03-20-13, 07:45 PM | #1411 | |
Supreme EcoRenovator
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Quote:
Please take lots of photos for us to see. HERE is a good thread to post your progress on. Best, -AC
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03-24-13, 01:41 PM | #1412 |
Helper EcoRenovator
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Location: AR
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refridgerant solenoid?
I was working on taking a dehumidifier apart, to get it down to the bare necessities to hack for my water to water heat pump later on.
And I noticed that there was a solenoid connected to one of the refrigerant lines. After I got most of this unit apart, I took some pics, hoping to find something out about it. There's a screw on top of it but I was afraid to remove it in fear refrigerant might leak before I was ready to actually break into the lines per the instructions in this forum. hopefully these pictures show what the lines on this little unit look like. I was also curious why there are multiple cap tubes involved here. Thanks in advance to anyone who might can shed some light on this. |
03-24-13, 01:53 PM | #1413 |
Vapor Compression Goon
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Hi cbearden!
I have the very same dehumidifier. It was one of my first hacks. You might recognize some features here. That solenoid valve is a hot gas bypass I do believe. It diverts high pressure compressor discharge gas through the evaporator for defrost purposes. The screw on top just holds the coil onto the the valve. Removing it won't vent any refrigerant. It's a good idea to take the coil off before doing any heating or brazing to the system. Have fun!
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03-24-13, 01:54 PM | #1414 | |
Master EcoRenovator
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Quote:
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03-24-13, 03:31 PM | #1415 |
Helper EcoRenovator
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Location: AR
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Marx290,
Awesome! Thanks for the useful info. I'll take off the coil and play around with it some more then. nice links to pics on your hack, btw. You mentioned that you recharged it with propane. Anything particular I need to watch out for in doing this with my same rig as what you have? This will be my first attempt. I still have to gather a few more pieces of equip before I can attempt this (mainly a recovery unit), but I'm gearing up for it. Been practicing brazing on copper and such, getting ready... |
03-24-13, 04:22 PM | #1416 |
Helper EcoRenovator
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Location: AR
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de-humidifier
so far, this is what I'm working with.
I've removed the control board and wired the compressor to run non-stop just so I can check the amp draw on it for a bit. I think the control board wasn't working right and was only keeping compressor on for about 20sec and then I had to do a power reset to get it to come back on again. I don't know if it would be bad on the compressor to leave it on for extended periods or not, so I've only kept it on for about 5 min so far. I was drawing about 350 watts at first, then was about 430 watts by the time 5 min passed and I shut it off. I found the following specs online for this LG compressor BTU/hr cooling capacity 7250 Watts cooling capacity 2125 Motor input watts 671 EER - Btu/W.hr 10.8 COP - w/w 3.16 |
03-24-13, 04:25 PM | #1417 |
Vapor Compression Goon
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You sound really excited cbearden. It's a lot of fun working with this stuff. I don't know your background or what kind of equipment you have, but with an old hermetic compressor you can fashion a recovery machine for cheap if you aren't worried about reusing the recovered refrigerant. I haven't built one, but there are others out there if you do a little searching. These homemade jobs probably aren't as good as the industry machines; at least you aren't venting the gas and you recover the vast majority of it. Don't know enough about it, my dehumidifiers were all leaked out when I got them.
As far as charging with propane, there are some good threads on here about that. Safety is number one. I'm sure you will use the utmost caution and care when you're working with a flammable gas. After I installed a piercing valve so I could purge any remaining gases out of the system, I removed that hot gas bypass, fixed the leak in my system, install two access ports, I did a triple evacuation after I was pretty sure it was leak proof and charged it from a Coleman propane bottle. You'll have to find a way to adapt a propane bottle to 1/4" flare. I charged as a vapor, but I guess you should charge as liquid to avoid any non condensables that might be in the bottle. Just be careful. Ventilate well. Make sure you purge well before doing any brazing. Have fun!
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03-24-13, 04:39 PM | #1418 | |
Apprentice EcoRenovator
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Quote:
Yes talking about the water side(ground loop and output to buffer tank). Going to make them stand alone heat pumps selected my a master controller switching in the appropriate sized pumps as required. Not even had time to take apart either of the 2 units i have stored away for this. At least the floor screed is down and drying so when i do get a heat pump together i'll have something to heat with it. Lots of snow outside so slow progress right now. |
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03-24-13, 08:16 PM | #1419 |
Helper EcoRenovator
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Thank you for the info. Yes, am definitely excited about getting to work on this. Hoping that all of this work, planning, and researching will help save on our energy usage down the road.
long road still ahead. But it feels good to get started on part of this. |
03-24-13, 08:20 PM | #1420 |
Helper EcoRenovator
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AC, I just wanted to take the time to say thank you for all of your hard work and being willing to put all this incredible info on here for so many people to benefit from.
If it weren't for you and so many other generous folks on here, I would have never have attempted the kind of work that I'm delving off into. |
Tags |
air conditioner, diy, gshp, heat pump, homemade |
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