A crazy idea....

[Shadow_Storm56]

So I had an idea stemming from somthing I have already been doing. My server closet...which is also my clothes closet and used to get unbearably hot is now all water cooled with a radiator on the roof outside my window. It works great and lowered the closet temperature like crazy, plastic tubing with foam insulation wrap helped the heat stay in until it's outside:). Problem is it's getting colder and colder which poses a risk to the radiator freezing. It has coolant good to -7 in it but still... I don't want condensation, so what I have been doing is on cold nights I turn the fans off on the roof rad, works great but then things are really hot later on. What I was getting at is I am wondering if a person could rig up an Arduino or some sort of temp sensor to measure the loop temp and kill the fans when the temp drops below a certain point and restart them once it rises to a certain point. Obviously I won't be able to keep the rad on the roof In a blizzard but I can atleast keep maxing out my servers and keeping a cool closet for a long while. What ya think?

[Orangeator]

This is one of the cooler setups I have ever heard of. Do you have a thread on this?

[Shadow_Storm56]

18 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

This is one of the cooler setups I have ever heard of. Do you have a thread on this?

No I just kinda did it and now was hoping to improve it. 

It's a very handyman style setup. But considering on cool days I can max an overclocked cpu and it's temps are crazy low. I like it.

[kb5zue]

Really interesting, you don't have any pics you could post do you?

[Shadow_Storm56]

1 minute ago, kb5zue said:

Really interesting, you don't have any pics you could post do you?

Due to its lack of neatness I would rather not. No one had answered my question though. Weather or not I could use an Arduino or even on of the servers to control the fans on and off on the roof based on loop temp. I may not post pics but if you want to know anything  about it feel free to ask  

[kb5zue]

Sorry, I don't know anything about Arduino but the idea of putting the rad outside on the roof was interesting.  With electronics these days you can get some electronic device to do just about anything.  Good luck with your project.

[Shadow_Storm56]

17 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

Sorry, I don't know anything about Arduino but the idea of putting the rad outside on the roof was interesting.  With electronics these days you can get some electronic device to do just about anything.  Good luck with your project.

It works very well, it's a 4 fan rad with fans on both sides so 8 in total, little piece of plastic over the assembly to keep direct sun and rain off and the fans have been good for months. I'm on the side of the house with the least sun so only for about a half hour a day does the rad become a solar panel. Maybe I should make a video or something... people may like that it's super non professional and easily done for the most part. Nothing fancy but works great sorta thing

[kb5zue]

The video idea sounds really interesting, I will be sure to keep my eyes open for it.  Especially since we're talking about the super nonprofessional type of thing.