I've been reading a lot about geothermal heating/cooling, which can be incredibly energy efficient. Compared to air-source heat pumps which use the air as a heat sink in the cooling process, ground-source heat pumps are typically 3x more efficient and actually deliver more cooling power than the electrical power they consume. In all ground-source heat pump systems there is an heat exchanger that allows the water/antifreeze mixture that circulates through a buried coil to absorb heat from the refrigerant in the heat pump. To me, it seems that the more efficiently the liquid circulating through the buried coil can remove heat from the refrigerant, the more efficient the system would be. And I realized that many homebrewers already use heat exchangers that could efficiently accomplish this task - plate chillers.
I'm wondering if a glycol chiller could be modified to replace the condenser coil with a plate chiller. I don't have any HVAC experience but perhaps someone who has put together their own glycol unit could comment of the feasibility of this prospect. One issue I foresee is the wide inlet on the plate chiller. The compressor does a lot of work to increase the pressure of the refrigerant so that it condenses inside the condenser coil. If there is an increase in the pipe diameter when the refrigerant reaches the plate chiller, this would cause the pressure to drop and it might not condense, making the compressor work harder.
Any thoughts from any of you lovely, more qualified people?
I'm wondering if a glycol chiller could be modified to replace the condenser coil with a plate chiller. I don't have any HVAC experience but perhaps someone who has put together their own glycol unit could comment of the feasibility of this prospect. One issue I foresee is the wide inlet on the plate chiller. The compressor does a lot of work to increase the pressure of the refrigerant so that it condenses inside the condenser coil. If there is an increase in the pipe diameter when the refrigerant reaches the plate chiller, this would cause the pressure to drop and it might not condense, making the compressor work harder.
Any thoughts from any of you lovely, more qualified people?