Something a little different-

[clydemule]

I started on my own in March. I have scratched out a living building these chillers. Many thanks to those on this forum who have been helpful.

All of these chillers have a built in pump, storage tank, and controls. They are all cooling biogas from either human or dairy digesters which is then burned to generate electricity.

http://www.johnsonthermal.com/images/2_5_ton.jpg

2.5 Ton chiller at Carmel, CA WWTP.


http://www.johnsonthermal.com/images/15_ton.jpg
15 ton in Kaukauna, WI. 2500 cow dairy
Shoulda taken the Trane meatball off.

http://www.johnsonthermal.com/images/25_ton.jpg
25 Ton will be started up at Burbank CA WWTP in a late Jan.

There are fancier chillers out there, but I don't thnik it's too bad for a young, dumb engineer.

Clyde


[Edited by clydemule on 12-16-2004 at 03:47 AM]

[BaldLoonie]

Nice looking product!

[john dalton]

Dear clydemule,

I’m assuming these chillers are not UL or CSA approved. How do you get them past the inspection process? I got to tell you something…….would you please post photos of what the insides of these babies look like. They look great from the photos from the outside. If they look as good from the inside, I’d like to get with you and see if you can give our company some prices and availabilities on some of the projects we have.

From time to time our company has to build these specialty chillers and they are more than adequate and I know they’re engineered correctly, but……they do cost us quite a bundle with our labor costs. Would like additional information posts for fun and $$. Thanks for the nice photos!

Respectfully Submitted,
John J. Dalton

[clydemule]

Baldy and John,

Thanks for the compliments. I have worked hard to make these things look nice and well built. Many people think that an inexpensive unit has to be poorly built.

No, they are not listed by any NRTL. My mode of operation is to make custom units. Any time you make something custom to a standard approved unit, you void the listing.

These are installed on packedaged systems, where the inspector, if there is one, looks at the system as a whole. He knows it is a custom system so looks at how it is assembled to make sure it does not violate code. I will post pics of the skids so you can get an idea.

Most of the other stuff I am working on is more industrial type stuff, where the chiller is not sold through a distributor, speced by an engineer, installed by a contractor etc. It is usually sold to an end user through a rep.

The old chiller company I worked for had their stuff ETL listed, but we voided it all the time by adding custom stuff. Rarely was it a problem.

Building something for residential or commercial HVAC is a whole different ball of wax though. It is tough to slip anything by without an NRTL stamp.

Field inspection is an option, but that can run up to about $3k. Tough to justify the expense on a $4K unit.

Doesn' mean we can't work something out.

I would like to keep this forum "commercial free" so why don't you go to my one page website, and give me a call.

I will still post more pics though.

Clyde

[clydemule]

http://www.JOHNSONTHERMAL.COM

http://www.johnsonthermal.com/images/250_bottom.jpg

Bottom section of chiller.


http://www.johnsonthermal.com/images/25_no_sides.jpg

25 Ton sides while under construction.

http://www.johnsonthermal.com/images/25_ton_reefer.jpg

Close up of the reefer system. Evaporator is a big brazed plate.

http://www.johnsonthermal.com/images/Tfarms_skid.jpg

15 Ton installed (way in the back there) on a gas conditioning skid for digester gas at a dairy. I built the control box to the in front of the chiller. Controls the chiller, condensate pump, and blower. Also montitors a bunch of temp and pressure sensors.



[Edited by clydemule on 12-17-2004 at 01:43 AM]

[btj steamfitter / ref]

flanges aren't 2holed

[mark beiser]

Wow, those look a LOT more professional than the similar, in rough concept only, chillers I had to work on in a dry cleaner once.

The things looked like a HVAC guy, and a plumber put them together over a weekend and a few cases of beer in thier garage.

[thehumid1]

Originally posted by mark beiser
Wow, those look a LOT more professional than the similar, in rough concept only, chillers I had to work on in a dry cleaner once.

The things looked like a HVAC guy, and a plumber put them together over a weekend and a few cases of beer in thier garage.

No it was the Monday morning after that weekend when they did it.

Nice equipment Clyde I worked for SOS Refrigeration/Hooks Engineering out of Cardiff by the Sea over by you we did all the Brigantine restaurants, PF Changs, Long Drugs, Starbucks, and some Home Depots...no chillers though. You should have these pics on your site too.

[clydemule]

Mark and Humid1,

Thanks for the feedback. Dry cleaing chillers tend to be pretty shaky. For process chillers, that is probably the cheapest market segment. It makes the plastics business seem lucrative.

My wbsite is being professionally done, that home page ther now is one I put together in about 10 min. They pictures are actually there on the website, there is just no link to them.

humid: you still in SD? Who do you work for?

Clyde

[thehumid1]

No Clydemule been out of there 1.5 years my ex wife lives there when I got custody of my kids I flew out of there. I am in NJ I do my own work so far all residential since April., work for a engineering/design firm do calculations for them(they only do energy star homes they were Energy star partner of the year). Then I have a nice little contract doing inspects of installations for a utility rebate program but that will be gone in a few months. Dry cleaners chillers...ever try to get a shirt with no"tickee" from a korean dry cleaner? I can just imagine how much they would be willing to spend on new equipment,maintenace and repairs somewhere between $0 and $0 I figure.

[clydemule]

Originally posted by thehumid1
I can just imagine how much they would be willing to spend on new equipment,maintenace and repairs somewhere between $0 and $0 I figure.

It is more like they think you owe THEM money!

Clyde

[duc dowg]

nice work

[ricm]

Awesome work Clyde... do you farm out the paint work to match the whole system up, or do you do that as well?

[clydemule]

Thanks.

Yes, I do the painting.

Clyde