Glycol chilling capacity and operation of solenoid valves

[ziggy13]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if there was an easy way to calculate the chilling capacity of our glycol system? We currently have an industrial glycol chiller (need to look up stats on this), a 20 bbl glycol reservoir that is currently only 1/3rd filled with glycol and water, a pump inside, a 7bbl brite and 3 7bbl fermenters. We are looking to add a couple of 15bbl uni tanks as well, but I want to make sure whatever we buy is going to be cooled efficiently with our system. Our current system was sized out on the large size to give us room to grow. We were told we have the room to at least do 8 7bbl tanks, so I don't think 4 7bbl tanks and 3 15bbl tanks is pushing it too far beyond what we were told would be fine, but that's why I'm here, to try and figure this out. How would I calculate that?

I also am not exactly sure where we are going to be able to put the tanks. We definitely can not put them right in line with the other tanks. I'm thinking we're going to have to set up a completely different "bank" if you will, of fermenters on the other side of the room. What are general rules of thumb when it comes to that, or am I good as long as my pump has the lift and power to push the glycol to wherever I need to put my tanks?

Finally, the installer of the unit told us to set the solenoids to 2 minutes on, 10 minutes off and never any more than that. It doesn't do a thing when we have it set to that low. So right now I'm running about 5 on 5 off during fermentation and then about 15 on 5 off when I'm crashing a tank. Am I going to cause damage by running them that hard, or was the installer guy wrong?

Thanks everyone in advance and have a great day!

[wailingguitar]

Never heard of cycling solenoids like that. Every brewery I have worked in for the last 25+ years had a set point on the controller for whichever process (ferment, crash, etc) and let the controller turn solenoid on and off as needed... basically set the temp you want and leave it alone.

[ziggy13]

Never heard of cycling solenoids like that. Every brewery I have worked in for the last 25+ years had a set point on the controller for whichever process (ferment, crash, etc) and let the controller turn solenoid on and off as needed... basically set the temp you want and leave it alone.

That is similar to the way our cellar control panel works, but it also has a listing for solenoid on and solenoid off time. So I set the temp I want and then the computer turns the pumps and solenoids on or off, but we also need to choose I guess a maximum on and off time. I'm trying to get the name of the software from my brewhouse supplier at the moment. We were given a CD to install onto a computer to be able to add and remove fermenters from the control panel etc, but I lost it so I'm trying to get him to supply us with another one or let me know where I can download it at.

[TGTimm]

Our solenoid valves for jacket control are either on or off, as controlled by the PID thermo-controllers. We don't cycle at all as long as the controller is calling for cooling.

I'm guessing the idea of cycling the valves is to prevent the fermenter/bright jackets from icing. If your glycol temp is not too low (26F or higher) and your jackets are well designed, this won't be a problem.