I leveled up my house water cooling!

[AlexTheGreatish]

Using the pool to cool Linus' computers is working great... for the computers. For the humans though it is too dang hot.

 

 

 

[GOTSpectrum]

I've noticed that you have been posting videos daily for the last week-ish...

 

I hope this doesn't lead to the same issues you have had in the recent past as things go forward 

[TylerD321]

16 minutes ago, GOTSpectrum said:

I've noticed that you have been posting videos daily for the last week-ish...

 

I hope this doesn't lead to the same issues you have had in the recent past as things go forward 

It has been a good minute since the original video was posted. I would wager alot of the work was spread out over a few days and they are just now releasing. For example, jake and his dad did the plumbing outside. I will be starting this new video in just a moment so we will see if my perspective changes.

[GOTSpectrum]

1 minute ago, TylerD321 said:

It has been a good minute since the original video was posted. I would wager alot of the work was spread out over a few days and they are just now releasing. For example, jake and his dad did the plumbing outside. I will be starting this new video in just a moment so we will see if my perspective changes.

Oh, I agree with you, I was just making a point. 

 

PS My preferred release schedule for this would have been spaced out by a day or two between with early release on FP, seeing as that's what was promised to me when I first signed up 

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

Them posting more isn't surprising. Them going from few uploads overnight to daily is unusual.

[TylerD321]

Would there be any benefit of putting a small single room AC unit in the server room as well to drop the room temperature a bit more as well or would this hurt the "pool heating" capability?

[bartosz325]

Are you just mix copper water blocks with aluminum car radiator? Have I missed something?

[manikyath]

54 minutes ago, GOTSpectrum said:

I've noticed that you have been posting videos daily for the last week-ish...

 

I hope this doesn't lead to the same issues you have had in the recent past as things go forward 

i a lot of the 'linus's house' videos are part of the same "project" so to say, and they're not necessarily filmed in order. it's a good thing that they *can* release daily videos, as long as they dont feel that they *have* to release daily videos. that's the difference.

Just now, bartosz325 said:

Are you just mix copper water blocks with aluminum car radiator? Have I missed something?

the car radiators are on the "outside loop", the loop that goes into the computers passes trough a heat exchanger. i also presume these loops are stuffed with biocide and corrosion inhibitor and they've learned from whole room watercooling on that part.

[VinLAURiA]

Anyone else getting a little stunod with the home tech videos? I guess it's a lull season for tech developments as a whole and so they need filler, but in that case I'd love to see some more videos on unusual devices or factory tours again, some more in-depth product reviews than what Short Circuit offers, or even just some tech roundups/buyers' guides since we're getting into that season.

 

Pretty much every other video these days is about Linus upgrading his home setup, and as fun as they can be to occasionally check into and see the antics ensue, I seriously can't bring myself to care enough about what a guy with far more money than me is doing to further smart-ify a home already far nicer than my own that my eyes don't glaze over when I see the day's upload is yet another home tech video. I've stopped trying to force myself through watching each one because there's nothing new I'm getting out of them at this point besides "look at this nice new house I've moved into".

[TylerD321]

1 minute ago, VinLAURiA said:

Anyone else getting a little stunod with the home tech videos? I guess it's a lull season for tech as a whole, but I'd love to see some more videos on unusual devices or factory tours again, some more in-depth product reviews than what Short Circuit offers, or even just some tech roundups/buyers' guides since we're getting into that season.

 

Pretty much every other video these days is about Linus upgrading his home setup, and as fun as they can be to occasionally check into and see the antics ensue, I seriously can't bring myself to care enough about what a guy with far more money than me is doing to further smart-ify a home already far nicer than my own that my eyes don't start glazing over when I see the day's upload is yet another home tech video.

I am the opposite honestly, I really love to see these videos of how technology can be used in creative ways

[Nystemy]

A needle valve and a flow gauge for each system could help ensure more "even" flow between the systems. Though at the downside of a bit higher flow resistance for the pump.

Also, the lines out to the pool could have been separated a lot further away from each other and had some insulation, currently they leak warmth from hot to cold on the way out to the pool, recycling the heat in the lines and effectively increasing thermal resistance. _{(the more heat that is allowed to leak between the lines, the less cooling the pool will provide. This is actually somewhat common for ventilation systems on larger buildings where one wants to exchange air with the outside world but not exchange thermal energy in the process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation)}

 

Also, Alex's comment about "how to make it without 3d printing" is so apt. Yes, a piece of wood were the "fix all issues" of the olden days, together with duct tape.

[Guest]

Hard to tell from the video, but if the hot water heater for the house is in the same room, should've switched to a heat pump/hybrid hot water heater. Works great for my basement server room :)

[Nystemy]

5 minutes ago, DTD_1 said:

Hard to tell from the video, but if the hot water heater for the house is in the same room, should've switched to a heat pump/hybrid hot water heater. Works great for my basement server room

Yes, a heat pump could have just used that warm water as its "cold" side.
However, 33 C water is already warm as far as in floor heating goes.

 

To be fair, Linus could likely just take an outdoor air to water heat pump and place on the wall in the server room and call it a day as far as warm tap water is concerned.

[manikyath]

18 minutes ago, Nystemy said:

A needle valve and a flow gauge for each system could help ensure more "even" flow between the systems. Though at the downside of a bit higher flow resistance for the pump.

meh.. that's a lot of moving parts, it would make more sense to just design a new block that has equal(ish) flow resistance to all ports, and mounts the other way so gravity doesnt affect things.

 

it also largely does not matter, unless maybe one of the machines has a much more restricted flow path than the others, while generating a lot more heat.

 

in this, it might make more sense to just have a "standardized flow resistance" in each machine... but again, as long as it's "within reason" there's so much cooling performance here that it doesnt matter.

[Nystemy]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

meh.. that's a lot of moving parts, it would make more sense to just design a new block that has equal(ish) flow resistance to all ports, and mounts the other way so gravity doesnt affect things.

 

it also largely does not matter, unless maybe one of the machines has a much more restricted flow path than the others, while generating a lot more heat.

 

in this, it might make more sense to just have a "standardized flow resistance" in each machine... but again, as long as it's "within reason" there's so much cooling performance here that it doesnt matter.

Personally I wouldn't consider gravity of major concern in this setup. The pressure difference in that fairly short water column would be fairly marginal compared to the flow resistance variations from one water block to the next.

A needle valve is likewise not much of a moving part. And the flow gauge can just be "this system seems warmer than the rest for the same workload", and therefore require a bit more open needle valve. It is a set and forget kind of thing. Ie, "standardize flow resistance of each system." as you allude to in your last paragraph. _{(or rather standardize flow resistance to peak "expected" system power dissipation.)}

 

But in the end, as we both say, it largely doesn't matter. There is plenty of cooling to go around. And I would rather focus on other creature comforts like quick disconnects and such, ease of maintenance.

[bestbattle]

Water to water heat pump anyone?

[kokosnh]

be careful with that power connector.
Better run 2-3 power brick, to power the fans / 2 , and RGB controllers separately.

The SATA power connector is notorious for melting and shorting when loaded even below the amp rating. 

And the molex to sata adapters are usually garbage quality, they are literally fire starters. The saying "molex to SATA loos all your data", didn't come out from nothing.

[darknessblade]

I agree with Linus RGB for this usecase is trash. 

I expect Linus to upgrade it to Noctua NF-F1* fans down the line, since these are much better suited for high/long term usage

 

[dgschrei]

Genuine question: Why did you go with the hassle of 24 120mm fans instead of just using a couple of Noctua's 200mm models? Noctua even sells them in a 5V variant that comes with a USB-Adapter so you could just have run them off of any old phone charger instead of jank-fitting a SATA plug to a notebook power supply. 

I mean you could tell me "because RGB and it looks cool" but you'd loose since i find Noctua's giant fans to be the far cooler product. 

[danwat1234]

You should use a throttled blowiematron fan for that AC adapter directly, no heatsink. Or maybe mount on the ground in concert with a fan because concrete is a decent heat sink.

Edit: [ And possibly get a 2nd adapter and wire in parallel to distribute the load]

 

As ScottJarriel6761 said on YouTube comment, getting a heatpump water heater would help reduce temperature and humidity! 

Edited October 30, 2023 by danwat1234

[Numus]

I really think Linus messed up with his room cooling situation by not placing the rads as close to the server as possible. There is no way he is close to the saturation point of the radiators by placing them in the room and now the servers have a much larger volume to heat up and the rads are going to be less efficient. Losing a lot of cooling potential by putting them that much further away from the primary heat source. It would have been much better to just but another server rack door and then mounting everything to that rack door. 

 

Also the power supply is really not good. Would be much better to use something like the meanwell powersupply to convert to 24V and then setup a couple dc-dc buck converts to step down the voltage and power a bank of fans off each buck converter. Then could run something like a RPI or Arduino with a temp probe to control the fans (no reason to run them 100% all the time). Using the RPI or Arduino would also allow RGB control off the GPIO headers. 

 

  

9 hours ago, dgschrei said:

Genuine question: Why did you go with the hassle of 24 120mm fans instead of just using a couple of Noctua's 200mm models? Noctua even sells them in a 5V variant that comes with a USB-Adapter so you could just have run them off of any old phone charger instead of jank-fitting a SATA plug to a notebook power supply. 

I mean you could tell me "because RGB and it looks cool" but you'd loose since i find Noctua's giant fans to be the far cooler product. 

One possible problem with that is the spacing of the fans on the radiator. It looks like the 120mm fans almost perfectly fit in the dimensions of the radiator. 

 

  

On 10/29/2023 at 3:26 PM, manikyath said:

meh.. that's a lot of moving parts, it would make more sense to just design a new block that has equal(ish) flow resistance to all ports, and mounts the other way so gravity doesnt affect things.

 

Would probably be even better to just use pressure reduction/flow reduction fittings and ensure equal pressure/flow out of all ports. 

  

  

  

On 10/29/2023 at 3:15 PM, Nystemy said:

Yes, a heat pump could have just used that warm water as its "cold" side.
However, 33 C water is already warm as far as in floor heating goes.

 

To be fair, Linus could likely just take an outdoor air to water heat pump and place on the wall in the server room and call it a day as far as warm tap water is concerned.

I feel like the purpose of this project was to eliminate waste heat as much as possible. Using a heat pump still produces waste heat, it just moves it somewhere else. If you are trying to maintain as close to 0 waste as possible, the pool setup is pretty ingenious. 

 

 

 

All that said.. I think one of my biggest fears watching all the videos on this is the whole "friction fitting" the wood that holds the manifolds into the ceiling. Please tell me they used something like a toggle to atleast prevent those boards from fall out between the rafters 

 

[Nystemy]

17 hours ago, Numus said:

I feel like the purpose of this project was to eliminate waste heat as much as possible. Using a heat pump still produces waste heat, it just moves it somewhere else. If you are trying to maintain as close to 0 waste as possible, the pool setup is pretty ingenious. 

I feel that you missed my point. Especially as far as "waste heat" is concerned.

 

Linus commented that his in floor heating system (seemingly running on gas) heats up the room. Likely a similar story for the boiler for the hot tap water.

Here a heat pump for these applications would have made some sense. Since these can provide "waste COLD" to the server room.

My point were not about actively trying to cool the room with an AC, but rather use a heatpump for preexisting heating tasks that could utilize the waste heat already available in the room. Not that the servers would provide enough heat to warm the whole house during winter, but it likely covers all warm tap water needs.