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Old 06-22-10, 03:34 AM   #35
Piwoslaw
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I put those coroplast core pics up in the heat exchanger thread on the local builders' forum and they said that it can be done, but in order to extract a useful amount of heat it would have to be very big. Instead of glueing sheets of perpendicular coroplast it would be better to have them go in one direction with spacers in between, then there is only one layer of plastic for the heat to go through, and it could be made into a countercurrent set-up (one direction inside the coroplast sheets, the other between them). But it would still have to be big.

IMO the ribs in the metal core help transfer heat by increasing area, but this probably doesn't work for plastic. It will however increase the strength, so there won't be a problem if the two air streams are at different pressures.

If only they made "corocopper" at a similar price...

EDIT: Someone proposed stacking a few sheet of coroplast parallel-wise and somehow plumbing it so that intake air and exhaust air go in different directions in every other tunnel. Then the ribs also transfer heat and get a much larger (at least 2x) area. Getting it hooked up would be terribly tedious, but it may be worth a try.

I've got some scrap coroplast, but it's 5mm thick. To maximize surface area I'd need the 3mm, or even 2mm, variety. That's going to be hard to work with. Then find some heat sink glue that will stick to plastic?

Last edited by Piwoslaw; 06-22-10 at 05:36 AM..
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