Night AC

[Stormin Mormon]

I had an idea while back. To take a 275 gal oil tank. Cause they are often free for the taking. Use an AC during the night to chill the contents (oil, or perhaps water). Using an evaporator within the tank. Insulate the tank, of course.

Daytime, either circulate the cold water through radiators with fans, or use another AC with the condensor in the tank.

That way, you'd be moving the BTUs outdoors at night when it's colder, and the unit wouldn't work as hard.

Seems like it would save money, dumping the heat at night.

[jamesgangnc]

The losses of the 2nd exchange process would outweigh your savings during the day. The better solution is geo thermal which involves about the same level of complexity in the system as what you are describing.

[.p.jm.]

It's called thermal banking.

If you want to go around taking used oil tanks of people's hands, I'm sure you'll be very popular. Usually they pay thousands to get rid of them, since they are considred to be hazardous waste. Will one fit in or on your Pinto ?

Have you bothered to figure out how much cooling capacity you could store in one ? I'm sure you haven't.

What temperatures do you think you're going to run it at ? Have you even thought about that ? How warm will you allow it to get during the day ? How cold will you pull it down at night ? How will you convince a high-temp refrigeration cycle system to do that ?

How are you going to get your coil in the tank through that little 2 inch hole ? How are you going to circulate the water past it ?

Unless you're on a time-of-day metering plan, which I'm sure you're not,

[Stormin Mormon]

Moving the heat the second time, that's a concern. I wonder if it's possible to AC using chilled water or glycol. I've heard that's done in large buildings. If it were practical, someone would do it already.

[The Daring Dufas]

Systems already exist commercially. It's an insulated box with lines going through it to freeze the water at night when the cost of power is lower. They work well in places where the price of power is determined by the time of day and demand. Years ago a university built a giant ice bank under the campus that basically produced a giant iceberg during the winter months and during the summer they would dump heat back into it. It was described in one of the Popular Science/Mechanics magazines. I'm sure there's a lot of data online about the efficiency of such systems.

TDD

[.p.jm.]

He didn't say anything about freezing now, did he ? :-) Think about it ....

Google 'thermal banking' and 'ice balls'.

[The Daring Dufas]

You don't think Stormy will freeze his balls?

TDD

[.p.jm.]

Lord knows he's got some ....

[Stormin Mormon]

Sounds like a good idea. In the early days of US, they used to harvest ice from ponds during winter, and keep it in ice houses.

[Stormin Mormon]

Might explain why I'm single, and how I walk. What kind of a doctor would I visit?

[Alexander]

You can use Fluorocarbon 75 or Fluorocarbon 77. Both stay liquid and have enormous capabilities of transferring heat and cold. You may have to sell your pinto to buy this stuff though. It ain't cheap. You might be able to siphon some of this out of the odd F16 weapons system though.

[Hermann]

Gotta have-em before you can freezem. ;-)

[Alexander]

Still doing it in the 1950's as commercial systems were too expensive for large users in small towns. Dry ice was also available at every Butcher shop.

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[Alexander]

There use to be a fellow from one of the Canadian Islands that had a dugout filled with large plastic barrels of water. He left both ends open year around. In the winter the things froze solid and in the summer ,when it got too hot he opened the downwind side to allow the frozen air to drift through the house. He posted here about once a week due to thats the only time he ran a generator. That was back when this group was full of piss and vinegar. Now the vinegar is gone. ;-)

[Alexander]

A veterinarian! They do a wonderful job of neutering Cats and Dogs.

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[AC]

Good night!

[.p.jm.]

Nurse !

[Stormin Mormon]

Good day !

[HVAC]

I went to that site and they are claiming that Jesus was gay. Is that true?

[TimR]

There are lots of good ideas like this out there.

Few of them work well in residential. At work we just installed a system with a cooling tower, a water loop through the building, and individual water-to-air heat pumps in the spaces. We'll see how it works over time.

One idea that should work in residential with minor modifications is to use the waste condenser heat to produce domestic hot water. You're paying to move all that heat outside your house, then you throw it away, while you pay more to heat water for your showers and laundry. Hot water should be free for anybody with AC.