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Leaving freezer on /open | 26 comments (26 topical, editorial)
Re: Leaving freezer on /open (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by JW on Mon Jun 9th, 2008 at 09:14:59 PM MST
(User Info)

One other thing,

I casually mentioned R-factor/value for such an insulated room. My best guess is that one would have to use polyurethane foam with about an 8inch thickness. This can be easily spray'd on any surface, although such an application would require the use of 'scuba' breathing apparatus for anyone applying such an insulation within a confined space. The use of an aluminum-foil vapor-barrier on the outside is optional. As the layering process of 2-inch thich coats were applied on the inside of such a room, by the time you got to the last layer at 8in thick(after expansion of the foam), I would throw some 5/8inch thick 4ft by 8ft plywood sheets on the floor. this should be more than adequate to support floor loads of the weight of the wine, and cooling reservoirs, should all this be on a concrete foundation.

 Furthermore the arrangment with the door(s) is the problem of the designer.

Its not unheard-of for wine collections to be of substantial value...

"I know it is not the best but air conditioning is hard to come by when your limited for power and have to come up with something in a pinch to save losing a small fortune. -JW1111"

May I suggest an 8kw gas/diesel gen-set to cool things down, using a huge  AC wall-unit (air conditioner)running off-of 220vac. Actually, if you threw some dry bails of hay in there, you could most likely control humidity pretty easily using the wall unit.

Quite-frankly its a big job to get the (cooling)storage capacity your looking for, let alone whats possible with the small load capacity that you propose, but, it could be possible, if you have a good enough R-factor and you were just maintaining temp once the whole thing was already cooled down.

JW

[ Parent ]



Re: Leaving freezer on /open (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by JW on Mon Jun 9th, 2008 at 10:23:31 PM MST
(User Info)

I've put some futher thought into this, with regards to the fridge's cooling capacity. Atleast to maintain 55*f in an insulated room, and this # falls out of spec. I think 67*f is a more reasonable (#)number. But this depends on ambient temps around storage. Im figuring 90*f.

This is related to the 300 cases of wine.

"What i had in mind was to build a foam insulation box around 300 cases of wine and put the freezer in there with the hot air from the unit venting outside of the box and the cool air from inside the unit is driven out into the box with a small fan.
-JW1111"

What temp do you actually need to maintain the wine at JW1111? It does make a huge difference in relation to the hottest you expect to encounter with relation to ambient temps.

"What i had in mind was -and put the freezer in there -with the hot air from the unit venting outside of the box  -JW1111"

Yes this is obvious, not only would you have to break the system open, you'd have to lengthen the connection pipes to the condencer(the hot part of the system). So that the condencer of the fridge was outside the insulated zone.

"and the cool air from inside the unit is driven out into the box with a small fan.- JW1111"

The evaporator(cold part of the system) would most likely need some heatsinks welded to it, with a gtaw(tig) welder while you had the system discharged(most likely the evaporator is aluminum). But the idea of a fan re-circulating air over the modified evaporator, within the insulated room is okay.(obviously)

Providing you calculate the extra refrigerent needed, and not over-charge the system, you would be very close. Im guessing your using 134a.

However, if the system was never opened, you could not mount the heatsink to the evaporator, so you'd have less cooling surface area for your fan to pass air across.

Again, its very close. Depends on ambient temps and the temp you expect to maintain.

I see no problem with the wall unit, if its on re-circulating cooling mode for the cooling air, to chill things down, before your fridge idea is put on line. But you may find you need more cooling capacity than such a converted fridge can provide. Maybe not, but you will need the larger cooling capacity AC wall unit, to get things within a range that you can even find out.

One things for sure, the insulation will be the best money spent if you go thru all the trouble. You may have to go back and forth some, to get what you need out of the refridgeration systems.

All things considered, its going to be one hell of a project to get right.

JW


[ Parent ]



Leaving freezer on /open | 26 comments (26 topical, 0 editorial)

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