Water Cooling My House - Whole Server Room Pool Watercooling Part 2

[@Mnkeys]

Its really hard to believe that LTT didn't have Alex for the majority of its existence. Dude can carry videos and has that same level of "jank but knowing when its not a good idea" that Linus does

[@DareDevilPhil]

I consider it to be 'Genius-level DIY' whereby it is in no way genius

[@izanefe4231]

hasn't he been at the team since like 2015? that's more than half of LMG's existance

[@nestam6844]

When I saw the janky powersupply I died

[@randxalthor]

He's like Linus if he'd finished an engineering degree

[@zXLuke4efcXz]

The dude can't even put PTFE tape on the right way, he aint that good lol.

[@hok627]

Linus's insurance company has to be so grateful for all of his documentation of things that aren't covered

[@miccyp87]

this DEFINITELY WINS the internet this week!

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

Linus' insurance company is LTT. If everything fails dramatically, he just has to bring the camera crew and make a few videos out of it. It pays for itself!

[@defiantgg9201]

High brow humor, stuff like this is rare nowadays (online)

[@nicoladiiorio8898]

since their main scope is to create content, i guess this get dismounted as much as the crazy builds go back to the shelves. and no, there is nothing bad in this

[@Josh-tx8sj]

Life tip: record all of your personal items, and everything in your house. If your house burns down the insurance company will likely say your house was empty when it burned

[@IAmCoopa]

Just some notes that came to mind, I'm a nuclear engineer and do some work with heat transfer. One, in the future you're going to want to mount your heat exchangers horizontally versus vertically where possible. It makes bleeding more of a hassle but will reduce the pumping power required to drive water flow while also allowing you to take advantage of convection on the air side. Two, as others have mentioned, you'll want to make some ducting on the air sides to help guide the flow and leverage things like the stack effect. Three, consider taking advantage of simulation tools to help you properly size the system. It would be relatively easy for your engineering team to use Modelica and many available free libraries for HVAC and thermal transfer to create models of your cooling system. It's completely free and very easy for engineers with any level of programming experience to utilize. Companies like Meta use it for modeling their data center cooling and this would be really cool to see. You could easily simulate your current and future mech room heat sources to determine the sizes of heat exchangers and everything to properly size the cooling equipment. And you could examine different configurations of things like pure air cooling, leveraging the pool as a heat sink, different heat exchanger types, etc. Hell, you could even design the system to be partially or purely passive for extra redundancy and to reduce the house load on your solar panels.

[@etherigni]

It's strange running into a nuke in the wild! What kind of work do you do normally, if you don't mind me asking

[@jonathanbuzzard1376]

And I work with HPC and well the heat exchanger on the back of the rack *has* to be vertical. Thing about it for a minute. Got lots of rear door cooled racks at work. However if he plans on water cooling his rack long term then he will need an appropriate rear door for the rack. They are unfortunately not cheap like over $10k each.

[@LeLouisMax]

This guy cools

[@crumpets2123]

You always know when someone didn't make it to the end of the video

[@gio9789]

i've always wanted to see a computer cooled by NaK, i'm a chemist, you a nuclear engineer, commenting under a big youtube channel. what could go wrong

[@pirojfmifhghek566]

I love how just introducing Alex is enough to let people know that this is gonna be a masterful janky build. Nobody can predict just how janky it's gonna get, but somehow you also can trust that it's gonna work too.

[@Nicmadis]

The best way to prototype anything. Janky enough to sketch people out a bit but working just well enough to prove a concept or idea is feasible without spending too much time or cash.

[@TelefonSquid]

Alex' jank adventures are honestly my favourite part of LTT as a whole in terms of entertainment value.

[@SkorpyoTFC]

Mechanic here. Since this proof-of-concept worked so well, there are a couple of ways you could easily optimize it, if you're willing to spend a bit more money. Many aftermarket racing radiators are solid, welded aluminum, and most of the radiators for muscle-car era vehicles use a wide design. On top of that, many of them have the option of coming pre-fitted with threaded hose adapters welded directly onto the tanks. Couple that with some 12v shrouded radiator fans that are designed to fit them directly and maximize airflow, and you could have a full server rack heat transfer system right out of the box, minus the tubing.

[@davidgarcia2016]

This is something worth looking into it if the original plans to use the pool are not going to work those aftermarket radiators + fans are no joke they exchange a lot of heat quickly they should be able to handle that server rack with maybe 2 of them, idk what would be the equivalence of watts those radiators are rated for

[@wizzerrdd]

An aftermarket radiator or two would take this project from jank to a real cooling solution. I think real radiator fans would do wonders too I'm not an expert but I think that many small fans is not very efficient. I also wonder if LTT could get custom radiators built to size and spec

[@patricklloyd1797]

I'm just asking this here because an individual comment probably won't be seen by anyone, but isn't there a risk of the water freezing in the winter? I have to imagine the reason why it wouldn't is due to the water being heated from the server, but if it drops to -30 outside would that be able to drop the water temperature enough to potentially freeze? Not sure how cold it gets in Vancouver, I don't think as cold due to the ocean keeping temps more constant, but where I am in Canada it can definitely drop that low in Winter. Would love to hear if anyone has an explanation on this :)

[@neoqueto]

Or just get a MO-RA3 420x420 rad. Or a Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 1260 SuperNova full copper. Those guys could actually work as car radiators... well, definitely sub-optimally in terms of peak flow rate, but surface area - yeah boi.

[@davidgarcia2016]

@@patricklloyd1797 well since the water is never in contact with the PC parts this would be like a constantly on coolant system on a car plus with the antifreeze that can be added to it still I'm not from a cold place so idk anything more to this neither do I have experience in custom cooling solutions on cars

[@kentt6320]

The change from exasperation to astonishment when Alex said “I spent like $300” was comedic gold

[@BrBCatsOnFireLuL]

On probably just fittings and tubing . The pump is another few hundred

[@GreenFlexGaming]

Linus: 10K on a PC is Fine Alex: I spent Like 300$ Linus: Shut Up 😱

[@1racerboy1]

$9950 of that PC is parts from his sponsors/"Borrowed" from work. The $300 is cold hard cash out of Linus' pockets XD

[@nalykazule1582]

I am continually impressed how expensive threaded plumbing fittings are.

[@sunflake_]

99.99% of that money for the pc is from sponsors + linus spend a quarter of a million on framework industries

[@starkistuna]

"800$ for a liquid pc cooler is unreasonable" Linus Sebastian 2023

[@CoreyKearney]

I love that every time Alex is about to do some Janky stuff he's wearing a flex seal hat.

[@RobotMowerTricks]

... He's always wearing a flex seal hat

[@RobotMowerTricks]

So yes 🤣

[@Xaffire]

Cuz flex seal is a janky but valid fix lol

[@AzraelSWFC2011]

Haha, totally had not noticed that.:)

[@derDKP]

They should turn an LTT backpack into a whole body water-cooling suit.

[@nebula_wolf3132]

alex being both the voice of reason and the voice of chaos and linus just dying. this is why i watch ltt

[@ccelik97]

420th like

[@nebula_wolf3132]

@Ian Visser as it should be xD

[@lordofnothing.]

that "shut up!" that Linus released over the $300 connerctor was so genuine, i really had to laugh out loud. poor Linus :D^^

[@Jonamission]

I want to see a whole house integrated server system that pumps heat into the house in winter and out of the house in summer. That works with the HVAC instead of against it.

[@charlesnl7]

You are describing "radiant cooling and heating" the problem is Return on Investment (ROI). Something like a Warmboard system is very solid but compared to forced air it's several decades until you see your money come back. There's another company who does the same for cooling. I've been researching a similar idea for a while now. I thought it would be great to combine a thermal battery or geothermal with solar, then I was like why not just simplify it by running pex tubing into the floor and ceilings but it turns out to be 30k just for the fixtures, system, and engineering. If you have a commercial use case, lots of money to burn (YT channel to write off the costs) and an understanding wife then you can buy your idea now. Otherwise your best bet is solar + battery + geothermal + variable HVAC.

[@xXHotaroXx]

@@charlesnl7 exactly ! --> make a video out of it and ROI is positive off the chards again

[@Jutilaje]

@@charlesnl7 Linus's house is already heated with a hydronic radiant system. All the pipes/etc are ran, and it'd actually be relatively simple to plumb the server radiator into it, with a heat exchanger from the server loop into the home heating loop, and another heat exchanger outside, and then a simple manifold/valve bank to control whether it dumps its heat into the home heating loop or outside.

[@charlesnl7]

@@Jutilaje thank you for the information. I didn't know he already had the system installed, maybe I might have accidentally skipped over it. You sound like you know what you are doing but I don't think I'm that confident to do my own HVAC and plumbing. I am learning as I go so hopefully one day I can build my mom a nice house.

[@grn1]

@@charlesnl7 He mentioned the Hydronic system in a previous video, from what I've gathered it's somewhat common in Canada.

[@Xezian]

I love the fact that Linus has managed to make renovating his house into a job for his employees and monetize it. Truly the wonders of the 21st century.

[@JudgmentalFranklin]

he does this to get the buissness expence tax write off

[@heni63]

@@JudgmentalFranklin i think it's both, but kinda favor the content think, because this company likes their work mostly and each other which should make those videos fun

[@henkholdingastate]

1 thing is clear. The price of electricity in America is apparently very low.

[@arg8763]

@@henkholdingastate $.10/kWh where I am, so yes it's pretty cheap. No idea how that converts where you are.

[@henkholdingastate]

@@arg8763 $0.10 per KWh.....wow. At that price I wouldn't worry about anything.The normal price in the Netherlands was 23 euro cents per kWh for the common people, but now with the energy crisis, consumption up to 2800 kWh is a subsidized 0.44 per kWh (per 1-1-2023) and if you go over that, it is just over 90 euro cents per kilowatt hours. What a drama. But nice for the Americans who pay so very little for energy (including the very cheap gasoline price) Greetings from the Netherlands

[@AdamHansen95]

I used to work in the plumbing department at a hardware store, and this would 100% be a random project that we would constantly get at least 2 or 3 times a day lol. Takes me back

[@rkan2]

Dafuq? People cooling their rooms with radiators???

[@HerbaMachina]

@@rkan2 I mean it's essentially the same thing as a heat pump, but without refrigerants being used to take advantage of state change cooling.

[@AdamHansen95]

@@rkan2 lol. No I more or less mean that people want to hook up random things that probably shouldn’t be hooked up together, and it’s the job of the person in the plumbing department to figure out how do make it happen with a random assortment of fittings lol. So I just pictured helping alex with that issue

[@Souchirouu]

10 years later Linus: So we are moving again but instead of moving to an existing house we are building our own.. out of Noctua fans and radiators! If your wondering how we are heating our house it's SIMPLE we put pipes form our offices to my house moving all the heat produced from all the computers and servers! Any excess goes to the pool, yes the year round steaming water will get some getting used to but the wife approved it as we basically have our own outdoor hotsprins now!

[@hueanao]

With how much time and money Linus spent on his house, I genuinely wonder why he didn't build one from scratch.

[@RobinITG]

Hands down funniest thing I've read today. 🤣

[@vipvip-tf9rw]

he will be moving to datacenter

[@lourensdejongh3798]

I cannot tell you guys how much I have missed these janky-styled videos of yours - not every single video HAS to be all professional/"produced". We need MOAR of this!!

[@rabusse]

Agreed. It seems like the videos have become more and more produced. And I don’t know what to feel about it

[@engineeringvision9507]

@@rabusse Even this was very heavily produced. Nothing like the old water cooling video.

[@Mythicalgoon]

When linus gives Alex the corporate card it's always a good episode

[@thereallettuceweabois5918]

Fr

[@tobiasartur9153]

While watching this video, I realized something. You guys (the LTT crew) are the reason why I'm so invested in tech so much. The option of "we can't do that" is almost non-existent, and as somebody who works in tech, this was a really good influence to try either new projects, helping customers properly and come up with new ideas. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You were the motivation throughout the years that was leading by example, not by speech.

[@TigerDev770]

I think Linus is addicted to watercooling at this point

[@robinjohannessen787]

I mean who isnt? Its basically how your body gets rid of heat aswell, which means it works. why fix what aint broke

[@stefanmisch5272]

He probably has some quick disconnects hidden in his trunk somewhere.

[@shellderp]

he basically tried this a decade ago in the old office and it was horrible

[@puerlatinophilus3037]

"I can stop any time I want, I swear!"

[@ManBearPigLOL]

Thermodynamics really is compelling enough to be it's own video farm. And Linus knows it.

[@playsntraffic3708]

The Flex Seal hat is just the best thing to wear to a video like this. Also, could you use the PC heat to heat your house more and reduce your power/gas bill?

[@CartmanVlaams]

YT is already taking care of the bills 😜😂😂

[@AcT323-1]

since its the basement just blow up the radiator for free underfloor heating

[@lunchtreyy]

No he is going to dump the heat into the pool, problem being that there is no pool right now

[@Chris_In_Texas]

6:0 The issue with the Grundfos circ pump you purchased is that its cast iron made for heating. It WILL rust as its cast iron that will be wet, and because the loop isn't sealed it will be getting freshly oxygenated water all the time. You need a circ pump that is rated for fresh water, for example hot water loop circulator, that is either brass/bronze or stainless, that won't put a bunch of rust into the loop and clog the radiator. 🤠👍

[@danl6634]

Or at least get the loop filled with boiler system rated antifreeze to avoid killing the pump on short order.

[@muzallisam5068]

its "'temporary'' lol

[@joecosta3416]

@@muzallisam5068 yes, but that was most likely specd for the future install. that can't be a cheap pump and if it was a throwaway pump, it probably wouldn't be the same model as what was used on that pre existing high end install that likely cost a small fortune.

[@tz8785]

@@danl6634 Antifreeze would also protect the outside radiator from freezing.

[@AgneDei]

As the outside heat exchanger you can dig a hole over 1.5 meters deep, throw there spiraled 30 or more meters of PVC pipes, and cover it with dirt. It should keep a stable temperature the whole year round (usually around 5C if you're deep enough). The hole needs to be quite big to spread the piping on the ground, but besides that it's pretty much the best upgrade to your cooling system.

[@sp00n]

That's surprisingly cold

[@AgneDei]

@@sp00n It gets warm once you dig really deep, like hundreds of meters

[@Kirinboi]

@@sp00n in the army, it used to be a hack that u dig a hole, dump a ration dessert pack in it, wait a couple of hours, and u will have an decently cooled dessert. And that is in the middle of summer

[@johngaltline9933]

Sadly, this isn't a long term solution. over time the constant heating will warm that ground and it will stop providing cooling. Digging a hole works great short term, but not so much long term. it would work fine if you had a really large area to dump the heat in to where the ground can stabilize, but in a small area the ground just gets hot.

[@CarstenSvendsen]

This.

[@partymarty9671]

Always love seeing Alex. Was a very good addition to the team.

[@dougr8646]

Thanks guys! Very cool! We try very hard to build a great team.

[@inoob26]

​@@dougr8646 and who are you supposed to be?

[@flameraker6824]

@@dougr8646 omg its linus himself... 😃😃😃😃😃😃😃 But why is your username Doug R?

[@dougr8646]

Thanks for the question! Very cool!

[@Avetho]

Fun Fact: Alex has been here for 6 years, since 3 million subs.

[@qwksilver]

A few thoughts, you can obtain semi ridgid blue and red water pipes that can be "plumbed in" permanently and look quite good. Get rid of the outside radiator, and use another underground loop of water, it doesn't actually need the pool for heat transfer to work, heck a single run loop of about 2 lines laid with a ditch witch, and the under the frost line, which i likely shallow in ca, will stay the same temp year round so you can model transfer load. temp sensors for water in and out, some out in the loop and a Arduino + program can likely optimize motor speeds. Put radiators and sealing panels on back door, sealing panels for front area, sealing boards don't have to be complicated though, signboard is corrugated plastic and can take a screws and bends pretty well. Love the plan, would do something similar myself if i had the house for it.

[@spldrong]

Exactly! It's just a geothermal system with a ground loop

[@willpatterson3674]

"No, the worst that can happen is my house both floods, and catches on fire at the same time" I almost spit out my lunch with that line 🤣🤣

[@satnififu]

Linus experiencing what it's like to live in the tropics and solving it with water cooling really is something I wasn't expecting to see

[@prospersikhwari5289]

I was just thinking that these temperatures are kind of a normal day in my country. Then I remembered that for these guys it’s probably torture 😂

[@Guru_1092]

@@prospersikhwari5289 They're Canadians, so they melt easily.

[@RevLimitHero]

So is my car

[@OsomoMojoFreak]

@@prospersikhwari5289 Also a huge difference maker is how wet/dry the air is, both on the warm and cold side of things. From where live in Norway (south-eastern part), I've had people living all the way up north saying it was colder down here than up there even if the difference in temperature was at least by -10 degrees celcius. This is due to the air being more humid/wet compared to the dry air up north.

[@ParadoxalDream]

​@@prospersikhwari5289 But they're Canadians from BC, they don't know what either true cold or true heat is...

[@HaloKTS]

This video hit my sweet spot! My profession was previously L2L Heat Exchanger Design and is now Data Center Cooling Pipe Design! The little brazed plate job from alpha laval would have been fine with process/pool water and PG/EG solution. They make versions out of nickel which would probably do the trick. I would personally probably go with one of the readily available shell/tube designs that they commonly use for pool heat (ej bowman makes some). So far as driving air for hot/cold isle we don't really use box fans, or any style of axial fan. They don't perform well with higher static load (ie. blowing or pulling through a coil), instead we use centrifugal or radial fans, which allow us to overcome 2-4"wg of static and still make the airflow we need. As a side note, they do make a fairly affordable NPT to Barb transition in PVC and/or Nylon (Ooof, that's a lot of brass, lol).

[@IvanBeatzBorn808]

12:02 there’s no windows - except the one running on the computers eyyyyyyyyy got em!

[@turbo_brian]

As a mechanical engineer one of my favorite pass times is watching electrical engineers or software engineers try to do mechanical things. Always a recipe for the lawlz

[@xbmthxfan]

I love when anyone from the LTT team tells Linus how much of his money they spent on things 😂

[@Nopulu]

The best part is when Linus flips out, knowing damn well he has enough money to put his entire extended family through college without even flinching lol

[@Hami10101]

Team member says cost of something. Linus who has approved (or asked Yvonne to approve) the purchase and is confident it’ll ultimately make them money: 😵

[@ferinzz]

@@Hami10101 Wiat, THIS is the 2k that I signed for? Holding the tiniest piece of metal.

[@sariannas2799]

Nothing's as permanent as a temporary solution that works. the zip ties just flying into shot at 8:00 are chef's kiss

[@EMANGAMING111]

Linus is gonna watercool the world at this point 😂

[@T3KNIX03]

The world technically is watercooled 🗿

[@JacobLiu-fs7yq]

nah bro linus be putting a water block on the universe

[@gkolesnitsky]

He gonna water cool. Earth to stop global warming.

[@CodyMonster1993]

Lol

[@MJSGamingSanctuary]

@@JacobLiu-fs7yq We need next level AC cooling next

[@TheOtherNEO]

Probably repeating what others may say: do not pump the water end to end. Keep the pool side and the rack side in separate loops and use a liquid to liquid heat exchanger between the two. That way you don't have contamination issues, and can drain and maintain each loop separately.

[@Saaj2]

The pipework is buried in the screed of the swimming pool much like underfloor heating so water contamination should not be an issue

[@TheOtherNEO]

@@Saaj2 Having dealt with chilled water systems, contamination is part of the deal. Also, the anti-corrosion and other chemicals you need to feed in is nasty stuff.

[@Saaj2]

@@TheOtherNEO Of course, corrosion inhibitor and biocide is a given, I thought you were talking about contamination re. pool water and cooling water mixing

[@TexMex421]

I think they should just open the door as Alex suggested at 0:45 . Allow the heat to flow into the house. In Canada in the winter that seems like a good option. Maybe install a vent in the door.

[@footsorebird0365]

I genuinely want an update on how well this is working.

[@GameRaveTV]

I absolutely adore the chemistry the staff has with each other. I think my favorite is a tie between the bromance of Linus and Jake and this "We don't have a plan B" vibe with Linus and Alex. I laugh every time at these videos. Have a great holiday!

[@brycenhorner6386]

As a Journeyman plumber, it is always funny watching Linus struggle with running water lines.

[@johnriff85]

As a refrigeration tech this video shortened my life more than the phosgene I've inhaled previously.

[@engineeringvision9507]

As the President of the United States I love ice cream

[@plagueless9829]

Ik he was amazed by them shark bites 😂

[@shayneisnthuman]

the way linus said SHUT UP when alex said it cost 300 dollars is to silly

[@Brickbuilder0506]

it was epic, i replayed it so many times lol

[@AB-fp5fi]

I was recently watching some old LTT watercooling videos, and there were a lot of comments jokingly saying he would eventually water cool his house... Yet here we are

[@johnalthouse7793]

Hybrid hot water heater. I did the exact same thing in my house but I put a Rheem heat pump hybrid water heater in my server room. That converted the hot air from my server rack into hot water for the house. Every time you take a shower or wash dishes, you're cooling the server room. Only uses 200 watts.

[@Envinix]

Yes a Thanksgiving miracle! Questionable engineering with Alex! My favorite!

[@FerroAudio]

I felt the freaking dad rage Linus got at 4:10 on the egregious cash used for that whole contraption. Related.

[@Vrplumber]

One of the cool things about those shark bite fittings is you can push fit copper, cpvc, or pex water lines in one fitting. If you had just used the two sharkbite 90s, and a roll of 3/4" pex tubing, many fittings could have been eliminated.

[@guyod1]

And remove bucket. It should of just been closed loop.

[@konzo5942]

@@guyod1 im guessing they had the bucket to provide a bit of pressure and allow air to escape, otherwise they would have had to bleed the system. also it would fill any small leaks. also @kevin much prefer the hep2o fittings, work just as well and cheaper

[@redsquirrelftw]

Actually cool to see that this worked half decently. I plan to do something similar. My server room is setup with a hot/cold aisle like in a DC so my plan is to setup a radiator somewhere in the ceiling on the hot aisle and then suck air through it and dump it back in cold aisle. It will just recirculate through servers and rad. I will then dump the heat into the garage, which I want to heat anyway. I will probably also have a furnace supply/return duct which will have dampers. They'll open as required, such as in summer when AC is running.

[@MattButzen]

Seeing Alex and Linus together never gets old. Great chemistry

[@774used]

The chemistry reminds me of Phineas and Ferb.

[@mura_saki]

The jank but works kings fr

[@andrewpopoff3453]

As someone that has does plumbing electrical and machining professionally, it actually hurts to watch sometimes and I'll need to take a break

[@Neoxon619]

It’s been a while since we got a home upgrade video. And hey, the (temporary solution for) home water-cooling is finally happening. Although it’s unfortunate that the pool isn’t done yet, throwing a wrench in everything.

[@bigfire759]

They should really just get a three way valve and an extra heat exchanger. They could tie the server heat into the radiant heater system manifold (that they pointed at while talking about the pump) in the winter, and then switch the valve to pump it to the pool in the summer

[@pfideonow]

Here is a crazy idea.... Use a heat pump to CAPTURE and UTILIZE the heat to make your house warmer in the winter, then in the summer, you can use it to either pre-heat your hot water using a liquid-liquid heat exchanger or as you mentioned use it to heat your pool. By adding a heat pump to the mix it will maximize the benefit. You can use cold/hot water via insulated pipes to keep the compressor outside or anywhere the noise won't be a problem. Mr. Cool (and others) make DIY mini split heat pumps to help you maximise energy utilization and keep the NAS/PCs nice and chilly year round. Obviously some of the heat flow will change during different temperatures. Good Luck! (BTW PFideo is an alternate German spelling for Video ;) )

[@Steamrick]

As a German - no it is most certainly not an alternate spelling.

[@ekjswim]

+1 to this. A heat pump water heater will/wouldve happily taken the heat in that room and used it to make your hot water. I think I've heard of commercial style heat pumps to move heat within buildings, but the water heater could've been an easy win.

[@ccxy]

I’m also Team heat pump! The pump takes the energy out of hot air and releasing cool air to the room. The heat could other go to the pool or the house. Also head pumps are crazy efficient!

[@RolandKontson]

Condensation should be accounted for.

[@111smd]

a heat pump would be the most efficient way to move heat in the first place as you do not need much difference in temp for it to work -difference in air temp

[@TheMelbournelad]

5:10 *laughing in Australian*

[@muhammadaimanbinedham6336]

Asian laughing menacingly

[@LunaWuna]

Australian here, you often have to spray the ground with water just to walk on it during summer lmao

[@smmmokin]

Since I subbed, Linus has now gotten very very good at making me want to watch every video. His comment on WAN show saying they forget people want to know whats going on is very true. Love the house videos that pay for his well deserved house.

[@HowieDue416]

I strongly appreciate the good old BC boys saying the Canadian units of measurement and absolutely not hiding being from the best province of the best country in the world. Sincerely A guy from Toronto

[@AlejandroFerrariMc]

Man, as an HVAC and BMS designer, there's so much I'd like to do to this setup... It gets me excited that you're doing this.

[@alexlacey9808]

I just don’t understand why he didn’t just put a small mini split ac in the room. There’s clearly a lot of heat generating equipment and with the 20 degree temp split from inside to outside during the winter and even less split in the summer I don’t see this working out well.

[@AlejandroFerrariMc]

@@alexlacey9808 yes that would work. But if you wanted to stick to the idea of no mechanical cooling, I would get a small HVAC fan-coil unit (which are literally just a pre-built coil and a fan, ready to take water) they're pretty cheap and come in a neat small package, also including drainage, to get the condensation out of the coil (which becomes a problem, once you cool down bellow certain temps) . They could also install one of these units outside to dump the heat out, if the heat exchange of the pool wasn't enough to support the load, or a mini cooling tower outside to really take advantage of some, cheap to run, evaporative cooling. So many short and long term, cost effective (but not janky) options to choose from!

[@Albtraum_TDDC]

@@alexlacey9808 yes, didn't he also have the main AC system pass through there? Why not use that?

[@Albtraum_TDDC]

@@AlejandroFerrariMc 1:01 I don't understand why not use the AC? It's already there and works with better efficiency than your "project". You could also use a new small AC that you could move inside the house (output heat in another room) to heat it up in the winter while you cool the basement. In the summer just use the main AC or place the small one's output on the outside of the house.

[@AlejandroFerrariMc]

@@Albtraum_TDDC My ideas were based on the premise of the video "Water cooling my house". Different from "I installed a heat pump" ;)

[@michaelwoods7770]

I’d just love to see Alex show up to a random house with a bucket with a hole in the side and see how that goes.

[@sircod]

Seems like what you really want is to add an air return vent in that room so your HVAC can take the hot air from the mech room and use it to heat the rest of the house. You would also need a vent in the door or something so the mech room can get some cooler air from the rest of the house.

[@1480750]

Good for the winter, less than ideal for the summer

[@louislbnc]

This 100%! Alex alluded to it at the end of the video but it would make a ton of sense to heat the house with the server heat rather than having a complex solution to dump that heat outdoors. Also not sure if Linus is planning on running water blocks to his pool in the Summer because the current air radiator solution won't have much of a temperature difference with the pool water.

[@adoe1748]

Or put a vent output on the AC for that room on a zone gate and get a fresh air intake on zone valve for when it's winter so you don't actually have to turn on the AC. Just use cold fresh air from outside

[@FeedMeAQuarter]

Honestly, even just venting the room to the outside would probably solve overheating 90% of the time. I do stuff like this professionally, residential low voltage and systems integration. We put at least 1 full sized server rack in every house we do and ideally will have a mini-split air conditioner installed in our rack room but even just a fart fan works basically well enough. Plus our systems have amplifiers in them which create more heat than computers.

[@adewilliam9047]

All in my head when I was watching this is "Get an Air Con / Heat Pump, problem solved"

[@eric.l2605]

I use those fittings all the time. They're amazing. They work on copper PVC pex tubing all of the above. Just a suggestion, I noticed you guys use Teflon tape a lot, I've actually found that rectorseal thread sealant works far better! Love the videos guys! Can't wait for more of the home upgrade videos. Love the home tech

[@jarydm87]

Rectorseal? I barley even knew her

[@teardowndan5364]

If you want to heat your pool using your server rack heat, use a liquid-liquid heat pump between your indoor and outdoor loops and use a thermostat in the mechanical room to turn the heat pump on-off as needed to maintain whatever temperature you want.

[@r448191]

When Linus said "How does that work, that's like magic" it was so adorable I wanted to adopt him even though we're about the same age.

[@GregM]

Love the shot of the plumbing zone laid out all nice and neat on the armour plate on the wall compared to this plumbing job. Had a chuckle when Linus was asked about why he did not put the box fan in the door way.

[@4tobybrooks]

As an HVAC dude, I appreciate the craftsmanship and attention to detail your technician put into the furnace install.

[@backacheache]

Could he not use a heat pump to upgrade the heat to do things like heat his hot-water tank, before simply dumping it into the outside air? The concentrated heat would be better for the pool too and the concentrated cold for the computers

[@johnriff85]

@@backacheache I'm not sure that he could get a reasonably sized heat pump that would have the BTU capacity to make a noticable difference. I do commercial refrigeration and HVAC (just a dumb apprentice though), and on some of the refrigeration racks we work on they will use piping from the discharge lines on the compressors to pass through 50-70 gallon water tanks which recovers some of that heat and keep a good supply of hot water available. But that's usually 400-800 lbs of refrigerant that's being used 24/7. So to try to use a residential unit to heat a pool is likely not going to have any effect, and if anything it would cause a whole myriad of issues that get too in depth to explain in a comment.

[@4tobybrooks]

@Neil Carmichael first, residential heat pumps are pretty much a scam unless you have solar, which is pretty much also a scam depending on which company you use. Second, they have hybrid water heaters and heat pump water heaters but no way to include a residential HVAC heat pump in your residential water heater system (that I know of). Heating a pool, if possible, would be entirely too expensive to do with a heat pump. Gas is so much cheaper than electricity, the system itself is cheaper (and less to go wrong). Heat pumps can kiss my ass and if you've got someone that has talked you into a heat pump, go give em a big ol' smack and tell them to get lost. Especially if you're in a colder area, heat pumps like to freeze up when it's cold out (under 40). Also, heat pumps heat isn't any more "concentrated" as, say and 80%er or 90%ers heat concentration. As a matter of fact, it's not as "concentrated." Or more accurately, they create less heat. Actually, they don't create heat, they "relocate it." Heat pump supply air is about 95° at the plenum, furnace is about 115° at the plenum. Gas is also way cheaper than electricity. They trick you into thinking it's saving you money because it takes less energy. True. But they energy it does take costs 8 times as much as gas... by the time you save enough money to make a heat pump worth it, the thing already broke down and you need to spend another 14k for a new one rather than 5k for a conventional system that will last you much longer and be more cost effective. You know that when California is trying to push for heat pumps only, it's a good sign that heat pumps are going to cost you much more in the long run. Alright enough rambling on why heat pumps are utter garbage.

[@backacheache]

@@johnriff85 That seems a shame, just dumping heat into the outside air seems so wasteful when there is something in the building that would benefit it, is that why at sports clubs you see the a/c dumping the heat rather than pumping into the pool?

[@johnriff85]

@@backacheache Correct. The refrigeration cycle is a balancing act, and depending on your understanding of how it works, attempts to transfer heat take a lot of engineering and careful planning. Pools are a good example because they take so much heat to increase the temperature, and water is the medium used to measure BTUs. Pools are most commonly heated with a boiler, and take a lot of energy to keep warm. There's no feasible way a heat pump can do that. Heat pumps work really well under specific conditions, but are not consistent as a main source of heat. Heat pumps for most of the world will work better as a secondary heating solution just for the fact that there's not enough BTUs produced. The other reason behind seeing the heat dumped is because you may mess up the refrigeration cycle by not condensing at the correct time, and slugging your compressor. One of the other reasons is because building things like economizers on a boiler system, or running extra linesets/coils in an attempt to reclaim heat can get really costly, require more refrigerant which is incredibly expensive, and provide one more point of failure with not a lot of benefits. Heat pumps are cool and can work awesome, but just not for this application. If you're interested in learning a bit more then I'd recommend researching latent heat, calculating a heat load with a Manual J calculation, and understanding the refrigeration cycle. All of that plays in to how a system like this has to be built to meet specific criteria, and why idiots hate heat pumps.

[@jdw1018]

You could use a cooling liquid like R134a to make a real heatpump and use presure differentials to get to 'extreme cooling' . I am pretty sure you have some engineers that could make this happen.

[@How3Kiwi]

I’m always surprised how expensive brass fittings are. Even when I know they’re going to be expensive, they somehow cost more than I expect every time I need to buy some.

[@xoso599]

The lines running to the foundation of the pool have more than enough radiative capacity to cool the server room. Although you would need to think about what happens if a cold snap hits that also happens with an electricity loss leaving water filled pipes outside without any flow. So either mix in glycol or have an air compressor you can use to purge the lines of water. The system should work fine out side of summer, and during the peak of summer your house AC can open a vent and dump cool air. The crazy efficiency would be to take the condenser of the AC (the outside part that gets hot) and water cool that feeding into the pool. Although if you did that you would need a bypass switch if you wanted to run your AC has a heat pump for heat in the winter.

[@R0bobb1e]

In the Summer time, you could set the radiator up as an evaporative cooler (basically draping a damp cloth over the outdoor radiator) and then you would have an efficient heat exchange... :)

[@miscme7116]

"...I wanna be buried in LTT Store clothes." Yes, and don't forget that it would make a fine video too. 😂 4:40 I made a similar solution a few years back to my AC unit at home, its outside unit fan motor blew when it was +35C outside and the delivery time for a new motor was 3-4 weeks. I did not want to sleep in the hot bedroom without AC, so I had to come up with a solution quick. I had almost 200 120mm server fans in stock and I used some of them to make a 'fan panel' that I could place inside the outdoor unit to cool the radiator, in place of the big fan and its motor. With an adjustable PSU I got the speed to such that they didn't scream and annoy the neighbors. The idea worked perfectly and the AC worked nicely until the new motor came in. The AC unit had also internal monitoring for the fan motor, it needed to get pulses from it and stopped working if no pulses were detected, or the motor was not connected. I had some small DC motors from another project and 3D printed an attachment and a holder for the broken down motor, so that the small motor could slowly turn it to generate the pulses. It was hot as hell, I had no time or interest to make it any nicer. I noticed that the AC controller did not care about how fast the pulses came in, as long as timeout did not occur. All of this worked and I got the AC running and didn't have to sleep in a hot room for more than one night.

[@Snowwie88]

This makes me wonder if you already knew you would plant a big server somewhere in your basement of your new house (whether this house was already existent or newly build) was it not just more easier to create a wind flow within that basement? A while ago there was a video about the 'daddy' of all fans, but still I believe there could be even bigger fans that could be used to create a constant airflow through your basement and in a perfect world the main server straight in the middle of it.

[@soggybottomboys2792]

whoever did the hvacr load calculations for this house and designed the system should of used a heat recovery chiller you could then use a water source fain coil unit to cool this room.

[@stashthevampede0]

Been waiting for this eventual test for a LONG time. What's next for smaller rooms? Motorcycle rads?

[@WorldRaceMVG]

I remember when Linus and the team water-cooled their entire office which was also a house

[@imagine7408]

14:17 I’m glad he asked that because this whole project always seemed way to complicated to make sense when a box fan and cracking open the door to the server room would give the same result. At least Linus admitted it was for the content 🤣

[@utoracat18]

Thats gonna heat the whole house as well...

[@daveedee3626]

@@utoracat18 It's winter in Canada and they said the outside air temperature was something like 10 degrees C. So I'm betting Linus is paying to heat the house in a more traditional manner anyway. Some non-traditional assistance would help reduce his energy consumption and his utility bills.

[@kevinwetsch5209]

Every time Linus does one of his crazy radiator experiments, I just remind myself that it's always in the name of science.

[@EricHabib]

With the 3D printer on the bench, I feel the need to point out that you can 3D print hose barbs that are very pressure tolerant - which is what I did at home. You know, like 0.30 $ worth of plastic instead of 300$ worth of fittings.

[@SavageNasty253]

universal radiator fans. normally water resistant. normally cheap. Normally powerful enough and simple. Manual transmission radiators or just plumb the automatic trans cooler inline with the rest. gmt800/900 have a good radiator design. love the jank videos. that could serve an outside solution for the time being and give it cover. the universal radiator fans are normally very splash resistant. Run them slow outside and boom. maximum jank.

[@CanularRadio]

:)

[@pyroo3]

i don't know if someone different from usual edited this, but it's done very well. sometimes i have a hard time watching through a whole video but this one went by real fast and some of the edits added to the video

[@bennyryan35]

me an hvac service tech seeing the boiler set up and just drooling. wish all installs were that beautiful

[@garretbacon659]

I do work for a lot of data centers threw out the US and they also use passive cooling from a building they call a chilling tower where the have it all exposed so that the air from outside can cool it with massive fans above to keep airflow going

[@AecherJace]

The bane of my existence when they inevitably blow not just the building breaker but the distribution one as well. My system is not well maintained...

[@adamreisenauer3141]

Lets go! Thanksgiving LTT Video. Love you Linus!!!!

[@sarahsaffel9955]

if it's 5c outside, why not just complete the water cooled pool loop since the pipe seems to be already in under the shotcrete. Moving ambient air should cool enough with that much surface area even without water in the pool. Worth a test anyway. Oh, that gets explained. Wow, that's a huge mess up from the plumber. :S

[@EspyMelly]

Alex is the king of knowing a ton about technical stuff but having 0 fear of coming up with the most jank duct-taped together solution for any problem that should usually require expensive specialized equipment.

[@HackerToad73]

Haha Alex is so annoyed with Linus' answer to opening the door. The frustrated, red faced glance into the central cooling was hilarious.

[@WetPumpkin]

Its always gonna be something big and important if alex is there and its gonna be temporary if someone is wearing a flex seal hat

[@furblokeEN]

9:30 Me a plumber being humbled by Linus realising the little things that make my job cool. He has the life bro

[@mnf65]

Hey Linus ever consider a Mini Split. I built a small room around my rack and installed a mini split in the room. The room is a consistent 60 degrees year round!!!

[@dreisday]

Linus: this room is warm… let’s water cool the whole room! Rest of the world: That’s just AC Several years later… Linus: This rack is hot and we don’t have a pool to dump it into… so let’s run chilled water to a whole rack! The Navy: we’ve been doing this shit for years!

[@iamxero]

You could just get a minisplit for that room.... If it becomes more of an issue

[@ChillyFries444]

5:12 , so nice of you to acknowledge that, it was 46 C here until a few days ago. 34 now feels POSITIVELY COOL 😢😅

[@TheTrainWatch]

Two things, in the winter, the outdoor radiator should probably be as close as possible to the heat pump to increase heat pump capacity. Second, I see the hot water heater is also in the mech room. It would be interesting to see a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger be used to pre-heat water going into the hot water heater.

[@spldrong]

Just install a ground loop outside, like a geothermal system

[@axelBr1]

It's good that Linus has realised that his 26C pool water isn't going to cool the room to 22C in the summer, but I'm waiting for the episode when he finds out that the outdoor exchanger is cooling the water to about 5C above the outdoor air temperature, and what happens when the outside air temperature falls below freezing.

[@CT_Taylor]

pressurize it ;)

[@Sandriell]

Moving water doesn't freeze very easily and being steadily heated from the the server room, it should not freeze unless it gets abnormally cold outside.

[@axelBr1]

@@Sandriell Well, in the old days, my dad would put cardboard in front of the car radiator to prevent it freezing and that was in the south of England, hardly known for being abnormally cold. Plus radiators have narrow channels, which, while having a high flow rate, will easily block.

[@CT_Taylor]

also we havent even mentioned that if he uses a light mix of antifreeze(he shouldnt run straight water in a closed loop anyway) the freezing temp can be lowered good amount and the efficiency loss wont be a lot. ALso, as said, blocking off the air flow would help some, and then also pressurizing + the flow would all help

[@axelBr1]

@@CT_Taylor That (antifreeze) was what I was getting at. Only a slight health risk as it's not a sealed system (open bucket for the expansion tank). Plus the joints have to be tight as it finds every gap to leak out of.

[@prjndigo]

Correct installation position to cool a room using liquid is down-flow air on an almost horizontal radiator a foot over head height or about 40cm below ceiling.

[@Sivanot]

the first two frames of this video is fantastic

[@RJMin2]

Just get a ductless mini split. Tons of electrical and server rooms use them for cooling. Get one with a variable speed compressor and you'll hold precise temps in there all year long.

[@josephbohme7917]

You guys are often.... so novice in practical stuff... like asking Einstein to build a boat

[@tucsonrides4851]

5k and a mini split. solved. but no video lol could also just duct heat into the house lmao

[@jaedinalways1535]

Hi, HVAC tech here. If he had taken the box fan and put it in the door, the thermal load of the computers would have contributed to his cooling/heating load. This could actually result in energy savings during the winter, but during the summer would have resulted in a higher load on his AC. Due to the relatively high thermal difference, the water-cooling method shown here should be much more energy efficient on a per watt basis at removing heat than the active refrigeration of the AC, not to mention that it will be much easier for the AC to maintain even temperatures throughout the house. It could be beneficial long term to add a y-valve with one radiator in his duct system to dump the heat into the house during the heating season, and one radiator outside to dump the heat into the outside air during the cooling season as shown in the video.

[@VetBodGaming]

You just need to cave in and run a mini split into that room. It's just the best option and you could use the existing holes from the pipes.

[@jbl2232]

Eaxactly. But then Linux wouldn't get to monetize this "janky" shit LOL

[@kimashi]

btw, if either side of the fitting is brass you don't need teflon tape even for pneumatic things. it's a soft enough metal that it seals by itself

[@TheTechAdmin]

7:59 Incase anyone ever asks you to show a 10 second clip that best describes Linus Tech Tips; you can just direct them here.

[@Crazyboyki]

6:42 Linus sounds just like Jonny Dept "well i didn't think of it obviously" Im crying XD

[@tristshapez]

Linus: "The worst case scenerio is my house floods and catches on fire at the same time" Sounds terrifying xD

[@HossLUK]

Who else remembers the original room watercooling video in the old house?

[@RJeezyATB]

The part about $300 nearly killed me from laughter.

[@RJeezyATB]

The zip ties being thrown to tighten loose tubes LOL

[@imoosemaster3087]

31 degrees in a basement is genuinely insane Linus.