I have a roof mounted glycol chiller being installed next week, and was wondering what temperature people typically run their glycol at. I was thinking perhaps -10C.
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In my opinion, -10C is far too cold. In case of accidental solenoid failure (you'd be amazed how often this happens), you don't want to freeze the beer, crash a fermentation prematurely, etc. Also don't want to ruin your chiller by freezing the heat exchanger solid if your glycol mix becomes too thin. I recommend -2C to -4C. If the chiller and the circuit are designed properly, you will get great results. Cheers!Phillip Kelm--Palau Brewing Company Manager--
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Keeping glycol too cold can cost you big $. You will want to keep your glycol as warm as possible while getting the job done. That temperature all depends on what your process is.
The amount of energy for every degree drop is not linear. In other words, if lowering your glycol from -3 to -4 takes X amount of energy it will take more than X (by a significant amount) to go from -4 to -5.
Some brewers get convinced that since their system is under capacity that turning the temperature down will give you more on demand heat capacity. While this is true the gains are slight and the costs are large (energy and maintenance).
Hope this helps.Last edited by Tbrew; 09-17-2005, 09:26 PM.
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I agree with Tbrew completely. First there's extra energy cost of being too cold, next it overworks your compressor, next it thermally confuses the heck out of your beer from too severe of a temp shock between the cooling jacket and the rest of the tank. Best is to figure 5 For so difference between the coldest you want the beer and the glycol temp. The smaller difference the better. Try it at 5 F difference and see how it works. Obviously the glycol/water ratio must be enough not to freeze. Since glycol is so dang expensive, there's another reason to not go too cold.Last edited by Moonlight; 09-19-2005, 12:44 PM.
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