split aircon radiator re use

[andrew]

Can anyone think of a reason an old condenser and fan from a commercial air con unit wouldn't be suitable as a hot air blower using hot water from a conventional heating system?

AJH

[Bob Minchin]

Depends if you can get a high enough flow rate of hot water through it. I would expect the resistance to flow compared with the rest of your system to be too high for it to work.

Bob

[Peter Parry]

Susceptibility to corrosion?

[Tabby]

If you can cut and break out the pipe half way, you can run 2 pipes in parallel, improving flow somewhat. Corrosion is another matter. Bleeding is easily dealt with. Is it worth doing?

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

They're usually (if not always) copper, so much less likely to corrode than a standard radiator, I would have thought.

[andrew]

Dunno but I need a heat sink and this one already has a 240V blower attached, my alternative is a lorry rad but that would need a hefty 24V supply for the fan. If it works it can heat the workshop.

Power isn't a problem I have 150kW to spare.

AJH

[andrew]

I can used fernox or antifreeze to sort that can't I? Heat eachanger in boiler is steel.

AJH

[Tabby]

If you did go for the 24v fan, you could run it off much lower voltage. Vehicle fans are pretty frantic at rated voltage. Given Andrew's point about it being copper, and given either enough flow as is, or more by parallelling pipes, it does sound doable. Maybe you could add a sludge trap on the rad inlet, to avoid the rad clogging.

NT

[Peter Parry]

I've seen a few which were aluminium alloy. I used the (aluminium) condenser from a dehumidifier coupled to an old beer cooler to keep a large fridge with a failed refrigeration unit cool and that certainly had corrosion problems.