Dont buy a chiller ... use a heat exchenger

[mike31154]

Some interesting info I read in the local paper since it's 'water wise' week here. Not saying this would be the same for everyone, but food for thought. "Running a tap for 5 minutes can be equivalent to running a 60 watt bulb for 14 hours". As mentioned, your idea works fine, but as far as efficiency? Folks would have to do a bit of math depending on where they live to see if this method would really be as efficient as an alternative such as a chiller or fan blowing across the water surface.

One way or another you and I (the consumers) end up paying for the power to run the large pumps municipalities, cities or other water providers use to get potable water to our tap. Aside from or regardless of the actual abundance (or scarcity) of water, it still has to be pumped to your house. And in BC, that often means uphill, meaning plenty of head pressure to overcome. All you folks with sumps know what that means. Multiply the fraction of a horsepower of your little pump by several thousand (or more!) and it puts things into perspective. Then there's the issue of how that power is produced, in BC mostly dams, elsewhere.... coal, nuclear.... If you don't have a water meter, the city raises your property tax or the landlord raises the rent to cover his/her expenses.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Some interesting info I read in the local paper since it's 'water wise' week here. Not saying this would be the same for everyone, but food for thought. "Running a tap for 5 minutes can be equivalent to running a 60 watt bulb for 14 hours".

If you take time to read my OP, you will find that i am not "running a tap", a slow drip of 2-4 drops per second is far cry from running a fully open tap.
When you have a car rad with fully open tap running thrugh to cool a house that's different, but at least the guy was watering his grass at the same time, got to give him a credit at least for that.

[Reef Pilot]

And when I was cooling the solarium/house with the car rad, I didn't have the tap wide open either, just enough to make the water sprinkler work so I could water my grass. My point also was that it didn't take a lot of water flow to provide a lot of cooling with the rad.

As to which way costs more to the environment, running water or using electricity to run a chiller or air conditioner, I don't know...

I do know that at our cabin at the lake, we have the best solution. We have solar power for lights and small appliances, etc (no hydro connection). Fridge, stove and hot water runs off propane, and costs us about $40 per year. And in the late evening the cabin gets shade from the mountain side trees, so it is cool enough to sleep. In the daytime, when it is hot out, we just jump in the lake to cool off. When it is cold out, we burn wood (no shortage of that out there) in a fireplace.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

Fridge, stove and hot water runs off propane, and costs us about $40 per year. .

man either you don't use it much or you have super duper high efficiency stuff. most propane fridges will burn 100 bucks of propane in a summer by themselves.

Steve

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

man either you don't use it much or you have super duper high efficiency stuff. most propane fridges will burn 100 bucks of propane in a summer by themselves.

Steve

We don't run it all the time, just when we are there (or know that we will be back in a couple days). It is not a large fridge either. But yes, it is very efficient, and always amazed just how little flame it takes to keep everything cool, incl the freezer. When you put your hand over the little chimney, you can hardly feel any heat at all. My guess it that a propane fridge would probably cost less to operate than a normal home electric one (but I could be wrong).

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

We don't run it all the time, just when we are there (or know that we will be back in a couple days).

ahh that explains it..

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

My guess it that a propane fridge would probably cost less to operate than a normal home electric one (but I could be wrong).

very wrong, propane fridges are very expensive to run, the older ones 3 to 4lbs of propane a day, newer ones 1.5 to 2lbs a day. so even if you buy your propane at costco (cheepest you can get for portable bottles) you are looking at 30 bucks per month for the most efficient fridges, up to 70-80/month for the old style.

Steve

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

very wrong, propane fridges are very expensive to run, the older ones 3 to 4lbs of propane a day, newer ones 1.5 to 2lbs a day. so even if you buy your propane at costco (cheepest you can get for portable bottles) you are looking at 30 bucks per month for the most efficient fridges, up to 70-80/month for the old style.
Steve

Hmmm, quite surprised at that, given the flame size is about the size of a pilot light on your gas water heater. And speaking of which, are you going to tell me that a gas (or propane) water heater is more expensive to run than an electric one?