its double glazed on the visible sides and insulated on the back with polystyrene panels.If I breathe real hard on the glass I can just about get it to mist up.
Putting a chiller in the attic
- Thread starter dolfans1
- Start date
I've got an idea. Actually more of a concept. I wonder if there's a reliable way to build a small holding tank and bury it underground. It would be like a sump, but only to store water. You'd need a way to thermostatically control the pump for it. Anyone see what I'm getting at? I can't imagine this not being theoretically possible. The temperature should stay rather cool year round, and it won't freeze in FL.
Wow what a neat idea...a geothermal chiller...absolutely no energy use for the cooling part...just the pump that runs it.. normal ground temp is what around 65?...
I,ve seen people use this method for heating and cooling a home, but never thought about it for a chiller...
i've seen people use geothermal cooling to cool their tanks, but not actually have a buried tank. Up here in the northern parts of CT, the ground temperature is 52*s F. That would be way too cold to have something like an underground tank running all the time unless you are planning on doing a coldwater.
Actual geothermal is probably a better idea as it is easier to control and pinpoint the temperature instead of just cooling the entire tank all the time.
However it might be a little more practical in the warmer climates
Actual geothermal is probably a better idea as it is easier to control and pinpoint the temperature instead of just cooling the entire tank all the time.
However it might be a little more practical in the warmer climates
I wonder if you could constantly pump the cold water though a copper pipe wrapped around a vinyl tube or something. Have tank water pumped through that tube rigged to a thermostat somehow. That way the cold water is always pumping, not into the tank, and your tank water only goes through when needed. It's kinda the opposite of a chiller. Instead of the water always flowing and the chiller running when needed, you have the "chiller" running all the time, and the water running only as needed. If you think about it you're always running a pump with either method so no extra energy there, but the other is only running as needed. A pump has to use far less energy then a chiller, even though it would need to run more.
You would have to rig a pump to a temp. alert sensor with some logic to turn on a pump for your tank water to circulate. Seems like a good idea those geo systems are ussually just some pipes run deep into the ground (about 30 feet) or a system of pipes run into a nearby pond. you could try to get an auger to bore down about 10-15 feet and see what you get.
I've seriously seen threads using that idea of a very long length of copper tubing buried underground to water-cool a computer's CPU. It shouldnt be too hard to google a schematic to make a temperature controlled relay, that could switch on a pump.
Found one such idea, even uses an aquarium pump too: http://home.comcast.net/~pelikan/
