First, as an aside, what is the opposite of radiator (as in central
heating) - consumer, sink? Best I could think of was absorber.

To the point: I can't see any actual solutions to my problem, but it should
provoke some intereresting discussion, anyway.

It's been very hot here in the UK this past weekend and while lying awake in
the sweltering heat, trying and failing to get to sleep, I was wondering if
there was anything I could do to cool the house down. I started on how we
kept the house warm, and worked backwards. The obvious thing was the central
heating: could I pump cold water around that? Well the rads. were already
cold, so that wasn't doing much. So why does the heating work? Because the
rads get a lot hotter than the surroundings. Could I pump very cold water
around the system? I couldn't see water even at 0 deg. having much effect,
so it would have to be well below 0 deg. to have any effect. The obvious
problem - you can't cool water below 0 deg. C! How could I stop it freezing
up? Does the anti-corrosion additive have any anti-freeze properties?
Doubtful, as this isn't its purpose. Add antifreeze? That can take water
down to -20 deg. C, as I recall (if, of course, I could 'bulk cool' the
water down to that!). Now rads at -20 deg C might be nice on hot summer
nights...

And a serious question: while thinking about adding antifreeze to the
heating system, I recalled that in WWII, the piston-engined power plants in
aircraft invaribly used (100%?) gycol (which I think is anti-freeze by any
other name). What was the advantage of doing this? I can't see as the
anti-freezing properties would be of any interest, so does gycol 'conduct'
heat more efficiently than water or glycol-water mix? If it does, would
running a domestic heating system with glycol instead of water make it more
efficent?

Davey


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