Is Linus's Watercooling Room Terribly Designed?

[Maxwit44]

Yes, insulation. The issue they were having was not with machines overheating, it was with the room overheating. They want the heat outside. So insulating the interior pipe keeps the heat out of the room... ...Insulation.

Regulators are not for stepping down the pressure on the system, they are for regulating the amount of water going to a given machine so that they all get equal water flow from the loop. Imagine if the first machine in the loop has a single water block and the one at the end had a triple.

Sorry still not seeing the point of insulating the pipes. I honestly don't think that it'll give off that much, well no more than if a person was in the room all the time.

For the water pressure side of things, I don't see this to be much of a problem. No more than having triple gpu's in a parallel config. Just on a larger scale. Once all the air is bleed, and a positive pressure is maintained in the room, each machine will have the same pressure on the inlet side. Still don't see the need for any regulation in the water circuit. Linus has leaked some of what the machines are running, and I think edzels machine is the only one that is different to the rest. This added restriction can be over come with an internal secondary pump. No big deal really.

[AndThenThereWas1]

The only options i see in dealing with the cold during the winter are:

1)Install a water heater. It would have to run all night so that the pipes dont freeze. Itll probably end being more expensive than the cost of running an A/C a few hours a day.

2)Drain the loop each night and hope the loop stays above freezing during the day. I cant imagine anyone wants to deal with filling the loop each morning and if there is water in it during the night then the rads may burst. The piping leading up to and away from the rads will freeze and as the water inside the rads freezes and expands the rads may burst. Running the loop 24/7 wont fix the issue because eventually it too will freeze.

3)isolate the loop from the outside. Only problem is that there are no rads to dissipate the heat inside. This can be fixed by making the outside rads detachable and switchable with a location inside.

4)or use anti-freeze. Itll be pretty expensive every time they need to clean the loop.

 

I do think they should consider insulating the piping, especially if they want the interior a different temp than the exterior. During the summer the pipes will be heating the room and during the winter they will be cooling the room. It looks like they have already assembled the piping, but they could have kept that copper look by double piping(a smaller pipe inside a larger one). The air separating the two would have acted as an insulator. They could have also filled it with a special insulating foam. I guess its too late now.

[W-L]

The only options i see in dealing with the cold during the winter are:

1)Install a water heater. It would have to run all night so that the pipes dont freeze. Itll probably end being more expensive than the cost of running an A/C a few hours a day.

2)Drain the loop each night and hope the loop stays above freezing during the day. I cant imagine anyone wants to deal with filling the loop each morning and if there is water in it during the night then the rads may burst. The piping leading up to and away from the rads will freeze and as the water inside the rads freezes and expands the rads may burst. Running the loop 24/7 wont fix the issue because eventually it too will freeze.

3)isolate the loop from the outside. Only problem is that there are no rads to dissipate the heat inside. This can be fixed by making the outside rads detachable and switchable with a location inside.

4)or use anti-freeze. Itll be pretty expensive every time they need to clean the loop.

 

I do think they should consider insulating the piping, especially if they want the interior a different temp than the exterior. During the summer the pipes will be heating the room and during the winter they will be cooling the room. It looks like they have already assembled the piping, but they could have kept that copper look by double piping(a smaller pipe inside a larger one). The air separating the two would have acted as an insulator. They could have also filled it with a special insulating foam. I guess its too late now.

 

They could simply just do with a dual loop system that uses an exterior loop with glycol to prevent freezing with insulated lines once it enters the home, passing it through a heat exchanger with an interior loop that uses water. It prevents the two loops from ever contaminating each other and isolates the freezing issues tat may ever occur. 

[zacRupnow]

The heat is being spread over so much surface area that the pipes will probably never pass 50 Celsius.

[slappy_d0]

The heat is being spread over so much surface area that the pipes will probably never pass 50 Celsius.

 

This is one of my points. They do not want 75+ feet of 3/4" copper at 120 degrees (f) water pumping through the room. The return may even be above ambient temp, especially in summer. Hello AC.

[zacRupnow]

This is one of my points. They do not want 75+ feet of 3/4" copper at 120 degrees (f) water pumping through the room. The return may even be above ambient temp, especially in summer. Hello AC.

with the radiators fans turned on it should be significantly lower, but keep in mind all the heat is being taken outside and that maximum temperature will only be on the last system on the return loop.

[slappy_d0]

with the radiators fans turned on it should be significantly lower, but keep in mind all the heat is being taken outside and that maximum temperature will only be on the last system on the return loop.

 

But this misses the point. If it's an 85 degree day, at 100% efficiency it's still 85 in the room. With no insulatiive heat containment of the loop, it will get MUCH hotter in the room.  Plus the old adage that each human puts off 100 watts just walking around...

 

The maximum temperature of the system will be averaged more or less due to the distribution model. Without flow control, it will be less optimized.

 

We haven't even discussed things like thermal expansion, which is why they need a high level reservoir/expansion tank...

[Un4tural]

on the wan show they show a peak at the copper pipes... while pressure might be a problem, the workstations clearly aren't daisy chained together, they have 2 pipes one for in and one for hot water to get out, to which pipes leading to each station are connected. will probably need valves or extra pumps to even the pressure for each pc surely?

 

Not sure what they could do about condensation/freezing in winter, a dash of vodka maybe?

 

as for heat being spread from the pipes... I've had copper pipes in my house for ages, no, it does not bleed a ton of heat. sure as hell not enough to be noticeable. also if they put a coat on varnish to keep pipes shiny, even less so.

 

but yes mostly curious what will they do about freezing/condensation. it really depends on how big radiator is, but i doubt just turning down the fans will be enough to prevent freezing...  it should be the biggest concern, as if it condensates it could kill the whole workstation.

[W-L]

on the wan show they show a peak at the copper pipes... while pressure might be a problem, the workstations clearly aren't daisy chained together, they have 2 pipes one for in and one for hot water to get out, to which pipes leading to each station are connected. will probably need valves or extra pumps to even the pressure for each pc surely?

 

Not sure what they could do about condensation/freezing in winter, a dash of vodka maybe?

 

as for heat being spread from the pipes... I've had copper pipes in my house for ages, no, it does not bleed a ton of heat. sure as hell not enough to be noticeable. also if they put a coat on varnish to keep pipes shiny, even less so.

 

but yes mostly curious what will they do about freezing/condensation. it really depends on how big radiator is, but i doubt just turning down the fans will be enough to prevent freezing...  it should be the biggest concern, as if it condensates it could kill the whole workstation.

 

If you were curious about the rad this is what they're using outside, looks so awesome!

 

http://instagram.com/p/sNmixHybP3/?modal=true

[OverachievingSnowfall]

As for the concerns about freezing in the winter.  They're in Vancouver.  They get wet snow about 3 times a year. And that generally melts by 10:00am...

 

Also, in the summer, it doesn't get that hot, and it rains a lot too. I don't think they'll have much trouble with it. 

 

I think it's a great idea and I can't wait for the detailed videos that are created about this system, with the help of this system.

[CatCloud]

As for the concerns about freezing in the winter. They're in Vancouver. They get wet snow about 3 times a year. And that generally melts by 10:00am...

Also, in the summer, it doesn't get that hot, and it rains a lot too. I don't think they'll have much trouble with it.

I think it's a great idea and I can't wait for the detailed videos that are created about this system, with the help of this system.

I didn't rain much when I was in Vancouver last month, 3 weeks and only 3 days were cloudy and... 1 rainy day? Imo it was rather warm.

[Blade of Grass]

The only options i see in dealing with the cold during the winter are:

1)Install a water heater. It would have to run all night so that the pipes dont freeze. Itll probably end being more expensive than the cost of running an A/C a few hours a day.

2)Drain the loop each night and hope the loop stays above freezing during the day. I cant imagine anyone wants to deal with filling the loop each morning and if there is water in it during the night then the rads may burst. The piping leading up to and away from the rads will freeze and as the water inside the rads freezes and expands the rads may burst. Running the loop 24/7 wont fix the issue because eventually it too will freeze.

3)isolate the loop from the outside. Only problem is that there are no rads to dissipate the heat inside. This can be fixed by making the outside rads detachable and switchable with a location inside.

4)or use anti-freeze. Itll be pretty expensive every time they need to clean the loop.

 

I do think they should consider insulating the piping, especially if they want the interior a different temp than the exterior. During the summer the pipes will be heating the room and during the winter they will be cooling the room. It looks like they have already assembled the piping, but they could have kept that copper look by double piping(a smaller pipe inside a larger one). The air separating the two would have acted as an insulator. They could have also filled it with a special insulating foam. I guess its too late now.

Keep in mind that moving water is harder to freeze. So, if they leave the loop running and the rigs running throughout the night they might be able to produce enough heat and movement (in the water) to keep it from freezing.

EDIT: Also, it's Vancover, it doesn't get that cold. Based off climate information from Environment Canada, it normally doesn't drop below 0.

[joenewbie]

Why not just have all the rigs in a walk-in freezer and just their USB I/O's and monitor cables leading from that room to the room they're working in.  Get a big dehumidifier to prevent frost and an ice scraper for monthly cleaning?  Noise wouldn't be a problem either because walk in freezers are pretty insulated. 

[AndThenThereWas1]

Keep in mind that moving water is harder to freeze. So, if they leave the loop running and the rigs running throughout the night they might be able to produce enough heat and movement (in the water) to keep it from freezing.

EDIT: Also, it's Vancover, it doesn't get that cold. Based off climate information from Environment Canada, it normally doesn't drop below 0.

I assume that linus is trying to save money so i dont think he will want to run the computers 24/7. And with a night of freezing temps i think even a running loop can freeze. In a case where the running loop freezes i think they could have some major damage to the pumps.

[jezza39]

I assume that linus is trying to save money so i dont think he will want to run the computers 24/7. And with a night of freezing temps i think even a running loop can freeze. In a case where the running loop freezes i think they could have some major damage to the pumps.

 

It doesn't even need to completely freeze the liquid, just a few ice crystals could start to restrict flow on blocks/pumps and cause the pressure to diminish