Glycol jacket sizing help

[RadicalEd]

I'm trying to determine how much copper coil--and what size--my fermenters need. They are tanks roughly 29" tall and 21" in diameter. They will be insulated, but will be situated in the garage year round (ambient ~32ºF through 90ºF).

One thing I can't seem to find any info on is sizing the jacket for a glycol system. I can get good prices on copper refrigeration tubing from my brother, who gets it under an employee discount, and the most common sizes are 20ft long or 50ft long 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2".

The real question is, will 1 50ft roll of copper coil be enough, or should I step it up to 2x50ft? Is 3/8" sufficient, or should I really step it up to the 1/2"?

Thanks!

 

[RadicalEd]

Would it help if I said pretty please?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I'm trying to determine how much copper coil--and what size--my fermenters need. They are tanks roughly 29" tall and 21" in diameter. They will be insulated, but will be situated in the garage year round (ambient ~32ºF through 90ºF). One thing I can't seem to find any info on is sizing the jacket for a glycol system. I can get good prices on copper refrigeration tubing from my brother, who gets it under an employee discount, and the most common sizes are 20ft long or 50ft long 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2". The real question is, will 1 50ft roll of copper coil be enough, or should I step it up to 2x50ft? Is 3/8" sufficient, or should I really step it up to the 1/2"? Thanks!

Just a seriously rough estimate I think 1 roll of 50' would be enough. Figuring if you need 21" around 29" height leaving a 2" gap between coils you would have 14 coils @ 21" comes out approx 25' Again seriously rough estimate in my head at work. If nothing else hopefully will keep the thread bumped for someone who has more of a precise estimate for you.

I think 3/8" would be fine. 1/2" would be better either I would believe to be sufficient

 

[heckels]

21" diameter x pi gives you a circumference of about 66".

A 50' length if copper will give you approx 9 wraps. With a 29" tall kettle you're looking at about a 3" gap between each wrap of the kettle.

Note that as the diameter of copper tubing used gets bigger, the number of wraps decreases.

If it were me, I'd use 100' of 3/8".

 

[heckels]

21" diameter x pi gives you a circumference of about 66".

A 50' length if copper will give you approx 9 wraps. With a 29" tall kettle you're looking at about a 3" gap between each wrap of the kettle.

Note that as the diameter of copper tubing used gets bigger, the number of wraps decreases.

If it were me, I'd use 100' of 3/8".

I take that back. If it were me I think I'd see if he could get 3/8" SS tubing and use an immersion coil weather than wrap it around the exterior.

You'd only need about 50 ft of that and it would be more efficient.

Also, I saw ambient temps may be near freezing, how are you going to maintain the glycol temp?

 

[RadicalEd]

While a immersion coil would certainly be more efficient, it also has the rather unfortunate disadvantage of but considerably more difficult to clean :/

Heat in the winter will be provided by electric heat tape. Running some very basic heat loss calcs, it seems like the heat loss will be about 58 Watts in the dead of winter using 1" insulation. Which is a conservative figure since it's based on 20 MPH winds . 5.5 ft of the 11" (20W/ft) Flexwatt tape or similar should do dandy .

So, you'd say 100FT of 3/8....seems restrictive :/ Grrr..... Would 50 ft of the 1/2" be good?

Thanks!

 

[heckels]

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about thermodynamics to determine whether 50 ft of the 1/2" line would sufficiently transfer heat.

You're right though. 100 ft of 3/8 copper is going to be more restrictive and require a more powerful pump.