bored of Excel for a minute so taking a time out, and thanks to [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/rainwater-harvesting ]noshki's rainwater harvet thread[/url] and also for emsz thought Id stick this up.
With a bit of help from [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/volts-amps-and-watts-1 ]this thread on electrickery[/url] i got hold of a 15W PV panel, a 12v water pump and some 7812 chips and put together a PV powered cooling system for my wine store.
The store is made of insulated panels in my (insulated) shed. Works well buffering out diurnal temp ranges, but over summer the concrete slab isnt substantial enough to act as a heatsink on it's own.
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The temp in the wine store got as high as 20ish degs last summer. Awful for the wine (just as well it wasnt fully stocked!)
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So with some spare UFH pipe:
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and 3 recycled olive importers barrels linked up
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and then a direct PV solar driven pump with some 12v protection chips when the sun comes out it sucks water out of the bottom of a barrel pumps it around the wine store and then drops it into another barrel. Holes in the tops of the barrel help with evaporation which is what keeps the water in the barrels cool even in summer, not to mention they are on the north side of the shed. And since the extract hose form the tank is below the tap for Mrs S water can, she cant steal all of my water - should have around 100 litres always in the bottom of the barrels for the cooler system.
[img] https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-m6bX3KFdJaI/T6E0K5f38II/AAAAAAAACjU/EHyKOOa4gck/s400/P1010512.JP G" target="_blank">
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-m6bX3KFdJaI/T6E0K5f38II/AAAAAAAACjU/EHyKOOa4gck/s400/P1010512.JP G"/> [/img]
Ive tested the pump and panel off the shed, but since installing it not had sufficient sunshine to power it. I may need to relocate the pump to submersible as it may not stay primed otherwise.
Have put the data monitor back in and at the end of the year should be able to work out statistically if the system has had any impact on the temp inside the store.
So - just out of curiosity how many bottles does that take.... 8)
540
3/10
Resubmit once you've hidden those water butts and tidied up the external pipe work.
🙄
That is " a lot" of wine 😆
Can I come round to your house for dinner?
2/10
Wine should be stored undergroud
If I ever have an extention or build my own house, I'm going to get one of these
[url= http://www.spiralcellars.co.uk/ ]Spiral Wine Cellar[/url]
James Bond meets Fred West, in a wine shop.
Dammit Stoner you are just too clever for your own good.
I get excited when I manage to put a picture up and it stays up.
😯James Bond meets Fred West, in a wine shop.
People who collect/accumulate wine have either more money or self control than me (or both)
That labelling system is going to fall down a bit when you've got 540 stacked in there.
Nice shed and wine storage nerdage btw
labelling is by AOC or Domaine, and since I usually get at least half a dozen sometimes two dozen bottles from a Domaine or AOC at a time it should be OK. But I reckon I can work out a different way of doing it if needs must 🙂
Al - you have to move some bikes & tyres and unscrew a few battens to get at the wine so self control doesnt come into it. I only open it every few months to either add some (once or twice a year) or take some out and bring them into the house.
I have a wine rack in the kitchen, it never has more than 11 bottles in it 😉
Nice project. May I suggest your next project would be to plant some vines and get busy with some brewing.
Do you have a website Stoner, or blog? I love some of the projects you have posted on.
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brewing covered. Cider and Perry making with my neighbour ^
and I make my own wines from Damson, elderberry etc.
Not going to bother with vines and grapes though. Wrong [i]terroir[/i]
Do you have a website Stoner, or blog? I love some of the projects you have posted on.
they're all in here somewhere...
Wine doesn't stay in our house long enough to get warm 
Actually, I must be missing something as I can't really see why your system should actually do anything - all your doing is pumping water around in a hose 😐
I would have thought that to keep the wine cool you could stand it all (upright) in a tank of water which your pump circulated to keep the temperature constant.
I met this crazy ex F1 mechanic in the Pyrenees who spent his retirement mapping the cave systems. He built his own Mad max 4x4 that had two engines, one front&rear to get around the mountains. We spent a day caving then back to his place for food. His round dining table was the lid to a huge well! Beer? White wine? turned a crank and up came a rack! Then behind the beer crate!
Actually, I must be missing something as I can't really see why your system should actually do anything - all your doing is pumping water around in a hose
The source water is kept cooler than the surrounding air temperature by the evaporative process. When the sun is out the pump automatically turns on, sucking water out of the lowest point of left hand barrel it pumps this water that is cooler than the heat-gained air at the top of the store through the UFH pipes. The water in the pipes absorbs energy from the air in the top of the store until the water and air temp is equal.
The water leaves the pipes into the top of the right hand butt where it mixes and can cool again through evaporation.
After a quick google, it appears some people are trying to make there own cellars out of 60" precast concrete drain pipes.
Now that's a DIY project.
The water in the pipes absorbs energy from the air in the top of the store until the water and air temp is equal.
.... theoretically. My issue is that it's a 'big' room and i can't see that pumping a bit of [unchilled] water around a [fairly] thick bit of hose pipe is going to make any difference.
But then I may be wrong plus it looks like it kept you quiet for an afternoon 🙂
We have a gas/12v coolbox in our beach hut and it's brilliant on gas but never used it on the 12v side, but I've googled how it works and have got this:
[i]These jobbies work by whats commonly known as the Seebeck effect, it is the conversion of temperature differences directly into electricity. However here the process is reversed and the passage of an electric current generates a temperature difference. Its a thermocouple effect in reverse, it wont make a massive cooling effect but it will chill your beer.[/i]
Maybe that would be a better use of the power from the panels?
Either way I look forward to seeing the results.
Just buy a bigger fridge you ****in cheapskate.
Sharkbait - Ive used a thermocouple in a stove top fan (i.e. in reverse to the cooling system). this one in fact:
Here it's sandwiched between two CPU heatsinks. One to draw heat to the peltier device, the other to radiate heat from the other side of the semiconductor. Its that differential which create a current - just enough to power that diddy little 1.5v motor with a model aeroplane blade on it 🙂 The whole thing doesnt really work very well, but I wanted to play around with the tech.
Peltier devices are very inefficient, and Id need lots of them to cool the wine store.
You may not have twigged, but the box that the rack is in has insulated panels attached to the front, so the total volume of air in their is about 1.5m3.
anagallis_arvensis - Member
Just buy a bigger fridge you **** cheapskate.
Well, I know someone who's going to get served warm Sancerre if they come round for dinner 😛
Can we have a ban on posts from Stoner for a while please. I'm getting seriously jealous