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Old 09-24-13, 07:08 PM   #31
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Originally Posted by randen View Post
Fellow Eco-renovators

Look at the crate that showed up. Three nice sized new Brazed plate heat exchangers. Two will be to rebuild the 5 Ton heat-pump. I had found the tube and shell HX that I built was marginal in capacity so purchased some more appropriate BPHX. The HX were built to order with the proper brazed connections on the refrigerant side. and pipe thread on the loop side.

The third BPHX is going to be used for the house solar hot water. I'll post the activities on this install in another post

Looking forward To having the 3ph control for the compressor. And hopefully some really good COP.

Randen
Do the HX have distributors on the vapour outlets? Quite important. Also, once you have checked them out for quality, please let us know who to order from. Alpha Laval is a bit pricy

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Old 02-04-14, 12:57 PM   #32
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Default 5 Ton GSHP Build

Picked up some free insulation board and had the table saw set-up. An item that will be nessisary for the 5 Ton rebuild an insulation box for the heat exchangers. I fab'ed up some boxes that will slip over after the BPHX are soldered inplace.

Recovered the R290 BBQ gas refrigerant while on the other-side of the shop soldering up some more risers for the shop solar hot water system.


Randen







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Old 02-04-14, 06:12 PM   #33
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Picked up some free insulation board and had the table saw set-up. An item that will be nessisary for the 5 Ton rebuild an insulation box for the heat exchangers. I fab'ed up some boxes that will slip over after the BPHX are soldered inplace.
Great progress!

There's a buddy of mine named Howard that has a CNC shop, just down the road from me.

His Architect-Wife insisted on a high-end custom refrigerator for $7000 (not a misprint) to go with her Architect Kitchen Dream. After a few fitful years, it crapped out and she's hankering to go buy another one exactly the same, so it will go with her kitchen design. So Howard now figures he has $7000 to do a total re-design and rebuild of the refrigerant system on their old unit.

He had decided that for his first voyage into the tumultuous HVAC seas, he is going to go with a three-phase compressor and a variable speed drive and an Electronic Expansion Valve, all controlled by A Raspberry Pi microcomputer.

Pretty ambitious for a 78 year old guy!

Personally, I think that there is some chemical in CNC machine lubricants that make a man just plain crazy...

What do you think?

-AC
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Old 02-04-14, 06:44 PM   #34
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His Architect-Wife insisted on a high-end custom refrigerator for $7000 (not a misprint) to go with her Architect Kitchen Dream. After a few fitful years, it crapped out and she's hankering to go buy another one exactly the same, so it will go with her kitchen design. So Howard now figures he has $7000 to do a total re-design and rebuild of the refrigerant system on their old unit.
Pretty sure you could just swap the condensing unit (if that's what failed) on one of those commercial refrigerators for "cheap".
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Old 02-06-14, 09:38 AM   #35
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AC_Hacker

Personally, I think that there is some chemical in CNC machine lubricants that make a man just plain crazy...

What do you think?

AC_Hacker I think your on to something there. I believe it's something like my boy's Spiderman movie. CNC is like radio-active Spider Venom. With CNC you can now make things better and stronger that will last for decades.

"With great power comes great responsibilities." Now you look at everything. I Can make that a whole lot better. Toilet paper holder, Fancy Stainless wine rack, LED light fixture. The list grows. And the more you do the more you find.

Like Spiderman you find yourself fighting crime of poorly manufactured goods in the shop.

What a life.

Randen

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Old 04-08-14, 08:39 PM   #36
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Default 5 Ton GSHP Build

Or maybe a more appropriate tittle 5 Ton rebuild again. The compressor was liberated from the housing as its too small for the new brazed plate heat exchangers. The chore for the day is to fit up the copper tubing. A bit more fitting is left to be done.
The little 2 ton kept the shop tolerable for most of this cold winter. I didn't want to change it out in the depth of winter just in-case the 5 ton didn't work-out. The nice thing is it kept it tolerable quite inexpensively.

I want to change it out with the 5 ton soon as the nights can still be quite cold and I can get a good idea on its performance.

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Old 04-08-14, 09:06 PM   #37
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The discharge should enter at the top and the liquid exit at the bottom.
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Old 04-09-14, 01:28 AM   #38
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The discharge should enter at the top and the liquid exit at the bottom.
Randen,

I think he might be right... gravity is your friend.

Just to make sure, you might consult a couple of Brazed Plate HX manufacturer's manuals.

I believe that it is most important for the condenser side, and I have seen recommendations both ways for the evaporator side.

Beautiful tubing work, BTW.

From the pix, I can't tell if you've brazed your tubing to the fittings on the BPHXs.

Best,

-AC
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Old 04-09-14, 07:00 AM   #39
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Hmmm

Yes hot liquid or gas entering the top and cooling (condensing) and falling exiting the bottom so only liquid enters the TXV.

I was thinking the condenser must fill with the liquid and purge all the gas through as the liquid rises in the BPHX. This would mean the BPHX must be full of liquid but in some conditions this may not happen.

Nothing is brazed or soldered at this point. Just a rough fitting. Today hopefully the mounting for the BPHX and compressor. We will have to see what's in the stainless scrap bin.

Randen
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Old 04-09-14, 08:29 AM   #40
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Yup, switch the ports. Your liquid line filter won't work that well either. What are you using for SS to copper brazing?

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