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Rich256

yaofeng wrote:
wrote:
I'm still thinking about heating water with 1/3 the usual energy using a Haier
5K Btu/h window AC ($84 at Wal-Mart.) The pipes connect to the condenser coil
at the top, so we could build a thin aquarium around it with no replumbing or
recharging and pump 1.5 gpm of 110 F water out through a $168 Doucette SB1-20
400 Btu/h-F plate heat exchanger with a 110 F thermostat and pump 60 F cold
water into the other side of the heat exchanger from a cold kitchen tap and
back into the hot tap, and dump some hot water from the hot tap into the sink
with a solenoid valve if the cold tap ever reaches say, 100 F, when/if the
tank water heater completely fills. Heating 50 gallons of 60 F water to 110
takes about 21K Btu, and the AC would make about 5000(1+1/3) = 6700 Btu/h,
so we might fill the tank in 3 hours, with no hot water use.

When I blocked the Haier AC condenser airflow to make the exit temp 110 F,
its cool air temp and power use (from a Kill-a-Watt) barely changed.

This could be more efficient than a typical "portable air conditioner" with
air hoses. Removing the condenser fan blade might also raise the COP.

Nick

I have a better idea. Cool your house from the coming winter cold or
the past one.

There are places that do almost that. The very first shopping center
in the world was in Minneapolis. They stored the heat from the summer
in a natural underground pool of water. Then they used that heat during
the winter to heat the building. They didn't need all the heat that ws
stored so it got to where they had to do additional cooling during the
winter.

As for using an AC to heat water. Why? If you need air conditioning
there is more than adequate solar heat for water. Heating water will
only degrade the operation of the refrigerant. And the water will not
be warm enough for any practical use. We already have problems with a
surplus of warm water. Nuclear Power plants for example.

If water is used for cooling a large supply of cold water is needed.

A building in the San Fernando Valley used a large pool with fountains
to cool their refrigerant. The water started to get too warm so they
raised the nozzles on the fountains a couple feet to get more
evaporation and cooling.