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  • Indoor Glycol Heat

    I'm about to purchase a guy on chiller for our 10bbl brewery, but having trouble deciding between a remote (split) system or a packaged indoor. Split would be ideal so the waste heat from the condenser isn't pumped into the brewery/taproom, but I just found a sweet deal on a packaged indoor unit that would be cheaper and not involve getting the condenser up on the roof and cost of hook up. So my question is; for all those that have indoor package chillers, how much heat does it give off? Is it unbearable in the summer? In the winter I'm sure it would help the heating bill. TIA.

    Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

  • #2
    its not hard to rig up some ventilation for the unit. we had a bar with an ice machine that always over heated as it was in a closet. so we used some flexible insulated 10" ducting and a attic/gable fan with a super long thermostat cable, and put the probe hanging right next to the ice machine. when the compressor kicked on and spit out heat the gable fan would sense it and turn on and suck the heat up and out the roof. no more overheating.

    the basic principle is the same for you to follow if you find it heats the room. cant be more specific as we dont know the size of your glycol unit (hp, btus, etc) or the size/dimensions of your space.

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    • #3
      It does depend on the size of you unit, volume of your brewery etc to some degree but in the summer it has the potential to get pretty hot. You are pulling all of the heat of fermentation out and throwing it into your brewery as well as pulling heat out to crash tanks which you can do the math but is a lot of heat. The problem is that in the summer you will be circulating heat, pulling it out of the beer then it will heat the space and slowly go back into the beer to be pulled out again. Every time this happens you will be adding heat to run the chiller(and wasting energy) as the chillers have a set efficiency, which will just make the problem worse. Depending in the tanks and amount of insulation etc you may start to have problems getting the tanks to crashing temp and may even start to overload the chiller. This is highly dependent on on all the cooling loads though( space, walk in cooler, windows etc.).

      If you have the option I would look at putting the chiller outside in a doghouse enclosure.

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      • #4
        A thermostatic vent could work, and would be cheaper than setting up a split system on the roof. Thanks for the suggestion.

        I didn't think about the feedback loop of cooling the tanks with the heat from that going right back into the space. Very good point.

        The space is (3,800 sqft) with 18ft ceilings so I'm thinking an indoor unit with some sort of vent hood and fan on a thermostat might work. Looking at only a 3 ton or so unit as well.

        Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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        • #5
          We made the mistake of having our first chiller indoors (well, more because of an a-hole landlord). Don't do it! Most breweries stay warm enough in the winter just from the brewhouse. In the summer, you'll cook yourself and the chiller will not be able to operate efficiently.
          Linus Hall
          Yazoo Brewing
          Nashville, TN
          www.yazoobrew.com

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          • #6
            And just add what Nros mentioned, most city codes will allow you to put an indoor unit on the roof if it gets put in a doghouse type enclosure with no issues or special permitting required. Basically just enough of a roof to keep the rain off of it, and dont forget to clean the unit a few times a year if it goes outside. Could solve your problems if you consult the manufacturer about weatherizing it. In CO id also assume that you could add a cold weather coil and get free cooling for a good part of the year. Something to think about whether it's inside or outside.

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            • #7
              No problems with having it inside. We are in an area that gets over 100F in the summer, even with the unit inside, without running the AC, while brewing, it only gets to about 85F, not bad. Average temps are about 70-75, colder in the winter. One thing to look at, someone mentioned that it would be less efficient inside, that is not the case, outside temps are hotter than inside, even running the unit so we see a better efficiency indoors. The other thing to look at, is when it gets cold, you're in an area that snows, the glycol units will not run as well in the winter, and will require heating the enclosure to keep it running. All of this is based on a unit that is sized for a 10bbl brewery. Bigger units will throw off more heat. We are in a 5000sf building, using a 5 ton unit. I think if we had a 10 ton, or dual 5 tons, it might be different.

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              • #8
                Agree with jebzter. A couple of my local breweries have indoor chiller vents, and have no problems - one is in a high roofed building - probably similar height to that proposed. The other is in low ceiling rooms - still no problem. Noise of the fan is a bigger problem than the heat.
                dick

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