try DIY chillers. Not enough transfer. The plastic tubing is too good of an insulator. Plus trying to replace 1350w of heaters is a pretty big task. I do hope it works though, as it is a very cool idea.

 

The beauty of it is that the tubing only has to reach an outside temp of 80 degrees for this to work. To the hand that will feel cool but the water will efficiently pull the heat from the tube till it equalizes with it.
I know that work from years of having a waterbed, if you don't keep it heated to 98 degrees you will wake up freezing even on a hot summer night at 100 + with no air movement due to the waterbed drawing the heat from you and lowering your core body temp.

awesome DIY project

 

Summer time water beds rock. I can also tell it is working becaust the water line to the sump is 140 deg and coming out it is 90 deg.

Yesterday we had the house open and the whole house fan on, so the house was the same temp as it was yesterday. The basement seems to lag behind on temp changes. As the afternoon kicked in it warmed to 75 deg in the house. The basement was warmer about 80 deg because I was filling and draining the hot water heater. I turned the humidistat down and turned on our hot tub vent fan over night and that cooled the basement down to 73 degrees. Before I went to bed last night the heater system had not turned on, I could tell because both lines from the hot water heater were cold. I woke up this morning at 4:00 and the lines were still cold. I then went back to bed, when I got up at 7:00 the lines were warm. I checked display, fuge and Sump temps and every thing looked just as it should, it appears the system is functioning like I had the electric heaters in it. Zachtos said the system has the ability to heat water quickly. I do not know about that I did not let the system cool down.