I have a quandary and I haven't been able to find a satisfactory answer. I have literally read every thread in the refrigeration section trying to answer these questions (I posted this in another thread also)
We are planning on 6 - 7 barrel plastic fermenters with 50' of 1/2" or 3/4" SS coil in each and one jacketed brite (to start with). Our plan was to have an
1 1/2" PEX or sched 80 pvc header with a first in/last out return circuit. The drops would be 3/4" (?) tubing to quick disconnects and the coil through the lid for removal and cleaning. We are trying to work backwards on this to build the right system and then size the chiller to it and leave room for expansion (though expansion in this building will be limited so this will not be a permanent install). With that in mind I had a few questions:
1. Where can I find information on flow rates and for the SS coil mentioned above?
2. When the temp controller senses the need for cooling and opens the valve to allow the glycol to flow does the pump sense the change in pressure and pump harder to make up for the new open circuit(s) or is there enough flow resistance to maintain pressure in the system when fermenters are being cooled?
3. In the spirit of the 1st question, should the return circuit be sized smaller to increase flow resistance in order to maintain a pressure gradient on the feed side of the system? ie. 1 1/2" header - 3/4" drops - 1" return circuit?
4. We are looking at temp controllers hooked to solenoid or ball valves to control each fermenter individually (we are planning on a lager in our initial line up).
Thanks for any help on this, we decided we would like to do the build out so we better understand the system when/if things go wrong and we can try to fix it. The piping size on this part of the project has been the hardest thing to wrap my poor crack addled mind around.
We are planning on 6 - 7 barrel plastic fermenters with 50' of 1/2" or 3/4" SS coil in each and one jacketed brite (to start with). Our plan was to have an
1 1/2" PEX or sched 80 pvc header with a first in/last out return circuit. The drops would be 3/4" (?) tubing to quick disconnects and the coil through the lid for removal and cleaning. We are trying to work backwards on this to build the right system and then size the chiller to it and leave room for expansion (though expansion in this building will be limited so this will not be a permanent install). With that in mind I had a few questions:
1. Where can I find information on flow rates and for the SS coil mentioned above?
2. When the temp controller senses the need for cooling and opens the valve to allow the glycol to flow does the pump sense the change in pressure and pump harder to make up for the new open circuit(s) or is there enough flow resistance to maintain pressure in the system when fermenters are being cooled?
3. In the spirit of the 1st question, should the return circuit be sized smaller to increase flow resistance in order to maintain a pressure gradient on the feed side of the system? ie. 1 1/2" header - 3/4" drops - 1" return circuit?
4. We are looking at temp controllers hooked to solenoid or ball valves to control each fermenter individually (we are planning on a lager in our initial line up).
Thanks for any help on this, we decided we would like to do the build out so we better understand the system when/if things go wrong and we can try to fix it. The piping size on this part of the project has been the hardest thing to wrap my poor crack addled mind around.
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