I built a geothermal air conditioner for my shed

UPDATE I dug a NEW and IMPROVED WELL: • I dug a 40 foot well i... .
This is part 2 of my geothermal well install (Part 1 is here: • How to drive a well us... ) where I connect up the heat exchanger and water pressure tank to my well and pump.
Water worker pre-charged blue well tank: amzn.to/3U2iIHm

[@getoutgadabout3423]

I have to ask you a couple questions. 1 is the well pump you intend to use have a 100% duty cycle and how many amps does it draw. 2 the amount of water you will need to flow for that much btu transfer is going to be way more then that fountain will hold. Maybe dig a second well 20 feet away and pump the water back down. It’s an ambitious project and kudos for the effort. I think a minisplit unit would probably be more efficient between the fan and the amount of amps the pump will have to draw to push the amount of water you are going to need.

[@johnassal5838]

I'd want to hear those numbers as well but I'm not sure how much water flow he needs. A mini split will have a greater operating range while he's stuck with the source temperature of his well water. If he just wants to cool his shed it seems doable and in my area ground water temp ought to be about 60° year round. The key detail though is that water takes substantially more energy to change temp one degree than air as well as being 800 times as dense. Even assuming a less than ideal heat exchanger it's not going to take more than a few gallons a minute to split the temp difference between the ground water and the air even if he's circulating 1000 cfm or more inside. Just my napkin math though.

[@BadHomeowner]

- I haven't measured but I think it will draw maybe ~5amps @110v when pumping. but it draws whatever a 1/2hp electric motor normally draws. - i'm not sure about the 100% duty cycle. but it's job is only to run intermittently when I need water for the yard, not to serve a continuous supply. - yea the fountain will be a 2021 summer project I hope, as long as work isn't too busy. you're right it's not big enough to serve as a sink on its own, I will still have excess water I'll need to figure out what to do with.

[@offgridwanabe]

A temperature regulated valve to control the water flow would help so are sure of the heat exchange by monitoring your inflow temperature compared to the exit water temperature.

[@michaelsmith7425]

Great video, I hope once you get it all finally situated, that you rotate the radiator / fan assembly 90 degrees so it blows and bounces several times off of the walls which act as heat sinks, BEFORE it blows just straight out the open door.

[@shawnd567]

Very cool setup! Keep us up-to-date on any more progress or changes in this.

[@user-fm9be3qm2p]

Great, I was looking for something like this, in Iran we have warm areas where the water reaches 100 degrees in the summer and you can use urban water for bathrooms and toilets, just a little vic tank. Water pump a horse and digital key, I do a water radiator and a city bob fan and my question is whether to connect the pump to the radiate, the pressure comes to the plate pump of a horse for The water outlet? Because the water pipe is 1/2 mm of pvc, thank you for the clip you put

[@johnassal5838]

There's a principle called counterflow that amounts to a noticable improvement if the water outlet of the downwind radiator feeds into the upwind radiator. Maybe you've already got it plumbed that way but it's not clear to me from the vid. It's true the beniffit should get much bigger the higher the T∆ goes but if you're flowing an equal mass of water and air (water being about 800 times as dense) per minute you should see about two thirds of the temperature difference since iirc water takes twice the energy for every degree temp change. By extension it could also be some help heating the space in weather below 60° too as long as the water doesn't freeze.

[@BadHomeowner]

That is indeed how they are hooked up only because I intuitively felt that was the optimal way, but I did not realize there was a technical basis for my decision. Appreciate the info, thanks! It's winter now, but I only ran it when it was 90F+ due to the diminishing returns you describe for small temp deltas.

[@yestervue4697]

I would set this up separately from the house/yard system as a stand-alone. Then, if arranged correctly, convection itself does an amazing job of circulation when in closed loops, he feels enough of a temperature difference by hand that would make it move along wonderfully via convection circulation. The fan/fan array can be set up in a VERY low electrical demand-type/situation and furthered still in efficiency with a thermostat controlling it...this would be simple to set up. So with the water pump demand removed entirely and fan demand reduced by easily 70%...this would be highly efficient for cooling if you keep a room closed/not constantly mixing hot with the cooled air to have to continually remove heat. It would kick on and off with the thermostat only if kept closed up. A house system is based on basically for lack of better description...the front door "flapping off the hinges" as with most modern homes in the world today. This would also heat in the winter BTW...the well water will be much warmer than the frozen air outside in winter. Temperatures in the '60s are nice for free heat coming from the earth when it is in the 20's or lower outside! High probability for Geothermal at work here very cheaply and a great idea for those with a homestead and well!...

[@yestervue4697]

Add availability for burned wood heat for occasionally supplementing when needed and cooking and there you are! Summers cook on the for this very purpose outside-kitchen so no house heating happens in summer w/cooking. We design/plan/build heat and cooling systems on the basis of being excessively wasteful with the resources we tap... Efficiency is easily achieved when you remove the production atmosphere, slow down the pace, and look for "leaks" in your environmental control system's energy consumption. Commercial installers will, of course, make a few types of systems fit a million applications, it is the only way they can make a living and they also will make you nervous about building things yourself which is also a business survival tactic and I am not dissing them for that either... Don't get me wrong, they are great for what they are designed for but not for efficiency truly.

[@mikenkaried4543]

So the heat exchanger is designed to warm and bring heat into the Shed? I don't see water moving outside the shed to dump the heat it captured and then coming back into the shed cooled ready to take more heat? Seems like the idea is moving energy from one place to another (heat) but since the heat stays inside (basically onces the water heats up it will either hold on to the heat or dump it back into the shed through the various piping, I am not sure any energy is actually being moved anywhere, just a weird circulation around various loops inside the shed.

[@rcinfla9017]

As you cool air, the relative humidity goes up. Usually, you need to be able to condense water vapor out of air along with cooling to prevent too high relative humidity. Comfort zone is 30-50% RH.

[@BadHomeowner]

Yep

[@davidmallia628]

I was wondering the blue tank purpose. Can one do without? Just feed the well water through the heat exchanger?? My pump is submersible so I think the tank is to keep continuous priming for above ground pumps!?? All I want is to cool the dog kennels made of brick 4 feet cube. I guess I could use a truck radiator for the heat exchanger. Thanks!

[@TravisWebbUSA]

The tank is a pressurized cache. Yes you can go without the tank, but I also use this for watering my yard, and the pressure is not consistent unless you have a pressurized storage tank.

[@davidmallia628]

@@TravisWebbUSA Thanks! I believe the tank has a rubber bladder, inside, towards this purpose, because water is not compressable.

[@BadHomeowner]

That's right

[@onedadsbattle]

People really need to get out of the habit of using sharkbite fittings for every connection! They wear out were only ever designed for emergency situations like what's going on in Texas right now.

[@BadHomeowner]

As you can see in the video, I soldered 90% of the connections for this reason. I used the sharkbite fittings only for a couple joints that I wanted to be able to rotate.

[@onedadsbattle]

@@BadHomeowner I know, your good and used them how I even will sometimes. I'm talking about your average consumer/my neighbors lol.

[@kamranjavaid]

Good idea. What about using AC outer unit as a heat exchanger instead of radiator? Also do u have some rough calculation about how much electricity is saved compared to 1.5 ton split AC unit?

[@12vLife]

Great work. I would imagine humidity and temp of the water table are factors. Will this work in humid south Florida? I have a 12x12 well insulated shack under trees. Id like to power the system using 12 volts and take it down to 72F in August.

[@BadHomeowner]

The temperature of groundwater is remarkably stable across geographies. I'm in VA, your groundwater might be 1deg warmer for example, but not much. I'm working on an update video for this on what I've learned over the past year. In short the well works great, but the heat exchanger would need to pump a *lot* of water to make a big dent in the heat of my shed.

[@HaroonAhmadMusic]

Great video please share video of your experience so far waiting for the video

[@TuscanyFTX]

Why don’t you just return the warm water from the outlet of the exchangers, back to the pvc well you drilled before? That way you could return the water back to the table and never have to worry about storing or disposing of all the water in the system when it’s running?

[@BadHomeowner]

That would technically work, but I don't want to return water underground that has been through a bunch of copper, iron, and pvc pipes and leaching stuff from the pipes back into the ground.

[@bobfuqua384]

When your running this system , how much water goes out the drain pipe , to the fountain ?

[@BadHomeowner]

If I have the radiator valve open, then all of the water pumped from the well is discharged on the other side of the shed.

[@bobfuqua384]

@@BadHomeowner Ok, thanks

[@joshkeller6869]

Hey brother, ive been thinking about doing this exact thing for a while, but i live in florida and the ground temps arent nearly as cool as i previously thought. What temp is your groundwater?

[@BadHomeowner]

Groundwater temperature varies suprisingly little. My groundwater temp is about 58F, probably yours is 59-60F or something, but it won't be warm unless your water table is right at the surface.

[@joshkeller6869]

@@BadHomeowner Thats what I thought, but in Florida the water tables are high. According groundwater charts in my area im looking at roughly 67 degrees which is a minimum cooling gain. 😔

[@tonygau65]

Do you have a parts list anda ebook

[@BadHomeowner]

I'll add some links in the description

[@EricStaffen1]

I don't get how this setup would be in anyway efficient... 2 questionables... 1) The run time for the water well pump 2) The amount of water that will be pumped from the aquifer just to dispose of it... Seriously?? Also I agree with one of the comments below... Stop using Shark-bites as a permanent connection... you're just asking for a failure especially when using with copper!

[@BadHomeowner]

I use the shark bites so that the pipes can rotate -- it allows me to move things around a bit easier. I agree it's not a good setup for 24/7 operation. The key is to utilize the exhaust fluid (warm water) for other things, so I typically only run the cooler when I want to water things anyway.

[@wigglemonkey958]

Not everything is exact science, different people different variables. Let a guy scratch his head, no wonder his last post was a year ago. Hey Guy, I'm pumped you got the IDEA SEED in the ground. That's the hardest part. I bet by now the guy has made some upgrades to his idea of turning wasted energy into making his life easier energy! Ya bud!

[@wigglemonkey958]

Also , I'll vow only to use shark bite fittings ! I like moving things!