# Free home cooling idea - will this work?



## mperkel (Jun 28, 2011)

I have an idea for a home cooling system that I'm designing and I'd like to get some feedback as to if you all think this will work. The idea is to get (nearly) free cooling based on two things.

1) Storing the cool night temperature in water/concrete and using that the next day.

2) Some evaporative cooling.

I live in Gilroy California. Hot dry days and usually cool nights. Generally low humidity. Temps can be in the 100 to 110 range from late june to september. However at night it goes down to 50 to 60.

Here's the idea. I get 180 concrete blocks measuring 6"x8"x16" arranged with holes aligned horizontally and stacked 4 wide, 18 long, and 5 high. About 9000 pounds of concrete. The structure is enclosed in a way so that air can be blown through the structure. Air would travel through the left two vertical columns, turn around at the end, and come back through the right two columns. 

The basic simplified idea is to blow the cool night air through at night chilling the blocks down. Then in the day time circulate air through them into the house cooling the home.

Additionally, I'm thinking about a system to wet the concrete blocks (soaker hoses) so that at night evaporative cooling will chill the concrete even further giving me colder and wetter concrete with more thermal mass from the water. Then in the daytime I will get some additional evaporative cooling.

Concrete blocks work like a sponge absorbing water and can then deliver evaporative cooling into the air. It won't be as good as a swamp cooler but will work somewhat.

So - am I nuts or onto something?


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## kartheekus (Jun 12, 2011)

*design help*

Dear pal,
There are so many ways here the one. Concrete blocks etc will cost
you more. You design a box with a high static pressure fan, in which you
accommodate some portion for cell-deck pads with cool water spray.
Then as you said you will have good source for cool water try to
store in a puf insulated tank. spray the cool water on cell-deck pads or
and arrange the puf tank on the tpo of the unit top and allow cool water
to fall with gravity over cell-deck pads. your results will be still good.
the cell-deck pads will have more affinity to keep wet. This is very cheap.

This is all most like a air washer. In both the ways your and mine
RH will be high.


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## refermadness (Jun 23, 2011)

just buy an evaporation cooler and save headaches


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