Water cooled CPU...I mean, van

[vannstein]

A buddy of mine has a PC with a water-cooled CPU and it got me thinking that I could use the same setup to help cool my van. I have some of the components now and waiting on others to arrive in the mail.

Basically, I have a length of copper tubing, a length of vinyl tubing, some tube clamps, a water pump, and a small radiator with a small fan hooked up to it.

The idea is to zip tie the copper tubing to the front of a fan, the vinyl tubing would run from there to the water pump/radiator where the heat would be dispersed from the van interior.

This idea may be a flop but I'm trying it anyways. Does anyone have any experience with this or any ideas on how to make this work great?

 

[BradKW]

Well, since you're using water and it won't phase change, you need a cooler with ice to dump the thermal load. In a PC, water cooling works because you have a highly concentrated heat source and ambient air provides plenty of differential to dump the heat. But in a van, you can't cool ambient air with ambient air.

There's many discussions here relating to cooling loops using a fan, ice and tubing...use the search function and you'll find more than you wanted to know. Also google swamp coolers...

 

[IGBT]

Sure, it will work to bring your van interior down from 160F to 130F, just like a cpu in 90 degree ambient.

 

[vannstein]

Sure, it will work to bring your van interior down from 160F to 130F, just like a cpu in 90 degree ambient.

Lol holy smokes, the van is hot but not that hot. I'm snowbirding it so strong heat is less of an issue but an issue nonetheless.

@brad I thought the radiator dissipated the heat from the water. That would reduce the temp at least a little bit I would think. I've read posts on here where guys want to just circulate the heat inside or they want to use a similar setup I'm suggesting but not use the radiator outside the vehicle.

I was thinking a thermoelectric plate may help with this. Run the tubing thru water that has been chilled by the plate.

Someone posted on here about using one of those but forgot to pipe the heat out of the vehicle. I don't see how this wouldn't work unless the results were less than desired.

 

[MrNoodly]

...you can't cool ambient air with ambient air.

The very best way to explain it.

 

[eDJ_]

I know you can't always been near cool running water,  but if I were going to try this I think I'd try to find a small  automotive radiator and build a ply wood box with a plastic tray in the bottom to catch the condensate.  Of course a drain pipe would have to be cemented & sealed to the plastic tray and go underneath the vehicle where a hose would carry that drainage to a suitable area.

There would be a 12 volt blower behind the radiator and a circulation pump that would draw cool water from the stream bottom through a 50 ft garden hose to enter at the top of the radiator in the box.  When coming out the other end a similar shorter garden hose would return it to the waters edge. 

All of this would be contingent on being able to camp near a stream.   I think some kind of one way valve (a ball valve) would be necessary to keep he supply hose primed to the pump.  (or otherwise...a sealed electric pump at the far end of the hose with a double electric wire running through the hose to it.  But DC electric won't travel too far so that would have to be considered. 

Inside the enclosure,  a baffle would have to be made so the fan would pull in air from the Van at the bottom and  channeled around to blow through the top of the radiator to return the cooled air back into the Van.  

I'm thinking of a roller pump like this one for circulating the water and of course a air circulating fan motor.

But again,  can you camp close to the cool water ?

 

[ZoNiE]

Peristaltic will be too slow. You need a rotary vane pump like a fountain pump, or if you wanna move a lot of water, a pool filter pump.

A fountain pump, transmission cooler, and a fan would cool nicely if you were drawing from a large body of water like a lake or stream, and moved at least a few gallons of water a minute through it. Your plumbing may attract unwanted attention, however, as LEO may get complaints of you draining your RV in the lake by unknowing bystanders...

Something to think about.

 

[BradKW]

Yeah, but this will also open cans of ravioli and beer bottles. Hard not to call that a win.

 

[eDJ_]

Yeah,  an A/C unit that opens beer and ravioli.   Now that would be "value added". 

Just attach these on the side

Fish & ZoNiE,  Even if something like this were to be built and insulated on the inside do you think it would have a chance of working if a hose could be dipped into the deep cool/cold water ?  A transmission cooler
may be the better than a car radiator.  (thinking of tube size and hose) 

And imagining that there would be no snooping people to claim you're destroying the environment.

Thinking this may work on a Boat otherwise.  =)

 

[NeedAnEscape]

I think a heater core would be the best option. Stick one in a box to contain any condensate and use a couple PC fans to blow air through.

 

[vannstein]

I think a heater core would be the best option. Stick one in a box to contain any condensate and use a couple PC fans to blow air through.

This is a good idea and on the cheaper side. I was looking for bigger radiators but not as big as an engine one and didn't know what to search for. But I'd need bigger tubing and a bigger pump for that. I have a smaller heat exchanger and 3/8" tubing. Still waiting for it to come in.

 

[vannstein]

The pond idea is great. I saw a YT video some time back where a guy had a creek in his back yard and did this setup to cool his house. It worked great. I don't plan on being by any water though. My plan, since I'm planning on traveling nonstop with short stays in certain areas, is to just hit up some Walmarts overnight, find a public library in worst heat of the day to do my work, and find some parks and similar areas outside of that to hang in - and go out and hang out with people at different venues aside from that.

So I won't be needing massive amounts of AC since I'm staying out of the hottest parts of the day, but for the other times I want to mitigate whatever heat there is. I'd rather avoid swamp coolers because I don't want to be humidifying the inside of my van, although when I get south I may change my mind about that. I like the water pump idea because you're still using water but keeping it contained.

I may get a second solar panel (and perhaps a second battery) to handle a thermoelectric plate in order to chill the water up. I'm not considering that right now because the solar system I'm setting up currently won't handle that draw. the plate may be good in the cold too because you can flip it around and have the hot side heat the water instead of being sent outside.

 

[highdesertranger]

first off I would test that plate to see how much it cools the water. my guess is it is going to take forever to chill the water and eat a lot of juice in the process. those plates are very inefficient. highdesertranger

 

[BradKW]

vannstein, I don't want to seem like I'm beating a dead horse here, and perhaps I missed something you said, but this is sounding like those occasional threads where a person thinks that just sitting a window AC in the middle of a room will somehow cool the room.

I know that's not what you're saying, but without phase change or ice you really can't accomplish anything like this. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that there was a high enough temp differential from inside to outside van that a straight closed loop radiator might do something. The BEST you could possible achieve would be to get the inside to the same temperature as the outside. It won't actually work well, but that's the top theoretical outcome.

Which is why everyone has Fantastic and MaxAir fans...they actually do work, and do it quickly with little energy spent.

And as HDR points out, those thermo plates are horribly inefficient...just not someone with batteries wants to play with.