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Old 10-15-09, 10:46 AM   #41
AC_Hacker
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xringer View Post
I've been wondering about making a bell-vacuum jar experiment.

I would build a little tube made of heavy clear plastic with caps and a 1/4" fitting.

Put a drop of water in the tube, pump out the air and watch the drop.
If it quickly vaporizes, not leaving a trace, the vacuum is pretty good.?..
Sounds like an interesting experiment.

I wanna see the pix and hear how it goes.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

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Old 10-15-09, 12:25 PM   #42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AC_Hacker View Post
Sounds like an interesting experiment.

I wanna see the pix and hear how it goes.

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

Found some experiments on YouTube. Check out his vacuum pump. It's amazing!.



Class room setup..


My idea is to use a 4" section of 1" clear plastic pipe.. No need to waste pump oil.
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Old 10-16-09, 09:15 AM   #43
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Found the little air tank down the basement, and a 1/4 flare that I may be able to use.
Hopefully this hardware and the Manifold will allow me to pressure test the line-set.
It's got dry Scuba air in it now, so I'm thinking about driving up to the paintball
shop and getting a fill (3000 psi) of nitrogen. Just to keep the O2 out of the mix.
If I pressurize and bleed down a few times, I just might get some good
'dilution' of any remaining unwanted gases in the line-set, before I start the vac procedure.

I'm very familiar with using a valve to control HPA. I use my 300 bar
scuba tank to put air into my 200 bar air rifle. So getting the right
pressure into the line-set won't be a problem.
I just have to find out what pressure I want to use..

So, what do you guys think? Will it work?

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Old 10-16-09, 02:08 PM   #44
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Default The manifold just came in.

Nope, it wasn't the right connector. Had one that I was able to kludge onto the HPA valve cap.



The regulator puts out about 850 psi, so I carefully charged up the new Refco manifold to 200 psi.
The low side reads 200 and the high side shows 210.. 5% accurate?
It's been hanging in there for half an hour, so there's no fast leaks anyways.

Edit:
Ebay had NYLOG GASKET THREAD SEALANT & ASSEMBLY LUBE RT201B
It's in route. Should be here by the middle of next week..

Edit: Oct 22, Nylog came in today. It's gooey

Last edited by Xringer; 10-22-09 at 08:47 PM.. Reason: Nylog found on Ebay, isn't that reason enough?
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Old 10-17-09, 11:17 AM   #45
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Default nice tools...

Nice tools, way better than anything I'm using. Everything I'm using is 3rd hand (or more) hand-me-downs, with the exception of my micron gauge.

Yeah, the nitrogen purge tank will come in handy if you decide to continue hacking vapor-compression devices...

When you braze up copper lines, copper oxide will form in the presence of oxygen, and flake off inside the system and can foul the tiny expansion orifice, so you slowly flood the tubes with nitrogen while you braze...

I have heard of one guy who flooded his system with propane gas while he was brazing, to avoid the copper oxide. Seems like an unsafe practice to me.

Best regards,

-AC_Hacker

Last edited by AC_Hacker; 10-17-09 at 11:21 AM..
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Old 10-17-09, 12:43 PM   #46
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CO2 is another gas that can be used to prevent oxidation. Helium is another, but it's thermally conductive so it may make it harder to work.
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To my surprise, shortly after Naomi Wu gave me a bit of fame for making good use of solar power, Allie Moore got really jealous of her...
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Old 10-17-09, 02:24 PM   #47
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I was thinking about using my CO2 stuff if I ever get a MIG welder.
Don't know anything about brazing stuff. Never even seen it done.
I just looked it up and it looks a little like soldering, but you have to keep
everything super clean and extra tight-fitting. Sounds too hard for a old guy..
I have enough trouble trying to use that low-lead solder.

Besides, I kinda like the little flare connections. They seem to work real well.
Hey, I just got a notice that my Nylog has been sent. First Class Mail.

~~

Well, I turned on the heat yesterday (my wife has a cold), so we are
building up the carbon foot print burning heating oil..

Hope my Sanyo comes soon..

Edit: Monday Oct 19
The Sanyo adapter came today. Sanyo R410a Low-Side Adapter KIT
Went to Sears and picked up a 45 degree flare tool (just in case).
Also went to Lowes and got some mounting bolts for the Sanyo indoors and outdoors.
Still have not found any place to buy Vacuum pump oil.. Amazon maybe?

Edit: Tuesday Oct 20
3 Qt. Robinair Premium High Vacuum Pump Oil for $22.57 shipped from ReStockit.com

Last edited by Xringer; 10-20-09 at 12:15 PM.. Reason: Another online spending spree!
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Old 10-19-09, 10:07 PM   #48
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Default Solar-Heated Air into Air Source Heat Pump

I remember you mentioned this somewhere...

Well, I was thrashing about on Build-It-Solar and found that there had been work along this line in Denmark.


Here's the LINK.

Best Regards,

-AC_Hacker
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Old 10-19-09, 11:07 PM   #49
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Neat ideas. Nice drawings.

I think we were actually talking about pre-heating the air going into a Sanyo ASHP during the winter time, using heat from a GS loop.

I've been thinking about the best way to use my new Sanyo.
Maybe crank it higher late in the afternoon, before the outside temperature starts to drop off.
Get the house a little overheated, so it can coast a bit, until bed time.?.
The 2 ton Sanyo can put out a lot more heat when it's not too cold out.
More heat for less KWh, then set it back and coast.


Since you have a ton of collectors, I think it would be more advantageous to store away some BTUs during the peak harvesting hours of the day, When your space heating demands might be low, due to solar gain of windows etc.
If you had some large water storage in the basement maybe?

Or,
I wonder if 10 4x8 collectors would work feeding a well in your back yard?
Cranking up the ground water temperature for the long cold night?

I've heard of large GSHPs used for AC that actually warmed up the ground
so much, after a few years of use, the loops had increased the under-ground
temperature enough to make it much less useful for cooling...

~~~


I went to Sears today and checked their stock of crowsfeet.. Nothing in stock!
So, waiting until the Sanyo gets here isn't going to work, since it takes
a week to get stuff from Amazon (unless you pay 5x shipping).

I noticed that both the Sanyo 24,000 and 12,000 line-sets use 1/4" for the liquid line..

Can you tell me what size flare nut is on that 1/4" line??
Then I can order a kit of either metric or standard flare crowsfeet wrenches. (For my torque wrench).

Thanks,
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Old 10-20-09, 12:44 PM   #50
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Default Metric or SAE...

Xringer,

I know you've asked me this before, but the last step of the install is to wrap your refrigeration lines with a layer of self-adhesive insulating tape. Of course, I used two layers of tape. The wrapping process starts at the bottom and wraps up to the top so the overlaps will shed water.


I am not eager to break into the wrappings.

Your equipment supplier should have an '800 number' support line, that is not from India, who can tell you what size fittings you will be working with.

I used wrenches that fit, and as you saw, made my own crows foot wrench out of a wrench that fit (15 mm), so I don't know if the nut was actually metric or SAE.

Best Regards,

-AC_Hacker

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