You live on the river. And it is hot! But once you get down below 5 feet, the river is not hot - it is always a cool 50 degrees F.

The river heat sink cooler incorporates an air pump, two lengths of hose and a series of salvaged car radiators. The radiators are hooked in series and lowered into the river. One hose takes air down, the other takes it up. The pump can run off solar in the day, electricity at night. Air from the living space is pumped down and drops heat into the water. On returning up thru the hose the air is 20 degrees cooler. Repeat.
-- bungston, Jun 28 2013

Not an mfd (whispers) https://en.wikipedi...ater_source_cooling
Great idea. [4and20, Jun 29 2013]

Honolulu Seawater HVAC http://honoluluswac.com/
Large scale... [pashute, Aug 18 2013]

//The pump can run off solar in the day, electricity at night.//

Why not power it with the river?
-- ytk, Jun 29 2013


Elegentary.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jun 29 2013


Ha, I read that as "River as heat sink". Didn't know where to put my face.
-- not_morrison_rm, Jun 29 2013


This is quite an old idea - it's not widely implemented because not enough people live adjacent to a river.

(Interestingly, one of the new, green-energy technologies I saw at a convention was the reverse of this, a heat-pump to suck warmth out of a river to heat your home.)
-- mitxela, Jun 29 2013


The [link] suggests you might need deeper water and longer pipes, although it does suggest that long pipes are a terrible expense for some reason.
-- 4and20, Jun 29 2013


Works until you try to implement it on a mass scale; raising the ambient temperature of a major body of water even one or two degrees can have devastating ecological consequences. This happened in my state* (river water was diverted as both a motive source and a cooling medium ) during the second boom of the industrial revolution, and vital wildlife stocks such as Atlantic Salmon are only now fully recovering. Other species, such as the Northern Softshelled Turtle** did not fare as well.

* thermal pollution was just one of many forms of pollution suffered by Maine's waterways in the last couple of centuries.

** after searching for a link, I have concluded that this may be a coloquial name. The quest is ongoing.
-- Alterother, Jun 29 2013


The alternative is ground heat-exchange, relying on the stable temperature of the ground even a few metres below the surface.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jun 29 2013


First, [Marked-for-deletion] widely known to exist, the vast majority of power plants do it.

Second,

//5 feet, the river is not hot - it is always a cool 50 degrees F.//

I question that assertion. The vast majority of rivers have large sections of turbulent flow, and are fairly well mixed.
-- MechE, Jun 29 2013


That is a good wikipedia article. I like the canucks using domestic clean water so as not to pollute with heat.

I too wonder about the expense. Probably it is the scale. I envision this as cooling one room, or a boat cabin.
-- bungston, Jun 30 2013


[bungston], you live So Cal...
-- normzone, Jun 30 2013


//Why not power it with the river?//

Provided that all components resist collapse, it should be possible to draw water from above a small weir, and dump it below. No moving parts. Water is a better heat transfer medium than air, in any case.
-- spidermother, Jun 30 2013


I was trying to interest a businessman in an energy-from-sea idea. He told us to look up what they were doing in Greece, since they had hotels with need for air conditioning, and all on the beach. We found a company that was doing sea- thermal cooling, and were supposed to contact them the next day. (Can't find it anymore. Giving similar link to Honolulu Seawater HVAC)

It was May 4th 2010. The next morning riots broke out and mobs burnt down several buildings including the bank where three people and a yet unborn baby were murdered. A lot of cooling was needed...
-- pashute, Aug 18 2013


Air is a really inefficient heat transfer medium. Better to pump water through the circuit, and have an air/water cooler in the building.

This would be a good way of making a conventional air conditioner much more efficient as it would be rejecting heat to cold water not hot air, at the proce of warming up the river.

But, ultimately, what [MechE] said - Widely Known To Exist.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 18 2013


It's Green Leatherback Turtles. Not extinct, but extinct in Maine.
-- Alterother, Aug 18 2013



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