Answer
Dec 01, 2021 - 01:47 PM
Cooling your Dielectric Coolant Fluid with a mechanical refrigeration unit will work, but we generally don't recommend it for the following reasons:
1. Most mechanical refrigeration units were made to chill water or water/glycol mixtures, so the plastic and rubber components are probably not compatible with hydrocarbons such as BitCool BC-888. These will have to be changed.
2. Five tons of refrigeration is about 18 KW. Planning for inefficiencies in heat transfer, you should consider that this will only cool 15 KW of mining heat. If you grow your mining operation, it's easier and cheaper to scale up a dry cooler radiator system than a refrigerated system.
3. A single-loop dry cooler system has only one moving part: the pump for the BitCool. Mean Time Between Failures of the single-loop radiator system is far higher than with mechanical refrigeration.
4. Most miners set their systems up so that "hot" coolant leaving the mining tank is at 65C and "cool" coolant returning to the mining tank is about 40-45C. Cooling the Dielectric Coolant below this point doesn't buy any increase in efficiency and will actually cost more because of the increased pumping power required to move cold Dielectric Coolant. Also, most mechanical chillers are not designed to operate at 45-60C, so depending on the type of chiller you have, regulation of the temperature in that range may be difficult.
So, cooling the Dielectric Coolant with mechanical refrigeration can work, but it probably isn't the least expensive or most efficient way. In nearly all situations. a single-loop dry cooler system is the least expensive and most reliable method.
1. Most mechanical refrigeration units were made to chill water or water/glycol mixtures, so the plastic and rubber components are probably not compatible with hydrocarbons such as BitCool BC-888. These will have to be changed.
2. Five tons of refrigeration is about 18 KW. Planning for inefficiencies in heat transfer, you should consider that this will only cool 15 KW of mining heat. If you grow your mining operation, it's easier and cheaper to scale up a dry cooler radiator system than a refrigerated system.
3. A single-loop dry cooler system has only one moving part: the pump for the BitCool. Mean Time Between Failures of the single-loop radiator system is far higher than with mechanical refrigeration.
4. Most miners set their systems up so that "hot" coolant leaving the mining tank is at 65C and "cool" coolant returning to the mining tank is about 40-45C. Cooling the Dielectric Coolant below this point doesn't buy any increase in efficiency and will actually cost more because of the increased pumping power required to move cold Dielectric Coolant. Also, most mechanical chillers are not designed to operate at 45-60C, so depending on the type of chiller you have, regulation of the temperature in that range may be difficult.
So, cooling the Dielectric Coolant with mechanical refrigeration can work, but it probably isn't the least expensive or most efficient way. In nearly all situations. a single-loop dry cooler system is the least expensive and most reliable method.
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