Has anyone heard of someone using NH3 for cooling?

[GhengisKhan]

Pretty much as the thread title states, I was wondering if anyone had even thought about using liquid ammonia for PC cooling. Where I work (currently a refrigeration operator, technician in training) we use NH3 for all of the freezer cooling systems, and by using evaporators with fans, they maintain a constant -35°F inside the freezers. Ammonia is a harmless gas (until you get into the ranges over 53ppm, which a small unit couldn't even reach in a small sealed room if it burst wide open), and it has great phase-change properties. Just wondering if anyone has even thought, or heard of anyone using a system like this for PC cooling, and if so, if anyone had any links.

 

[spine]

I don't know about NH3, but freezers in general don't work well with PC cooling. The reason being that fridges and freezers are designed to keep passive objects cold and are not designed to deal with an object actively pushing out 100+ watts of heat.

This is why you hardly ever see people successfully using a freezer to cool their PC.

 

[ikellensbro]

I don't know about NH3, but freezers in general don't work well with PC cooling. The reason being that fridges and freezers are designed to keep passive objects cold and are not designed to deal with an object actively pushing out 100+ watts of heat.

This is why you hardly ever see people successfully using a freezer to cool their PC.

Not questioning your statements (in general, correct), but I think Sheldron is asking about using NH3 as the gas in a phase change system. I'm still not sure if that's what nis meant, or we're talking about something else, but -35*F isn't that impressive for phase. Vapos can get colder than that easily on most any non-quad processor, and other single stage can get even lower. Or do you mean something else?

 

[ghost6303]

ammonia wouldnt even work, atleast not very well, in a phase system. in a normal chilled water loop it would destroy too many seals and plastic parts to be useful, let alone you have to find a pump that moves a liquid of that density and was chemical resistant. people do use it in dice pots to get more surface contact with the chunks of dry ice.

 

[GhengisKhan]

Not questioning your statements (in general, correct), but I think Sheldron is asking about using NH3 as the gas in a phase change system. I'm still not sure if that's what nis meant, or we're talking about something else, but -35*F isn't that impressive for phase. Vapos can get colder than that easily on most any non-quad processor, and other single stage can get even lower. Or do you mean something else?

yes, I mean in a phase change system. I know that vapo's can get colder than that easy, but my main thinking is that NH3 is extremely cheap, and is a very low-pressure system. If an individual were to, say, build their own phase change loop, this could end up being a very effective way of cooling a system down, and I do mean system, since NH3 systems are quite often used with multiple evaporators with minimal loss of efficiency.