Slashdot Mirror
Water Cooling Computers With A Swimming Pool
guzugi writes "This is a project I have been working for several months and been hypothesizing for much longer. The basic idea is to shortcut the need for an air conditioner when cooling multiple computers. Swimming pool water is pumped into the house and through several waterblocks to effectively cool these hot machines. This greatly reduces noise cooling requirements."
I had a job cleaning pools when I was a kid. I would worry about algae and other slime. It grows everywhere and needs to be cleaned out regularly.
From TFA, it would seem that the authour wants to have a cheap way of cooling his system. 85W is a considerable cost. A lot of fans could be run with that amount, and "silent" fans thesedays are getting to be VERY quiet.
I'd be inclined to build a heat exchanger to couple water from the pool into a cooling loop for the PCs.
well if you are familiar with the concept of infinite heat resevior...you would know...additionally, if the coolingloop were even able to change the temperature of the pool...the radiant heat exchange from the surface area of the pool would counter this.
An engineer is just an intricate machine that turns coffee into money.
1. Two of the photos shows water piping (including hose connections) right above a set of power outlets. Any leakage here will guarantee a short.
2. I don't see any sensors that will shut off the pump and computers, should the circuit run dry. Water leaks in the house are messy.
Chlorine is highly corrosive. Ever wonder why everything in a pool system is made of or coated in plastic?
The chlorine attacks iron even in ally form, rotting stainless steel at an alarming rate. It will also react with copper (slowly, but the higher temeratures in the water block are going to help it along) to dissolve the copper into a Copper (II) Chloride solution. That corrodes the copper waterblock and puts the copper into his pool - not good. Aluminum will cause a reaction to make aluminum chloride, and reacting with the water to ultimately form aluminum oxide (which will fall out of solution and likely clog and small passages over time) and hydochloric acid.
You need a heat exchanger to keep the chlorine away from metals. That means a non-metallic heat exchanger or one that's been coated with a chlorine resistent material.
A better solution would be to get an aftermarket automotive radiator and an electric fan, and use clean water (distilled or at least low mineral) with a coolant solution specifically designed to prevent corrosion.
=Smidge=
If we knew how big the pool was, we could do the math to see how many gallons "8 inches of water" is to see exactly much would be pumped into his home.
Because the ladders are generally made of anodized aluminum, which gives it a hard, protective coating of aluminum oxide, and the generally cool temperature of the pool water helps to retard any chemical reaction that might happen.
=Smidge=
No, I mean't what I said. Chlorine is NOT acidic. It is basic (a base). It is on the opposite end of the PH scale from acids.
Anonymous Cowards suck.
Yes, it can drain the whole pool.
If the filter is running, it will suck water from the bottom of the pool and run it back through the return lines he is connected into. Thus, if the filter runs, it can pump all of the water out of the entire pool eventually.
Elemental chlorine is an acidic gas. If you use a solid to treat a pool, then the material is a chloride compound, and is basic. Isn't chemistry fun?
Why bother with it at all? Which is basically "why climb a mountain?"
Because he can. Because it is there. Because you have got to do something with the time between birth and death.
Because I always choose clorinated water to ensure the maximum corrosion in my computer's cooling system
Believe it or not, there are pool chemical suites that do not use chlorine. For example, the one I use includes a very strong (90+%) hydrogen peroxide as a sanitizer.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
having to run multiple lines (one per PC?) if the water gets too hot after each computer (after a few it wouldn't really be cooling anymore)
Well, the setup shown in the photos has all the computers connected in parallel, so this wouldn't be a problem.
On the flipside, to get the Kb of Cl-, you simply take Kw divided by the Ka of HCl. Kw is 1e-14, so a really small number divided by a really big number is an even smaller number - showing that Cl- is effectively neutral.
What I think you guys are confused about is what they put into pools. The chlorine of choice nowadays is calcium hypochlorite - similar to sodium hypochlorite, found in stores as "bleach." (I use quotes because some bleaches aren't chlorine-based.) Hypochloric acid is a weak acid, which makes the hypochlorite ion a strong base. And a strong oxidizer. That's what will get your waterblocks eaten away.
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
The Specific Heat Capacity of water is too low for something like that to work. You wouldn't be able to run your PC hot enough to make any temperature changes in the water.
Basically, water adapts VERY EASILY to the ambient temperature around it. A high volume of water will maintain a relatively constant temperature. The surface area of your CPU would have to be a few square feet in order to really change the temperature of the Aquarium.
It's a good idea, it just doesn't work scientifically, unfortunately.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
Kind of like deep lake water cooling?
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
It's a weak base, since it exists in solution with its conjugate acid. Sort of like how sodium acetate is added as a buffer for acetic acid in salt&vinegar chips. *crunch*
Like this?