Chillers ......

[Joe_P]

Hi Guys,

Jus sent my chiller for servicing ...

Got a 2nd hand Reef Relief chiller from Dr Chill to manage my reef...

Now with the intention to purchase that chiller from him...

Through this event, was thinkin of a few issues regarding chiller breaking down...... and was wondering whether a reef could run 2 chillers at the same time with one as a backup jus in case the primary one fails....

Dunno how easy it is for a chiller to breakdown but reckon having a spare would be a good thing....

This is what I'm thinking of .... have 2 chillers plumbed into the system with chiller 1 having a temperature setting point at (lets say 26 degrees) with differential at 1 degree....

Chiller 2 would be given a setpoint of 27 degree with differential of 2 degrees....

Chiller 1 will start operation about reef water temp reaching 27 degrees...

Basically only chiller 1 will operate to cool the reef...... and stops upon the reef reaching 26 degrees (setpoint) ...... Chiller 2 only starts when the water temperature reaches 29 degrees...

This is so that if chiller one malfunctions either to it breaking down, leakage of coolent or either that day being too "hot"and it only being able to cool the reef , chiller 2 would then activate when the reef water reach the temperature that would activate it .. in this case, at 29 degrees.... therefore saving our much previous corals and livestock .....

Chiller 2 would then in this case be the spare chiller.....

Any comments on this......

[ervine]

It works but at double the cost and space taken up lor...

[Vinoth]

Does the spare chiller will consume power or not?

[nutx]

I think the 2nd chiller should be allow to run in normal situation also, rather than just a standby and not get kick start for a few dyas, or weeks.

I would suggest a setup of 1st chiller at 26 with differential at 2 degree, and 2nd chiller at 27 with differential at 1.

so both will kick start at 27 (assume both thermometer is calibrated to be the same), while tank cool faster, and 1 chiller stop earlier.

(just my own thinking:P)

[Cedric]

Oh, I have spend serious time thinking about this before. The only way I think to make it work without one chiller working harder then the other and yet save power is:

Plump the two chiller in parallel, not series.

Disable one of the temp controller. Using only one controller to control both the chiller at the same time.

This way, the water is chiller twice as fast aas the water fed to the chillers is parallel. There will be no temp difference between the two chiller because its run by one controller. Yet should one chiller fail, the other will continue operating!

What do you think???

[charlie]

Hi Guys,

Jus sent my chiller for servicing ...

Got a 2nd hand Reef Relief chiller from Dr Chill to manage my reef...

Now with the intention to purchase that chiller from him...

Through this event, was thinkin of a few issues regarding chiller breaking down...... and was wondering whether a reef could run 2 chillers at the same time with one as a backup jus in case the primary one fails....

Dunno how easy it is for a chiller to breakdown but reckon having a spare would be a good thing....

This is what I'm thinking of .... have 2 chillers plumbed into the system with chiller 1 having a temperature setting point at (lets say 26 degrees) with differential at 1 degree....

Chiller 2 would be given a setpoint of 27 degree with differential of 2 degrees....

Chiller 1 will start operation about reef water temp reaching 27 degrees...

Basically only chiller 1 will operate to cool the reef...... and stops upon the reef reaching 26 degrees (setpoint) ...... Chiller 2 only starts when the water temperature reaches 29 degrees...

This is so that if chiller one malfunctions either to it breaking down, leakage of coolent or either that day being too "hot"and it only being able to cool the reef , chiller 2 would then activate when the reef water reach the temperature that would activate it .. in this case, at 29 degrees.... therefore saving our much previous corals and livestock .....

Chiller 2 would then in this case be the spare chiller.....

Any comments on this......

Wow,

so rich.

[nicky30092002]

Juz got my chiller now U all talking abt setting up 2 ...

both ideas works at expense of extra cost .. no savings juz hot-standby in times of failure ..

tiok boh?

[Tanzy]

Not enough current for so many chillers!

I think a thermostat to cut of the lights will be more feasible.

[Joe_P]

Nah.... Wouldn't recommend 2 chillers running..... cos the wattage running 2 would be really high.....

The reason for 2 chillers running at different temperature setting is simply jus to ensure that if the primary one were to fail, you have a backup....

Simply put it, the 2nd chiller will never operates unless theres a operation failure of the first.... so its like having a spare chiller on hand except its plumbed into the system on standby...activates on its own during emergencies.....

So as long as the chiller dosen;t run, there would not be any electrical consumption.... therefore only thing to be concern would be the price of the second unit.....

But one thing for sure...... you won't lose your livestock when your chiller conks out...

For eg... running a 0.5 Reef Relief Chiller with setpoint of 26 degrees and a differential of 1 degree ...... and a 1.25 Reef Relief with setpoint of 26 but with differential of maybe 3....

So the 0.5 chiller starts when reef temperature hits 27 ...

as long as the chiller is able to handle the load, the 1.25 Hp chiller would never activate .....

But if the first chiller would to breakdown...... the 2nd unit would come in handy and prevent a catastropic event....

[seahorse]

I think you can hook up both chillers. 1 will be operating all the time.

The standby one can do a warm up run once every week/mth.

[nicky30092002]

Agreed ...

to add, alternate chiller sequence too ..

[Joe_P]

I think a thermostat to cut of the lights will be more feasible.

Was wondering if a thermoset to cut off lights would be good....

Ain't the lights gonna take some time to cool and would therefore still be contributing heat....???

Nest issue is as long as theres no chiller, its also impossible to retain temperature of reef below 29 degrees...

Lets say that if a reef is normally tuned to 25 - 26 degrees temperature, wouldn't a long period under the temperature setting of 29 degrees gonna rid the reef???

Not enough current for so many chillers!

Well, not recommending the usage of morre than 1 chiller... but implying that a spare chiller for a reef would be a good idea... except that instead of having it in the storeroom, why not jus plumb it up and program it only to start when the first breakdown....

[Tanzy]

Cutting off the lights should buy you enough time to do something to the chiller.

[BarraCudaTM]

The bulbs in cooling state would not be able to raise the temperature more than 0.5degrees considering the huge water volume.

The thermostat can be wired to switch off the lights, turn on the fan and sound a fire siren. Its up to yr imagination.

[Joe_P]

I think you can hook up both chillers. 1 will be operating all the time.

The standby one can do a warm up run once every week/mth.

Hmmmm ... how do you get a chiller to do a warm up run???

And is that a requirement??

The main issue here is to have a backup...

Not having both chillers running and not having a alternate sequence...

Most chillers would experience wear and tear as long as it is operating on a constant basis.....

That would however not happen to the spare unit as chances of it starting is pretty slim..... all that has to be catered to it is to ensure that a pump runs water through it............

[Joe_P]

The bulbs in cooling state would not be able to raise the temperature more than 0.5degrees considering the huge water volume.

The thermostat can be wired to switch off the lights, turn on the fan and sound a fire siren.  Its up to yr imagination.

But you still have to get a new one at the end.....

so was contemplating to get a spare jus in case when I really need one, I might experience some difficult obtaining it ......

Another point worth considering is that you might be away for a season of time ..... then what happens???

[seahorse]

Hmmmm ... how do you get a chiller to do a warm up run???

And is that a requirement??

The main issue here is to have a backup...

Not having both chillers running and not having a alternate sequence...

Most chillers would experience wear and tear as long as it is operating on a constant basis.....

That would however not happen to the spare unit as chances of it starting is pretty slim..... all that has to be catered to it is to ensure that a pump runs water through it............

A warm up run is to do a routine running/testing of the spare equipment , thus making sure that it does not fail on you when u need it most .

Of course if your spare chiller is been used for the first time , it should not fail . After it's maiden run & letting it idle before the next chiller

breakdown might not be a good idea . This is when the periodic warm up comes in.

[seahorse]

The main issue here is to have a backup...

Not having both chillers running and not having a alternate sequence...

When u are running the spare chiller , the other can always be shut down . So there is no issue of running 2 chillers here .

And there is no alternate sequence here as the warm up is just to let the spare chiller run for a short period of time to confirm that it is running ok . The time frame can always be set by u .

[nutx]

so now must start to bieo for a 2nd chiller leow!

[Joe_P]

I'm thinkin more to the line of keepin the chiller as a spare..meaning it does not have to run at all .....

Having water pumped through the spare unit without any activation of the chiller wouldn't cause any problems ... would it??? Maybe Dr Chill can advise ....

So basically, all the chiller needs is its own dedicated pump and a different temp differential .... one which when activation of the spare unit would have meant that the original unit is down....

It is actually more of like a safety feature.....

[dr chill]

Hi Joe,

having water pump through the spare unit will not damage the unit !

if the compressor of the chiller is not on, the power consume by the thermostat is negligible !

Dr Chill