How To Make A Heat Pipe (or solar heat collector)

How to build a heat pipe - the same ideas can be used for making your own solar heat collectors. Materials for your own experimenting and inventions are available from our webshop at www.workingink.co.uk.

[@ehrichweiss]

So, I've been watching your channel for quite some time now and I just did a search for DIY heat pipes and just clicked on the first video.......AND HERE YOU ARE!!! Awesome, I know there'll be good info.

[@turbo3089]

I just want to say thank you for showing a demonstration i understand this a lot better now...

[@joeglory425]

Nice idea! I'd been fascinated by heat pipes years ago but it never occurred to me to create the vacuum by steaming the air out.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

glad to help mate

[@cherylm2C6671]

@@ThinkingandTinkering Me too! Not necessary to use a vacuum pump.

[@cherylm2C6671]

Thank you for your video, Mr. Murray -Smith. This day-after-tomorrow weather has prompted me to figure out some way to move usable heat safely in case of power failure, and heat pipes look like a viable component, well within my modest skills. Thanks for all of your videos! This is good work.

[@LOWEFERRARI]

Wow Mr. Impressive explanation! Thank so much to share with us your knowledge.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

LOWEFERRARI glad you liked it mate

[@FredGandt]

Very useful and inspiring! Thanks Rob :-)

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

cheers mate

[@Zim0256]

Excellent explanation, very clear.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Zim0256 cheers mate

[@unambitious]

Nice explanation! I didn't think there was more to the mechanics of those solar vacuum tubes.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

it's really that simple mate - you stuff the pipe into one of those glass vacuum tubes - 10-20 each on ebay and stuff a load of copper wool in there to help the pipe bridge to the glass and you are done

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+rokdog13 not at the moment mate - but i am working on that

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+rokdog13 not quite mate - the tube has a coating on the inside that is IR reflective and IR adsoptive - the vacuum is an insulator - it is hard to make this but not impossible

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+rokdog13 sputter coated caesium i think - but you will have to check that

[@orcoastgreenman]

Volk Revel - I believe it is also glass of the Boro-silicate type, like Pyrex used to be made out of, and good laboratory glassware still is, I believe...

[@ovalwingnut]

👍😎 Informative "and" Intertaining! Thank You

[@mohammadrezaheidari1133]

Very useful. Thanks Robert

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Reza Heidari cheers mate

[@stampbou]

Thank you for sharing. I have been thinking of ways to move large amounts of heat from point a to point b. This could do the trick very easily Peace ...Lynn

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

it is superb for exactly that mate

[@planetengineeringofficial8545]

so simple yet so efficient :)

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

working with things often is lol

[@senna4281]

Hi Robert Nice expiration on how a heat pipe works If you were to give the copper pipe or give a glass tube an outside coating of graphene would it then absorb sun light or direct heat sores and hold heat better that an uncoated copper pipe or glass tube with its standard black coating. As I believe graphene is very good at heat transfer.

[@muhsinmahdi9798]

Thanks for this important video , I want to ask about when you boiled the water at the evaporator section then you just ook to the vapor appear and look the top section ,at what pressure will be the water inside the pipe ?

[@matsv201]

A little addition. 1: Most people learn in school that water boils of around 100C. This is only true in normal atmospheric condition. In a Vacuum water boils of around 18C. In a heat pipe it´s not pure vacuum, but its pretty close, so you might get it to work in as low temperature as 22-25C. Also, its depends in the depth of water. 2: The heat pipe just absorbs heat where there is water (or liquid). If you want to use it for a solar collector, you do want to fill it up quite a bit, almost as long as the heat collector elements go. This change the boiling point of water. The bolingpoint may be 22 degree at the very top, but it´s probably around 30 to 40 degree at the bottom (for a 1 ish meter long pipe). If the whole system is 50-60 degree it don´t matter... That is... if you want to collect heat, you do want to fill it up quite a bit. But if you want to cool something (like a processor), you just want to fill up a bit in the bottom. Basicly the part where there is water is cooling, the part there is steam is cooling. So how much you fill it deepens on what you suppose to do.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+matsv201 nice addition mate - thanks

[@matsv201]

Robert Murray-Smith No problem.. Any time.... I understand it that you was not quite sure what level of liqud you would need?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+matsv201 i wasn't and i absolutely appreciate the input mate

[@matsv201]

Nice.. Yea, it might har do figure it out... but at least to me its quite obvius when you think about it that it have to be liquid to absorb energy and gas to discharge it. ;)

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+matsv201 yup :)

[@boprosplumbing]

Loved this video, but i just had to watch "reservoir" @ about 3:13 three times lol

[@victoryfirst2878]

DO you need either sintered bronze or grooved inside the pipes itself ??? That is what is said on many videos on KZbin. Thanks Robert.

[@nicodesmidt4034]

Thanks

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

you are most welcome mate and thank you too

[@autumn8tk421]

Ahh...heatpipes! Made some of these using Acetone a few years ago and wish I had thought to use something like that to hold the top on. I'll never forget the sound it made when the cap pushed off enough to ignite that vapor when I was soldering it on. Somehow, it didn't explode or even catch the liquid on fire (thankfully), but I got a nice "whoosh" out of the pipe. Definitely not one of my finer moments. I'm curious to see how your HT fluid compares with water. Water is an efficient choice even on its own, but it is just too cold in the winters to use it for a HT medium where I live. Are you planning on using vacuum tubes with these?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Vacuum tubes is an option but i am still working on this so I am not so sure. I did desolder one to change the ratios and exactly the same thing happened to me as happened to you - it was a surprise lol

[@orcoastgreenman]

The key is to warm the bottom to fill the pipe with acetone vapors, and drive out O2... then solder shut.

[@nicodesmidt4034]

Trying to see if a 10 meter heatpipe to transfer heat from a solar collector to the house would be a good option. Great content keep up the work !

[@MichaelApproved]

Water would be a better choice. Heat the water and transfer it to the house via insulated pipes. Water can hold a surprisingly large amount of BTUs (which you’ll need if you’re heating a home) and you can pipe the water throughout the house to distribute the heat better than a heat pipe. You can also heat the water during the days when it’s warm outside and use it later that night when the temps drop.

[@russiannpcbot6408]

@@MichaelApproved If he needs to transfer heat from a solar thermal heat collector on the ground, he could use a heat pipe to transfer heat from a water storage tank to another one on top of his house. He'll need to insulate everything really well. He could then gravity feed hot water down someplace without a pump. This is only an efficient solution if he's only sending the water one direction. Otherwise, he'd be better off with a pumped system.

[@wssometimesavowel3639]

Could this work if the steam was in a ring pipe like the insulating coffee mugs with the bottom cut out i wanted to pass air through the center radially and have the middle outside lengthwise of the casing heated and air move through one end on the bottom and out the top fanned from the intake side up from the ceiling down to the floor to the lower part of the heater. Exhaust fanned from the top corner of the heater down to the floor for good air mixing.

[@paulharvey4403]

Any Update on this Robert, given the price of everything an efficient DIY water heater would be very useful.

[@TheGEODEAHOLIC]

very cool, I didn't realize how simple they are. there ought to be a way to turn one or more of those into some variety of sterling engine.

[@KimberlyRPeacock]

The GeoDeaHolic The Heat pipe can enhance a stirling engine. However if you impeded the fluid flow of the heat pipe it will diminish its efficacy. What you could do is attach a TEG to the end of a Heat pipe two heat pipes and both ends of the teg and couple them to a heat sink and source. You could also take two acoustic lasers (thermoacoustic stirling engines) and run them in opposite phase, with heat pipes interconnecting the two resonating cavities, and tune the fluid like a heat pipe such that a small temp change/pressure change results on phase change and cavitation. From there use a pyroelectric sensor array with a driver circuit to store in a super cap to inverter type and you will have a heat pipe type thermoelectric generator, which theoretically can convert up to 90% of the heat flow to electric power. In the real world you will get about 30% which is till 3x better than Siebeck.

[@benpapenfus9375]

Kimberly Peacock hi I find your reasoning interesting. I tried to contact you via e-mail. would you mind possibly drawing a diagram on your thermoelectric generator concept and give me some reasoning how you conclude 30% compared to Seebeck??

[@KimberlyRPeacock]

Using pyroelectric elements one needs not have a high temperature difference, rather one wants a high frequency temperature change, and you have that in cavitation. Also look into Sasers the acoustical analogue to the laser. If one had heat pipes attached to the resonators and had two resonators operating in opposite phase. I had thought I was the first person to come up with the idea of using pyroelectric elements as a teg (thermo electric generation) device but it seems a guy at Oak Ridge has already done work on this. Predicting 90% conversion possible. That is not the same as economical except in a few specialized uses. The driving of it using a saser is my idea, and the heat pipe and vapor chamber additions.

[@thehazelnutspread]

You mentioned putting a bulb on one end but both your ends looked the same. How would you have put a bulb on?

[@wssometimesavowel3639]

Or would a flame cause too much pressure to build up and rupture the pipe?

[@AutoNomades]

Hey Robert, i wonder if it could be possible to do the same thing like evacuated tube solar collector, but with a flat radiator/spiral tube inside (or in btw two?) a double glazing windows ? It it could maybe be more efficient than weather surrounded lonely pipes ? Cheers !

[@russiannpcbot6408]

The pipe has to be straight for this type of heat pipe. The gas has to move through the center of the pipe while the liquid flows down the sides. A curve inhibits that. The effect happens very rapidly and can transfer large amounts of thermal energy.

[@penfoldooo2160]

Great introduction - I always thought it was more complicated than that. The only concern I have is about pressure. If you seal both ends and manage to evaporate the working fluid completely, won't the internal pressure be very high? Is there a rule-of-thumb (or formula) for determining the maximum working fluid volume given a specific heat pipe volume? What is the failure mode for an over-pressured copper heat pipe (will the pipe rupture suddenly, a cap blow off at high speed, or a tiny leak slowly release the steam)?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

I am sorry mate - but you are over thinking this. Your chances of blowing the pipe or getting a total vacuum this way are insignificant. As for the amount of fluid to use - experiment to find out - it won't take long but it's a small amount - you need to have some fluid in there all the time - so you need to consider your working temperature, fluid type and volume - with water in a 1.2m pipe for solar it's about 15mL. Failure mode is sudden rupture - but unless you plan on cooling a nuclear power plant this way you are not going to rupture the pipe

[@penfoldooo2160]

Robert Murray-Smith All good then - cheers!

[@russiannpcbot6408]

@@penfoldooo2160 Too much fluid and it won't be able to evaporate. The safe working temperature I saw online for copper/water heat pipes was 20°C to 150°C. At the low end it stops functioning. I don't know what happens at the high end but I think I wouldn't want to find out. I can't remember if the low end number was only for lateral heat pipes with internal wicks or not. I'm looking at making lateral ones so I can transfer temperatures efficiently in a DIY geothermal system for my home.

[@kreynolds1123]

1:44 "its driving out the non-compressable gasses", Rather than non-compressible , you mean non-condensable. As oxygen and nitrogen are compressible at room temperature but don't condence at the heat pipe's working temperatures. And the non condensing gases get in the way of moving the condensing gas from moving heat from the boiler end to the condensing walls.

[@manwar999]

genius

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

lol - cheers mate

[@MrStarTraveler]

So if you put a copper wick inside the heat pipe, that would increase its efficiency right? I mean that's what they do in CPU coolers...

[@KimberlyRPeacock]

One other technique for manufacturing the capillary structure is edm. Of which graphene with dielectric fluid makes less messy and allows for finer detail. www.academia.edu/4232842/Accuracy_improvement_in_nanographite_powder-suspended_dielectric_fluid_for_micro-electrical_discharge_machining_processes In addition you can build your own EDM machine fairly inexpensively. You can purchase a book inexpensively with a circuit board and list of electronics components for under $100.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

now there is something i want to build lol

[@KimberlyRPeacock]

Robert Murray-Smith www.amazon.com/Build-a-Pulse-EDM-Machine/dp/0976759624 or www.amazon.com/Build-EDM-Electrical-Discharge-Machining/dp/094165351X/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GJJW6HSBH6A1KSWEJ61 and you can purchase the PCB here www.homebuiltedmmachines.com/index.php?page=buy

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Kimberly Peacock thanks chuck

[@magna59]

I was reading one of the Wiki entries , and came across the early 20 th century of using mercury as the working fluid in a power station . I have interest in running a heat tube the other way up , hot point at the top & heat shedding point at the bottom . Do you think a wick would be enough ?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

sorry mate - i don't quite get what you mean.

[@magna59]

Robert Murray-Smith Thanks for the reply . --------------------- " I was reading one of the Wiki entries , and came across the early 20 th century of using mercury as the working fluid in a power station " en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_vapour_turbine --------------------- " I have interest in running a heat tube the other way up , hot point at the top & heat shedding point at the bottom . Do you think a wick would be enough ? " Ok , I have the opportunity to remove heat from an " exhaust " flow , but the point I want to deliver it to is blow this exhaust . This design relies on convection in it ' s un wicked form , but could wicking at least making it something better than a conductive rod ? Any ideas ? One thought . The use of distilled water to keep the scale out of system .

[@gabrielsierra6890]

Imagine using a heatpipe to move heat toward a stirling engine.

[@MrVictorchase]

Is there a rule of thumb for how long the pipe should be ? And the diameter ? Guessing, long enough to reach wherever is cool enough for the gas to condense and the thinner the better to increase surface area?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+Luc Chase pretty much mate - if there is a rule of thumb i don't know it

[@serotonin67]

Sir, I am learning that copper heated with acetone in the prescience of oxygen results in a measurable and excothermical (funny spelling) reaction. Here is the question: Is the graphene thermal transfer fluid exfoliated with acetone?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

no - in water

[@mostlymessingabout]

Hi Robert, the test shows its not as quick as the fancy smaller diameter pipes. Is that because the length is very long or the vacuum is not optimised, or a bit of both?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Thanh Tran it will be a bit of both mate

[@mostlymessingabout]

I've been thinking (well just now actually) about CPU cooling, instead of having watercooling to have one of these unlined heat pipes and copper/aluminium fins. They might do white a big of work even without a fan.How do you go about soldering the cap on, can I use leadfree PCB solder instead of fancy silver solder? Cheers Robert

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Thanh Tran i suppose so - i have never really tried but what you sugest seems reasonable

[@dasraiser]

+Thanh Tran the xbox 360 uses heat pipes and a fan, they also just fold the pipe to seal it :)

[@mechengineering3163]

please do you have simulation by ANSYS or any program about heat pipe?

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Mech Engineering no sorry

[@mostlymessingabout]

Mech Engineering Hi, you should use Solidworks Simulation or ANSYS, override K to be 10,000

[@mechengineering3163]

10000 what?

[@mostlymessingabout]

Heat transfer coefficient 10,000 W/(m2K). compared to 400 on copper or 150-200 on aluminium

[@ShubhamShukla326]

I wonder if I'll get an asnwer but does anyone know whats an approximate ratio of heat pipe length vs fluid amount for water in the pipe?

[@fss1704]

you should use enough water to get capilary action, that's it.

[@ShubhamShukla326]

@@fss1704 Thank you for the reply, nd yea, I got that... but how would you know how much fluid is is that exactly?

[@fss1704]

@@ShubhamShukla326 with a microdosimeter, you can put more if you want but that reduces vacuum a bit, and if you put less theres less conductivity. You can make a microdosimeter by using a scalp and something with a thread to compress the silicone tube a little bit to inject a certain amount of liquid

[@ShubhamShukla326]

@@fss1704 Thank you! :-) appreciate the replies

[@NwoDispatcher]

I'd think you could find that ratio by studying the weight changes of the heat pipe

[@ufoengines]

Have you ever made a rotating heat pipe like in patent 3999400? Seems like a way to make a very simple window air-conditioner. I tried to make a rotating heat pipe using a Dust Off can and You Tubed it. However I could think of a way to measure any heat transfer effect.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+ufoengines I didn't even know they existed until you wrote this post mate - i'll hunt out your vid and have a look

[@ufoengines]

Hoo Ray! You"ll be first to actually look for it Google " Rotating Heat Pipe Model" ( you can ignore the old Outer Limits video in the background. I just really dig the ray gun scene)

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+ufoengines I liked your coanda model - so i subscribed. nice work mate

[@ufoengines]

Thanks So far I've got the big who cares on the Coanda idea but read a small kid lost and eye and with drones making deliveries ( maybe) time has come to start thinking "THE WORLDS SAFET DRONE!" Coanda Thrusters and foam rubber construction. For danger but looks like great fun check out "Racing Drones" You Tubes. Man ! Think of one having one of those sucker hit you or your kid in the head!

[@kennedy67951]

Hey' Robert nice video. Well just thought I would mention instead of soldering cap on at the point you did, maybe you could have used a Brass Shrader valve assembly solderd into the cap and then used a vacuum pump to bring vacuum to aroung 5 to 7 bars of vacuum. Ideal vacuum being 15 or more bars, 'but you could not expect to achieve this type of vacuum. So what do you think of this idea? Well thanks again Robert. Have a great day.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

i think it is a brilliant idea mate and i am now mulling it over for the next one

[@kennedy67951]

LOL I hope it works out for you. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge with me.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

James Kennedy i like the sound of it mate - cheers

[@tetekofa]

Oxygen and nitrogen are non-compressible??

[@Dingbat217]

@@alexwilding3617 Oxygen and Nitrogen condenses just fine, just at temperatures way outside of what we need for solar heat pipes. :-) You could lower the temperature ranges by vacuuming out the air before you solder the pipes shut but that's a lot harder to do do in your garage.

[@agrxdrowflow958]

So, you don't need a wick? Because it's oriented vertically? Nice.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

it's not essential - no

[@agrxdrowflow958]

My whole life is a lie! ;)

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

lol

[@mavamQ]

Interesting videos, I've watched several, but PLease, get some help with your audio. Multiple audio reflections make it difficult hear and understand. Even a shotgun mic up high, pointed down at you should help a lot. Thanks

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

Lamont Cranston ok mate - cheers

[@planetengineeringofficial8545]

also dont worry for flux as long as i know there are oils and resins in it :)

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

lol - i don't mate - but every time i do anything like that i get people writing to me to tell me not to!!

[@planetengineeringofficial8545]

Robert Murray-Smith :)

[@MrVictorchase]

I wonder why water-cooled heat pipes aren't used in gaming PC. Or are they? I've only seen air-cooled heat pipes or water cooling without heat pipes.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+Luc Chase they are used mate

[@MrVictorchase]

+Robert Murray-Smith haven't found any.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+Luc Chase here's some www.corsair.com/en-gb/cooling

[@MrVictorchase]

+Robert Murray-Smith they are not water-cooled heat-pipes.... that is water-cooling INSTEAD of heat-pipes. The water is not being used to condense the gas.

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

+Luc Chase lol - oops - should read more carefully - cheers mate

[@MrTweetyhack]

he's almost correct but a efficient heat pipe is not smooth on the inside

[@bridgendesar]

A nice demo of the heat transfer using colour changing paint here kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKfOZnVsfMyUZ5I

[@ThinkingandTinkering]

thanks for that mate