Sorry folks, need to reduce cooling costs

[MAOJC]

Well the extra hot weather has hit the area and I got my electric bill for the last 30 days. Over $500 is just out of the realm, so I am bring part of the farm down to see the effect. I have set 4 platforms to not get more work and when I have completed the existing they will be brought offine for the time being.

I will keep the quad cores crunching for now but they are slated for the next round if the costs don't reduce suffincently.

[Bok]

I've done the same thing myself. Switched off all but my dualcores + duallies. Now I've got to tidy them all up though..

Got 15 athlon XP machines sitting around now in various places..

Bok

[Digital Parasite]

See, that is why it is great to live in Canada. Cheap hydro-electric power and cooler temps. :smoking:

I guess if all the die-hard DC people out there moved to the arctic, the polar ice caps would melt even faster... :cry:

[moddolicous]

Thats too bad to hear guys. Lucky for me, I only have 3 comps and they are all in different rooms. House stays nice and cool. MAOJC, have you ever thought about solar-panels? That might not be a bad idea considering where you live. Also, what is you watercooled all the rigs from some monster pump??

[riptide]

I've done the same thing myself. Switched off all but my dualcores + duallies. Now I've got to tidy them all up though..

Got 15 athlon XP machines sitting around now in various places..

Bok
WOW. Most people here in Ireland complain about the weather ALL the time. National past time :looney: , but when I hear of guys AC bombing out... and such as above... sure makes me feel ok. If I ever got a whole pile of rigs, I'd probably have to put them in a shed outside somewhere... still can get hot with only a couple.

[Bok]

Yeah, and MAOJC is in Phoenix, just look at the 10-day forecast....

Phoenix forecast (http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/USAZ0166?from=search_10day)

And I'm heading out there on monday morning for the week :)

Bok

[IronBits]

And I just left there this morning... Missed you again! :cry:

[moddolicous]

Wow, I cant beleive its that hot in phoenix already. Hmmm, around July it'll probably be ~130!!

[ex2cib]

i believe it, ~105 today in AL where i live @

[em99010pepe]

Nice warm weather in Phoenix but where's the beach?!?!
That's the temperature I have on the combustion lab.

Carlos

[Bok]

If you had a beach it wouldn't be as hot though.... oceans cool the air down.

There's a small artificial beach in Tempe just across from the USAirways building that I'll be in :)

Bok

[MAOJC]

Yep in Phoenix the weather is scheduled to be 105 -110 F all week, The beach is in the back yard with a swimming pool and mist system.

As far as water cooling everything I have considered several alternatives, chilling tower, buried pipe/large truck radiator, modiifed swamp cooler with a radiator discharge. Chilling tower is probably the alternative I will use next summer when I get my very own building/toy room/office out back. There is a good place to hide it and it is shaded some of the day. The diffuclty still lies in getting low enough temps output to make it worth while, I figure that any design needs to have a output temp maximum of 80F to be effective, which is hard to achievd in 115F ambient. The current WC systems with standard PC type radiators in a 77F room run the coolant up to about 90F. The other option is a heat exchanger and the swimming pool, but it is aready @ about 90F but has a hugh volume to work against, but I don't fancy the cost of adding a permanant tap into the system.

The only other solution is an underground system but data on BTU transfer is pretty limited on the web so sizing becomes a problem as does digging a deep hole and making the thing corrosion proof in this alkaline soil.

Lots of concepts but verry little hard data to run with. Right now the AC unit for this end of the house runs almost constantly to keep up with the heat load from the computers. That has to end. Normally I run with the window open all winter and the room stays comfortable. In the fall when temps go back to highs in the 80's, I think I will place a Chevy Truck radiator with 18 inch box fan outside and run a distributon system to water cool the farm over the winter. Harbor Freight sells a nice pump for very reasonable. It is a rare day when the temps reach 32F overnight.

[em99010pepe]

I don't understand one thing.
In the Summer my room is at 40ºC or even more, the processor runs at 55ºC at full load and so far I didn't have any kind of problem with it.

Do you think the processors have different kinds of quality or I am just lucky?

Carlos

[riptide]

Maojc... do you pay water rates? If you didn't it could be possible to just run a straight through water cooling system.. straight from your water supply at the tap and straight out the door.. or if you wanted to conserve the water store it somewhere in a tank to keep it for some use.. washing etc.

Hey if you get that chevy radiator thing going... you HAVE to post pics. And you HAVE to stop by and post it in our Water cooling section over at Xtremesystems.

[MAOJC]

Maojc... do you pay water rates? If you didn't it could be possible to just run a straight through water cooling system.. straight from your water supply at the tap and straight out the door.. or if you wanted to conserve the water store it somewhere in a tank to keep it for some use.. washing etc.

Hey if you get that chevy radiator thing going... you HAVE to post pics. And you HAVE to stop by and post it in our Water cooling section over at Xtremesystems.

Yeah this is a desert and water isn't cheap here either. about $100 a month for houshold usage and drip irrigation, no grass at all.

The chevy raditaor deal seems promising for about 8 months of the year. Possibly running evaprtive cooling ait through it could extend that to 10 or 11 months. In august the monsoon off the pacific shows up and make evap. not so useful.

[Thor]

Dig a deep hole, put a tank with around 30-40gallons in and you should be fine...
Even in the summer...

At a certain depth´, temperature is pretty much constant and with that amount of water it should be no problem (or take a bigger tank). I see if can dig up some more information.

Florian

[riptide]

Yes Thor... You all probably know that caves and some mines hold contant temperature ('room' temperature) throughout the seasons. You just have to find out what dimensions and conditions you need for this to work for your PC farm. Maybe use cavity concrete blocks with good insulation to back up that hole when its dug!

[em99010pepe]

I will go for moddolicous suggestion. You can use a solar-panel to produce electricity and to heat water.

Carlos

[riptide]

I will go for moddolicous suggestion. You can use a solar-panel to produce electricity and to heat water.

Carlos
How much are solar panels though?

[MAOJC]

How much are solar panels though?

Solar panels for a regular house with AC loads in AZ run about $30K-$50K depending on internal loads. The problem I have with that is my homeowners Asscociation refuses to allow roof mounted solar. I could ground mount them but that is more expensive, footings and frames, and I loose some of my back yard to solar.

[jasong]

How about underclocking? Think of it as a new hobby on top of a hobby. :thumbs:

[moddolicous]

Solar panels for a regular house with AC loads in AZ run about $30K-$50K depending on internal loads. The problem I have with that is my homeowners Asscociation refuses to allow roof mounted solar. I could ground mount them but that is more expensive, footings and frames, and I loose some of my back yard to solar.
Thats too bad to hear MAOJC. I like that ground mounted tank idea. Just have it come up, cool the comps, then go back down. Only expensive part would be the pumps, hardware and a radiator.

[Thor]

He won't need a radiator as long as puts the tank in a certain depth. With a certain amount of water you have enough cooling liquid so that it will ermit the heat faster in the ground than it will heat up.

I have seen it beeing done here in Germany. A guy put a big tank around 2-3m deep in the ground. A that depth you will have a pretty constant temperature at around 10°C if i remember right.

I was trying to find the ground temperatures for Texas but couldn't find any on the internet. Maybe someone else can help out here?


Thor

[LAURENU2]

it should be around 45 to 50 %F