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.
Someone with more experience can correct me, but I doubt you’ll get enough energy transfer via the radiator in the house.
I think you’d get a lot more mileage out of an attic fan. Keeping the attic cooler during the day will slow the heating of the house.
You may also want to take a look at better roofing materials. There are roofing materials designed to reflect more of the sun’s energy as well as radiate what heat does get absorbed better than others.
https://www.energystar.gov/products/cool_roofs_emissivity
I have been considering newer construction materials and the trouble is that most of the material available online is either research papers or companies selling it: both of which only talk good things about it.
I liked one such tech and intend to seek and meet people who are living in houses made using it. That should definitely assuage my doubts.