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How do you cool water???
ironjohn929
Member Posts: 1,497 ✭✭✭✭✭
Anybody have any ideas on how to make your tap water cold. I live here in Arizona, and in the summer the tap water is do dang hot it's hard to even take a shower. I've looked online for a product that would do this job, but haven't found anything. Any ideas???
Comments
Jeff
Around here, water lines are buried at least 2 ft. below surface to prevent freezing in winter. At that depth, tap water will equalize to the temperature of the ground, 55-60 degrees. I asume that in AZ, the water lines are nowhere near that deep, but your tap water is actually absorbing heat from the ground as the sun heats it up. I'm not an engineer, but you could dig a hole in your yard at least 2-3 feet deep, install a coil of water pipe at least 200 ft. and connect in series with the supply line. The ground temperature would be lower at that depth, and absorb some of the heat out of the tap water. Anyone else think that would work?
Jeff
Anybody have any ideas on how to make your tap water cold. I live here in Arizona, and in the summer the tap water is do dang hot it's hard to even take a shower. I've looked online for a product that would do this job, but haven't found anything. Any ideas???
I live in Tucson for over 4 years in the early 90s and never had that problem. Anyone else in your neighborhood have the same problem?
Move out of Hell.
[:D]
My guess would be that you need to insulate some water lines better.
Found out if anyone in the neighborhood shares this problem also. Maybe it's a city/county water utillity problem.
A frig won't work, due to the lack of time it the water would spend in the frig. You have to have some kind of water to water heat exhanger it can get expensive.
I always have bottles of ice water in the fridge, and a big jug of ice cold water as well...
All you would get is a blast of very cold water, and then it would run out.
There is no "recovery time" when water is running through a simple coil, inside of a 38 degree space. Not enough time to transfer heat.
For that to work, you would have to have a storage tank, with a recirculating pump, actuated by a t-stat.
It would need to be about the size of a water heater, to provide enough water to shower with.
Not a practical idea, although I know several ways of doing it, if money is not an object![:D]
John;
Around here, water lines are buried at least 2 ft. below surface to prevent freezing in winter. At that depth, tap water will equalize to the temperature of the ground, 55-60 degrees. I asume that in AZ, the water lines are nowhere near that deep, but your tap water is actually absorbing heat from the ground as the sun heats it up. I'm not an engineer, but you could dig a hole in your yard at least 2-3 feet deep, install a coil of water pipe at least 200 ft. and connect in series with the supply line. The ground temperature would be lower at that depth, and absorb some of the heat out of the tap water. Anyone else think that would work?
hell water would freeze in june here if the water lines where that shallow.
last one we put in under the main drag was 7ft down.
in the allies that don't get snow removal they let us put the in at 5ft min depth. jsut in case they do get plowed.
Or build one of these?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bong_cooler
Since you won't be using copper [price it lately?], why not use 500' of Pex?
You guys talking about the fridge thing not working...My great-grandma had an oak ice box (old fashioned fridge for you young guys [:D]) that had a cut out on top that held a ceramic jug of water turned up, like today's office coolers. There was a copper line running through the fridge, down to the ice plate, and the line was coiled under the ice storage, and routed out the side to a tap. I never have seen it work, but mom has it in her house. Kinda neat!
Can you post a picture, that sounds really neat!
First off 5 gallons of 38 degree water, would be gone by the time you got the temp mixed properly.
Second why would you want to chill water to 38 degrees, and then use more energy by requiring hot water to make it tolerable.
You would need what I said above,.....a 40 to 50 gallon storage tank, with a thermostatically operated circulating pump.
You would only want to set the stat for about 60 to 65 degrees, which would be fairly easy to obtain, and you avoid wasting more energy by having to mix a large quantity of hot water, to make it tolerable.
Marc, any idea how this would work? I'm not familiar with circulating pumps and how they work. Can an old hot water heater work as the storage tank?
In reality though,.......your cold water supply would need to be really uncomfortable, IMHO, for something like this to make any sense.
It's not the expense so much, as the space required to do it.
I would start off by burying the incoming lines deeper, and insulating them.
What I was referring to was a low flow recirculating pump,......the theory is, make a heat exchanger coil in an old refrigerator, and the pump kicks on and off, from a thermostat, to keep the water in your "cold water" tank, a constant, lets say even 65 to 70 degrees.
The pump would only kick on when the temp in your tank, has risen above your setting, and would not have to run long, to create 40 gallons of water in that temp range.
It would simply make a circuit between your "fridge coil", and your storage tank, and maintain a supply of cool water, just like a hot water heater.
Many other methods can be used, but once again, the expense, and "unsightly" equipment would stop me, unless I really needed it.
A "cooling tower" would work in your climate, but they are large, and if you are on public utilities, the make up water needed in a dry area like yours, due to evaporation, would jack your water bill considerably. Plus once again, without storage, you can only drop the temperature so much with one pass through.
Then add in maintenance on a cooling tower, such as descaling,.......a real pain for your purpose!
I would do the burying, and insulating, and see if I couldn't live with it![:D]
If you really wish to pursue something like this,........send me an e-mail, and I will try to guide you through it![;)]
Edit: The ground coil idea submitted by another poster is a very good option.
It would just have to be long enough,........and buried deep enough, to accomplish your goal.
http://www.marineandreef.com/Info/infochillers.html
you can google aquarium water coolers for more information