Alternative Cooling Method for Fishroom

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kokosnood

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 3, 2009
156
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Santa Ynez, CA
Like I said in an earlier post; I am in the planning stages for turning a 12' x 20' leanto structure into a fishroom. I think heating will be easy; but I think cooling could be a real problem in summer.

Has anyone heard of burying thin walled pipes a couple feet under ground; to a depth where the ground stays cool--then running the system water thru these buried pipes for the purpose of cooling?

Would this work? How much cooling could one achieve? Am I nuts for thinking of this? I am going to have my tanks on a central system; and I want to avoid the electricity use and initial cost of a chiller if possible.
 
Effectiveness would depend on the ground temp and contact time. I wouldn't know where to begin to figure that one.

For cooling, most tend to just go with an AC unit and cool the room, not the water.
 
Pharaoh;3703948; said:
Effectiveness would depend on the ground temp and contact time. I wouldn't know where to begin to figure that one.

For cooling, most tend to just go with an AC unit and cool the room, not the water.
Click to expand...

My electric bill in summer is already too high...I'd like to avoid another AC if possible.
 
Yes if you have water circulating in a pipe that runs underground that is cooler then the room temp the heat will be transfered to the ground.

As for how much i have no idea but the higher the surface area (smaller dia pipes) the better the heat transfer.
 
It is called geothermal cooling.
 
I saw someone try this for a water cooler for his computer, but he buried copper piping in concert slab. I don't think his method would work well for cooling a fish tank since a computer only needs to be cooled to around 40C - 65C to be in the safe range.

I think the cost would be very high, you would need to bury the piping deep and would need a lot of contact time. If you do this I hope you post a thread about it so we can all get information.
 
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