4 ms·

I wish this was an option for home scale, using solar generation to create the ice during the day, for cooling needs at night. I live in the desert, so no short

by jmpman 3y ago

I wish this was an option for home scale, using solar generation to create the ice during the day, for cooling needs at night. I live in the desert, so no shortage of solar energy, but require cooling at night. A Tesla power wall couldn’t fulfill my nighttime cooling needs for a reasonable price, but a huge block of ice, would be a perfect thermal battery.

bradknowles 3y ago
There are these things called "ice bears". Could they be what you're looking for? See https://inhabitat.com/efficient-ice-battery-provides-247-coo https://inhabitat.com/efficient-ice-battery-provides-247-coo... for one article.
- dragontamer 3y ago
  Ice Bear went out of business years ago. https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/thermal-storage-evangelist-ice-energy-files-for-bankruptcy https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/thermal-storage... They tried... and failed... to make this a successful business. Maybe in a few years when people become aware of the technological possibilities. Turns out a 500 gallon vat of water can store a lot of cooling / energy, and its not so expensive to make either. ------- The name and technology has been sold. Maybe they'll reappear in a few years?
turtlebits 3y ago
Hook up a chest freezer (or multiple) to solar, then use radiant tubing to distribute the cold water at night. Or better yet, superinsulate your house, cool your entire house with solar during the day and it should stay cool enough overnight.
- Scoundreller 3y ago
  And in winter time, put liquid water in that freezer, when it freezes, dump the ice outside, repeat. With enough milk jugs and a long enough time period, you won’t even have much of a water bill. The neighbours might complain about your “unsightly” pile of water jugs, but you’re saving the world while they’re destroying it.
shrubble 3y ago
You could look at the IcyBalls, heat goes on one side and cooling is on the other side. I guess you could point a Fresnel lens at the hot side and eliminate any need for electricity? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icyball https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icyball
- j-a-a-p 3y ago
  That is gas absorption cooling. Will work with the sun on, but then, why not stick to solar panels.
pengaru 3y ago
No abundant well water for evaporative cooling?
- Implicated 3y ago
  As someone who grew up with evap cooling in the desert - it's effectiveness really falls off quickly > 90 degrees f or so. I have no citations, this is just my experience, but 95+ degree days I was dropping bags of ice into the evap coolers basin and spraying it with (cool) well pumped water to help cool down the air as it came into the home. So, while maybe you could continuously cycle cool water into it, most places where it's getting that hot don't have abundant supplies of fresh cool water. In my experience.
  - pengaru 3y ago
    I think it just greatly depends on the implementation, your unit may have been undersized? Out by my place near Joshua Tree National Park most the homes and establishments use evap coolers. On the extremely hot days I'll usually go to the public library in town that has an appropriately sized modern evaporative system cooling the entire facility. It seems like no matter how hot it gets outside, it's cold in the library. The staff wear long sleeves or even jackets in the peak of summer, it's kind of funny juxtaposed against 115F outdoor temps. They just don't work when humid, we don't generally have that problem here, not even at night. We're also lucky to have abundant water underground, however ancient it may be. One could argue it's inappropriate to squander that water on cooling though, I might even agree with that argument. But with all the illegal agriculture going on in the vicinity (massive weed grows) I think cooling is the least of our water wasting problems...
- j-a-a-p 3y ago
  Interesting thought. In a desert it might be an issue, but normally a desert cools down at night a lot, if not then is that because of the humidity? If there is a high humidity, then evap will fall short.
j-a-a-p 3y ago
There are air to water heatpumps. Usually for heating, but many also support cooling. And water can be buffered, that's common practice with heatpump heating anyway. Perhaps also use a buffering style deployment like floor heating, then you active the thermal mass of the building. So, I should be possible to solve this with off the shelve components, if you want to go beyond the traditional air to air airconditioners.

by jmpman 3y ago

bradknowles 3y ago

There are these things called "ice bears". Could they be what you're looking for? See https://inhabitat.com/efficient-ice-battery-provides-247-coo https://inhabitat.com/efficient-ice-battery-provides-247-coo... for one article.

dragontamer 3y ago
Ice Bear went out of business years ago. https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/thermal-storage-evangelist-ice-energy-files-for-bankruptcy https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/thermal-storage... They tried... and failed... to make this a successful business. Maybe in a few years when people become aware of the technological possibilities. Turns out a 500 gallon vat of water can store a lot of cooling / energy, and its not so expensive to make either. ------- The name and technology has been sold. Maybe they'll reappear in a few years?

turtlebits 3y ago

Hook up a chest freezer (or multiple) to solar, then use radiant tubing to distribute the cold water at night. Or better yet, superinsulate your house, cool your entire house with solar during the day and it should stay cool enough overnight.

Scoundreller 3y ago
And in winter time, put liquid water in that freezer, when it freezes, dump the ice outside, repeat. With enough milk jugs and a long enough time period, you won’t even have much of a water bill. The neighbours might complain about your “unsightly” pile of water jugs, but you’re saving the world while they’re destroying it.

shrubble 3y ago

You could look at the IcyBalls, heat goes on one side and cooling is on the other side. I guess you could point a Fresnel lens at the hot side and eliminate any need for electricity? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icyball https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icyball

j-a-a-p 3y ago
That is gas absorption cooling. Will work with the sun on, but then, why not stick to solar panels.

pengaru 3y ago

No abundant well water for evaporative cooling?

Implicated 3y ago
As someone who grew up with evap cooling in the desert - it's effectiveness really falls off quickly > 90 degrees f or so. I have no citations, this is just my experience, but 95+ degree days I was dropping bags of ice into the evap coolers basin and spraying it with (cool) well pumped water to help cool down the air as it came into the home. So, while maybe you could continuously cycle cool water into it, most places where it's getting that hot don't have abundant supplies of fresh cool water. In my experience.
- pengaru 3y ago
  I think it just greatly depends on the implementation, your unit may have been undersized? Out by my place near Joshua Tree National Park most the homes and establishments use evap coolers. On the extremely hot days I'll usually go to the public library in town that has an appropriately sized modern evaporative system cooling the entire facility. It seems like no matter how hot it gets outside, it's cold in the library. The staff wear long sleeves or even jackets in the peak of summer, it's kind of funny juxtaposed against 115F outdoor temps. They just don't work when humid, we don't generally have that problem here, not even at night. We're also lucky to have abundant water underground, however ancient it may be. One could argue it's inappropriate to squander that water on cooling though, I might even agree with that argument. But with all the illegal agriculture going on in the vicinity (massive weed grows) I think cooling is the least of our water wasting problems...
j-a-a-p 3y ago
Interesting thought. In a desert it might be an issue, but normally a desert cools down at night a lot, if not then is that because of the humidity? If there is a high humidity, then evap will fall short.

j-a-a-p 3y ago

There are air to water heatpumps. Usually for heating, but many also support cooling. And water can be buffered, that's common practice with heatpump heating anyway. Perhaps also use a buffering style deployment like floor heating, then you active the thermal mass of the building. So, I should be possible to solve this with off the shelve components, if you want to go beyond the traditional air to air airconditioners.