Saturday, September 11, 2021

Geothermal system for climate control



This is an idea that I've toyed around with in the past. The idea, not the implementation. Implementation would require a lot of digging, which I don't have the notion to be doing just yet.

The idea here is to use 3/4 inch water pipe routed to a radiator type arrangement. The water pipe would have to transit to 10 feet underground, where it will be cooled down and then routed through the radiator at ground level for the cooling effect.

Evaluating the thing leads me to some skepticism as to its effectiveness. The heat exchange between the ground and the water pipe has to take place during that 400 foot length of pipe. If the heat exchange of that magnitude is feasible in that period, then maybe it can work. However, you have to move the water at a high rate to make much of an impact.

I've been told that a 1 hp water pump can move 1500 gallons per hour. At that rate, the water can transit the entire length of tube once over 7 seconds or so. It's moving at a high rate of speed. That also means that the heat exchange between the ground has to be occuring at a high rate of speed too. Count me skeptical there.

Nevertheless, it could be a starting point. The dude doesn't mention a water reservoir. I think that a 2000 gallon reservoir could exchange all the water in a little more than an hour. If so, it will have had time to do a heat exchange with the ground, but that is still a lot of heat movement in a short period of time. It may work for an hour or two, but not all day is what I'm thinking.



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