Swingline77
Active Member
I have a heat exchanger, and am thinking of getting rid of it. The exchanger is DC powered, has a port for a thermistor, and has two courses of exchange for water. I.e., water to be heated/cooled is pumped through one course, while the hotter/colder water is pumped through the other. The two courses of water never meet. In order to use it for a small home aquarium, I'd need to keep a reservoir filled with ice on a daily basis. This is a major hassle, which is why I'm not going to use it. If I buy a plug and a controller for it, it will be in working order, and I can sell it to finance other purchases. However, I don't know if I should get rid of it. I acquired the exchanger at a great price, and getting another might be difficult.
I wonder if this might have any practical value for which I should hold onto it. I can think of three scenarios in which it might be useful, and don't know if any is reason to keep it. The first scenario is if I have a tank that is too large for a chiller. I don't anticipate having a 2,000 gallon tank, so this is not an issue. The second scenario is if I find myself in an indoor environment that is too hot, while an outdoor environment is far cooler. For instance, if it's January, 70 degrees F indoors, and 10 degrees F outdoors, I could simply exchange heat with water from outside (which might be frozen on top, of course, but this wouldn't be an issue). This would be far less expensive than running a chiller. The third situation is if I find myself in the middle of a heat wave, where ambient temperatures are exceeding 100 degrees F. As a temporary fix, to get through the heat wave, I could buy ice on a daily basis and put it into a cooler for a few days to either ease the stress on a chiller, or else bring high temperatures that might be beyond the ability of the chiller back into parameters for which the chiller would have an effect.
So, do you think that I should keep this, or get rid of it?
I wonder if this might have any practical value for which I should hold onto it. I can think of three scenarios in which it might be useful, and don't know if any is reason to keep it. The first scenario is if I have a tank that is too large for a chiller. I don't anticipate having a 2,000 gallon tank, so this is not an issue. The second scenario is if I find myself in an indoor environment that is too hot, while an outdoor environment is far cooler. For instance, if it's January, 70 degrees F indoors, and 10 degrees F outdoors, I could simply exchange heat with water from outside (which might be frozen on top, of course, but this wouldn't be an issue). This would be far less expensive than running a chiller. The third situation is if I find myself in the middle of a heat wave, where ambient temperatures are exceeding 100 degrees F. As a temporary fix, to get through the heat wave, I could buy ice on a daily basis and put it into a cooler for a few days to either ease the stress on a chiller, or else bring high temperatures that might be beyond the ability of the chiller back into parameters for which the chiller would have an effect.
So, do you think that I should keep this, or get rid of it?
