this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Do It Yourself

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Can I pick your collective brains about an idea for a home cooling solution that I have thought of? (discuss.tchncs.de)
submitted 1 year ago by DontNoodles@discuss.tchncs.de to c/diy@beehaw.org
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I'm planning to construct a home sometime in the near future in hot, arid part of the country. Obviously, keeping the home cool is a major concern and I've been considering all available options.

One of the recurrent ideas discussed online is using geothermal cooling. But I think I don't have enough land to implement it. I have a related idea though.

Water supplied during set hours of the day by the municipality is fairly cool even during the summer months and it is a common practice around here to first let it collect in an underground tank and then pump it to the overhead tank as needed.

What if I create a closed loop system of circulating water with two car radiators: one in the underground tank, submerged in cool water and another in the living area of the home with a fan blowing behind it.

Do you think it'll cause perceptible change in room temperature if there is, say, a temperature difference of 10 degrees Celsius between water and ambiance? I intend it to only reduce the load on the air conditioners and/or just delay the use of AC.

What kind of math/physics will be needed to assess if this is a feasibility? I tried looking hard but could not find anyone else discussing this idea, so I'm reaching out to you guys.

Thank you for your time.

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[–] DontNoodles@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

Thank you for your reply. It has given me the factors to consider and the terms to look for. I'm going to cross verify the values you have quoted and if it is indeed as bleak, I'll just temper my expectations.

But I'm not giving up on it totally yet. What I'm still not sure is how geothermal cooling can provide more heat exchange as compared to the system I'm proposing. At most geothermal systems also only have a few tens on meters of piping underground.