Water Cooling Computers With A Swimming Pool

guzugi writes "This is a project I have been working for several months and been hypothesizing for much longer. The basic idea is to shortcut the need for an air conditioner when cooling multiple computers. Swimming pool water is pumped into the house and through several waterblocks to effectively cool these hot machines. This greatly reduces noise cooling requirements."

Re:Pool water?

[mbone]

I had a job cleaning pools when I was a kid. I would worry about algae and other slime. It grows everywhere and needs to be cleaned out regularly.

85 Watts!

[MegMuffin]

From TFA, it would seem that the authour wants to have a cheap way of cooling his system. 85W is a considerable cost. A lot of fans could be run with that amount, and "silent" fans thesedays are getting to be VERY quiet.

Re:Pool water?

[Gordonjcp]

I'd be inclined to build a heat exchanger to couple water from the pool into a cooling loop for the PCs.

Re:FROM TFA

[ragedriven]

well if you are familiar with the concept of infinite heat resevior...you would know...additionally, if the coolingloop were even able to change the temperature of the pool...the radiant heat exchange from the surface area of the pool would counter this.

Safeguards?

[hcdejong]

1. Two of the photos shows water piping (including hose connections) right above a set of power outlets. Any leakage here will guarantee a short.

2. I don't see any sensors that will shut off the pump and computers, should the circuit run dry. Water leaks in the house are messy.

Re:Turn it off.

[Smidge204]

Chlorine is highly corrosive. Ever wonder why everything in a pool system is made of or coated in plastic?

The chlorine attacks iron even in ally form, rotting stainless steel at an alarming rate. It will also react with copper (slowly, but the higher temeratures in the water block are going to help it along) to dissolve the copper into a Copper (II) Chloride solution. That corrodes the copper waterblock and puts the copper into his pool - not good. Aluminum will cause a reaction to make aluminum chloride, and reacting with the water to ultimately form aluminum oxide (which will fall out of solution and likely clog and small passages over time) and hydochloric acid.

You need a heat exchanger to keep the chlorine away from metals. That means a non-metallic heat exchanger or one that's been coated with a chlorine resistent material.

A better solution would be to get an aftermarket automotive radiator and an electric fan, and use clean water (distilled or at least low mineral) with a coolant solution specifically designed to prevent corrosion.
=Smidge=

Re:Cheap way to flood his house!!

[Ira_Gaines]

If we knew how big the pool was, we could do the math to see how many gallons "8 inches of water" is to see exactly much would be pumped into his home.

Re:Turn it off.

[Smidge204]

Because the ladders are generally made of anodized aluminum, which gives it a hard, protective coating of aluminum oxide, and the generally cool temperature of the pool water helps to retard any chemical reaction that might happen.

=Smidge=

Re:Pool water?

[drxenos]

No, I mean't what I said. Chlorine is NOT acidic. It is basic (a base). It is on the opposite end of the PH scale from acids.

Re:RIt won't empty the pool.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it can drain the whole pool.

If the filter is running, it will suck water from the bottom of the pool and run it back through the return lines he is connected into. Thus, if the filter runs, it can pump all of the water out of the entire pool eventually.

Chloride is basic, chlorine is acidic

[littleghoti]

Elemental chlorine is an acidic gas. If you use a solid to treat a pool, then the material is a chloride compound, and is basic. Isn't chemistry fun?

Re:heated pool

[excesspwr]

Why bother with it at all? Which is basically "why climb a mountain?"

Because he can. Because it is there. Because you have got to do something with the time between birth and death.

Newsflash: not all pools use chlorine

[sczimme]

Because I always choose clorinated water to ensure the maximum corrosion in my computer's cooling system

Believe it or not, there are pool chemical suites that do not use chlorine. For example, the one I use includes a very strong (90+%) hydrogen peroxide as a sanitizer.

Re:heated pool

[hcdejong]

having to run multiple lines (one per PC?) if the water gets too hot after each computer (after a few it wouldn't really be cooling anymore)

Well, the setup shown in the photos has all the computers connected in parallel, so this wouldn't be a problem.

You all are confused.

[Devil's BSD]

Chlorine is pretty neutral, actually, in terms of pH. Let's think about it. HCl is one of the six strong acids (along with HNO3, H2SO4, HBr, HI, and HClO4). This means their Ka (acid ionisation constant [wikipedia.org]) is pretty high, meaning that any HCl you put into solution (at reasonable concentrations) will turn into H+ and Cl-.

On the flipside, to get the Kb of Cl-, you simply take Kw divided by the Ka of HCl. Kw is 1e-14, so a really small number divided by a really big number is an even smaller number - showing that Cl- is effectively neutral.

What I think you guys are confused about is what they put into pools. The chlorine of choice nowadays is calcium hypochlorite [wikipedia.org] - similar to sodium hypochlorite, found in stores as "bleach." (I use quotes because some bleaches aren't chlorine-based.) Hypochloric acid is a weak acid, which makes the hypochlorite ion a strong base. And a strong oxidizer. That's what will get your waterblocks eaten away.

Re:Tropical aquarium

[bergeron76]

The Specific Heat Capacity of water is too low for something like that to work. You wouldn't be able to run your PC hot enough to make any temperature changes in the water.

Basically, water adapts VERY EASILY to the ambient temperature around it. A high volume of water will maintain a relatively constant temperature. The surface area of your CPU would have to be a few square feet in order to really change the temperature of the Aquarium.

It's a good idea, it just doesn't work scientifically, unfortunately.

Re:Actually, I had already thought of doing this,

[Ctrl-Z]

Kind of like deep lake water cooling [wikipedia.org]?

Close, but

[Rob Simpson]

It's probably not good for the waterblocks, but this isn't true: Hypochloric acid is a weak acid, which makes the hypochlorite ion a strong base

It's a weak base, since it exists in solution with its conjugate acid. Sort of like how sodium acetate is added as a buffer for acetic acid in salt&vinegar chips. *crunch*

Re:Actually, I had already thought of doing this,

[644bd346996]

Like this? [nytimes.com]