cooling technologies [RE-wrenches]

[Geoff Greenfield]

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Thanks Ron, Todd, Christopher etc -

I will definitely check out the Santa Fe - and of course I am now curious
about the "pints per hour" of the AC options listed.  No matter what (watt?)
I would need to upgrade my limping along off grid system ("physician heal
thyself") to handle the power needs.  When it is 90 degrees outside, our
inside temp (downstairs on the slab) is in mid seventies - so maybe I DONT
need an AC (or HP), just a dehumidifier.  I never really thought about the
"boost" in efficiency of cooling the condenser.  Hmmmm  I need to get a
rocket science intern to run some modeling to see what makes the most sense
for my application.

Earth Tubes defiantly are problematic based on anecdotal stories (as are
rock bed storage schemes etc).  The devil is in the details, and mold is a
bad thing.  I had an engineering professor ask me about the wisdom of
putting a heat pump condenser in a buried concrete vault - (Air coupled
geothermal?).  My gut reaction was that air was a poor heat transfer medium
and that, even with the buried vault walls being cool the air would heat up
quickly and efficiency would be worse than on the south side of a house
(where I see WAY too many AC condensers!).

So far I am most excited about Christopher's tale of condensation adventure
down in de islands mon.  My own low-tec water coupled dehumidifier (hell
it's an AC unit)!  I like that!  I've even got most of the parts lying
around.  Could even use the guts of a flat plate collector, or finned
baseboard units.  I'm even thinking of a logic circuit to keep from running
water if I can't hit the dew point.... Hmmmm... flow rates? surface area?
fan speed? How much duct tape and bailing wire...  this should be a cool
project-Wish me luck!

For a brighter energy future,

Geoff Greenfield
NABCEP Certified Energy Practitioner

THIRD SUN SOLAR & WIND POWER Ltd.
340 West State Street
Athens, OH 45701

www.third-sun.com
(740) 597-3111


------------------------------

Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 17:56:44 +0000
From: Ron Schroeder <wd8cdh at optonline.net>
Subject: RE: cooling technologies




geoff at third-sun.com wrote:
>
<snip>
> Am I right to conclude that a dehumidifier is just an air conditioner
> that
> dumps heat inside the house?

Hi Geoff,

Not quite, it's an air conditioner that dumps the cold air from the
evaporator on to the condenser to improve the efficiency.  An actual
dehumidifier will use a lot less electricity than just using a window
A/C compleatly inside of the house.

I would look for a dehumidifier with the best pints/hr and lowest watts
used plus a small high SEER split-mini system.  I think the Fujitsu
Split-Mini heat pump is an SEER of 21, higher than any A/C only units.

Ron Schroeder
EES
WD8CDH
Brookhaven National Lab
NABCEP Certified Energy Practitioner

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