Maybe maybe, or rarely, vs "surely no." An average family might use 50K Btu/day of hot water, like a 5K Btu/h window AC running 10 hours per day, or less, on the hot side, but I'm hoping this thing can work all year in a damp basement, vs the mere 1-2 weeks per year of AC we need near Phila.
Nick
============ coliforms?
The volume of water in the pipe is ((inner dia./2) x pi) x length, so assuming a large 1" inner dia. x 10' would equal (1/2 x 3.141592...) x 120 = 188.4955 cu. in., 1 US gallon is 231 cu. in., so that 10' pipe is about
0.816 gallons. I don't know how long or how big the water supply pipes are in the apartment, but I stand by my statement - after pumping just a few gallons, you'd be getting hot water out of the cold water taps. (That's assuming the apartment manager hasn't installed a heat trap that restricts backflow from the water heater - that would mean no circulation.)But that heat is normally wasted *outdoors,* not circulated back into the house, where it defeats the whole purpose of an air conditioner. To make matters worse, the output from an AC desuperheater is normally near 110 degrees F, and water heaters are normally set 120 to 145 degrees F. And as that hotter water moves into the un-insulated cold water pipes, it radiates even more heat into the living space you are trying (and failing) to cool.
Then take into consideration the water wasted when tenants find their cold water taps now running hot, and the power needed to pump and purify said water...
You sound just like "nicksanspam".
CM
The adaptive controller precools the thermal mass of one apartment during times of large hot water usage by all. The dumper dumps some hot water down the drain in the rare event that the incoming cold water temp rises to some predetermined threshold, eg 80 F. If somebody wants colder water during this rare event, they can wait a bit.
That pipe volume is likely minimal and irrelevant, IMO, compared to the amount of cold water in the bottom of a water heater tank. Hot water gets ever-so-gently pushed back into the water heater, not the cold water pipes.
Nick
I don't know why the OP wants to spend all his time and money on something that not only won't work, but will most likely get him evicted too. I was in Sams Club yesterday and they had a window shaker for *LESS* than the price of a service call.....even had an 18,000btu unit for less than $275!! Seems that if there is no A/C in the guys apartment, and the management won't put it in, and won't approve window units, then he has 2 options... a mini-split, or MOVE. If I was the owner/landlord and some bonehead started screwing with the plumbing in my building, not only would he be out on his ass, but he would also be facing civil and criminal charges, not to mention paying to have everything put back to its original configuration.
management
options... a
3.141592...) x 120I simply ass-u-me d that being as how he's trying to rig something that he figures he can do for little to nothing, when in reality, its gonna cost a lot more than a window shaker for $77, that he surely won't spend the $$$ for a spot cooler. maybe I'm wrong, I would love to be proved wrong, but I don't believe that it going to happen.
What makes you think it won't heat water with half the usual energy, with free AC as a side benefit?
The best I've seen so far this year is a $69 5340 Btu/h 10.2 SEER Daewoo at a local Shop-Rite supermarket. I wonder what Costco's selling.
Nick
Read any of the last few posts I've made, and you'll find that I've already settled on an alternative plan (read in one of the groups other than alt.HVAC, I stopped posting there). If I use something similar to what Nick is talking about, it will just be a regular desuperheater. That might happen in my OWN house, but not at this apartment.
management
options... a
What I'm going to be using is fairly similar to a mini-split. It's similar at least in the fact that most of the equipment goes outside, and the air handling unit goes inside. I was originally looking at those marine water-circulating ACs and portable water-cooled AC's. But recently, I found a nice 36,000 BTU swimming pool heat pump (reversible) for about a grand. It's really not that big, and I'm putting it outside. Small flexible water/glycol lines run inside, in a closed loop. Right now I'm working on making a semi-aesthetic enclosure to mount a fan-assisted radiator in.
The nice part about a water/glycol system like this is that it's easy to seperate into different zones, each with different flow rates of water/glycol. Also, I could install a large tank of water for additional thermal mass. Then, the compressor cycles are longer and farther in between. The indoor temperature can be maintained at a constant level by adjusting the flow rate of water, if that is even necessary.
If the tank of water was really large, I could even slow down the indoor air-handling units at night, but continue to cool the water tank all night. Electricity is cheaper at night, plus the AC would have an easier time cooling the water to a given temperature, since the outdoor temperature is lower at night long. I have a feeling I won't make a tank big enough to really take advantage of this benefit, though. It would require space that I just don't have.
And regarding the comment about spot cooling: as I said multiple times, I already have a 10,000 BTU portable unit. I doesn't work very well (probably because the exhaust air creates a vacuum inside, and sucks hot air in from cracks in the window/door gaskets).
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