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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

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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

Thanks, hoping that your back of the napkin math is in the correct ballpark, 10-20% lowering of cooling bills sounds very lucrative to me.

And I owe a clarification after reading your analysis since I'm not hoping to achieve any geothermal gains by heat transfer between water tank and ground. I'm assuming that the water will heat up as it cools the room down. But since fresh water is supplied periodically and this fresh water is relatively cool, it will keep the cooling cycle running. I will try to build the tank in shade and isolated from direct heat of the sun as far as possible.