Rocket mass cooling?

Ok, maybe this is a slightly deceptive title, but I do have a serious question.  I have been in the mountains where even in summer it was not necessary to have A/C, especially at night.  *RAISING* temperatures there was important, and a RMH is the ideal way to do so.

I live in a hot/warm/humid/muggy climate where temperatures sometimes fail to fall off to comfortable levels even at night.  A RMH still makes sense for winter but not like it would in a really cold climate.  What I need is a natural way to cool my house—a RMH for cooling, not for heating (is this even possible?).  I could of course do a geothermal system, but those are not cheap—we recently priced one.  

So what do you all think?  Is there a great way to cheaply, naturally cool my house where it is 100 degrees and humid outside?

Eric

Not as cheap as the RMH build would be but..... Here's a thought. I'm thinking of doing a homemade geothermal system without using the heat pump. It would basically be the ground loop & a pump to circulate water at the roughly 55 degree or so ground temperature at about 6 ft down. The water would flow through a heat exchanger of some sort like an old radiator or one from an old A/C unit that connects to duct work.

So, could you instead/also run that loop through the mass of your RMH to have that gound temperature water cool off the mass? Would it be enough? You could also have shut off valves to the mass to be able to drain the water out of it during cold weather to eliminate the risk of overheating the water in the loop.

It got really super hot here in central Massachusetts this summer.  We're thinking of trying to make something like this next summer:



I feel like this has some opportunity to be beautified.  I'm an artist, I can't help myself. :)  If nothing else, it could be a great temporary or emergency solution.  

I realize that this doesn't cool the mass, but it's cheap to build and run while you're implementing a better, more permanent  solution.

I suspect any cooling from a RMH would be derived from a beneficial temperature difference between inside and outside.  Somehow encourage cold air to enter the mass and cool it to resist the next day's heat.

Drawing cool and humid air in at night sometimes raises the dew point inside enough to still be annoying when it warms up during the day.  So containing that humid cool air in a mass and just stealing the coolth from it might be advantageous.  

It seems like just opening the windows many nights would help enough.  With the mass there (if it absorbs that cold quickly enough) it would hold the coolth longer.  Not sure if it would make a noticeable difference.

Maybe a rocket mass cooler could look a bit like a rocket bench (no burn chamber, rocket or barrel) with lots more air passages and a fan.  Whenever it's colder outside than the mass, kick on the fan to blow cooler outside air through it.  Regardless of the humidity it would cool down the mass.  During the day that mass could radiate cold (if that's a thing) or you could swap some flapper valves and blow house air through the mass channels to get the cold out.  Need a way to deal with internal condensation if routing warm humid air through a cold mass...

You might want to bring in air that has been cooled via the Earth by running the air through buried corrugated drainage tile, like this guy.

Ask a Prepper

Thomas Tipton wrote:You might want to bring in air that has been cooled via the Earth by running the air through buried corrugated drainage tile, like this guy.

Ask a Prepper

I've read where those type of cooling tubes are not a good idea & are susceptible to mold issues from the condensation that builds up inside them??

Yes if you had a mass of water that is at 65F along one of your wall. And then you once that water absorbed the some heat from your 100F house you could just send it back outside and pull in some fresh 65F water. This could be from a well or spring or a covered pool filled with pourous sand?

I have an idea! And it’s even rocket!

The idea is as follows:

Have a pipe going into the earth where the air can be cooled. It can then be run through the house, mass or no mass, perhaps through the floor, and then goes outside.

But it doesn’t end there. The outlet for the rocket mass cooler… is an inlet for an outdoor rocket stove. So when the breakfast or meals are being cooked, the air is pulled via a moderately intense heat differential through the mass after being cooled by the ground.  

There it is, rocket mass cooling!

The mass could be the same as for heating. Maybe its particular system gets switched off by blocking off the air flow, vice versa for the rocket mass heater.

Jarrett Hadorn wrote:

Thomas Tipton wrote:You might want to bring in air that has been cooled via the Earth by running the air through buried corrugated drainage tile, like this guy.

Ask a Prepper

I've read where those type of cooling tubes are not a good idea & are susceptible to mold issues from the condensation that builds up inside them??

Lots of differing opinions on that one. I will agree that corrugated solid pipe is bad, but I think the corrugated slit pipe is good from mold as it drains and exchanges air with the surrounding soil. It might be bad for radon, however.   You WANT the air in those pipes to condense, that greatly improves the cooling ability.  You just need to avoid the mold.

I think you could use a rocket to supercharge natural ventilation, using the stack effect to effectively be an exhaust fan. Is it worth it compared to a solar fan? Dunno.

Yes  https://permies.com/t/9580/Rocket-mass-heater-converts-cooler   basically close windows in heat of day. leave feed tube open to let air flow thru RMH and open windows to cool air at night. See link to a nice movie to explain it better than I.  https://youtu.be/xo9xJo6dTxE