Indeed though the ones I've read about uses some type of liquid coolant for heat/cool interchange. Just curious if circulating just air through the piping would suffice as a poor-mans implementation thus reducing the need for the above ground exchanger.
> This sort of thing would call for a centralized compressed lines
The exchanger doesn't need to be the working fluid. You could have Freezer | Fridge | Ground | 30 degree water | 70 degree water
With each | indicating water or another coolant in an insulated pipe. Insulate each reservoir and place it inside/outside depending on climate.
Insulation on longer runs of piping might need to be exotic and expensive (aerogel or double walled vacuum sections), but there wouldn't be much of it.
We already do something similarish for some AC systems
The article is a bit light on details, but I'd guess that both heat and cold generation (due to compression and decompression of the air) could be used for a district cooling system.
It says they're adding water. You can currently improve cooling and efficiency by adding a misting system the external unit of a traditional air conditioner. I wonder how the efficiencies and costs compare.
They make refrigeration systems for people who work outside. It’s a giant compressor that cools a liquid and moves that liquid through a tube and across a persons body via a vest. I remember one guy who owns a roofing business was saying that it’s totally worth the money to cool your crew down because your guys actually work faster and also you won’t have any heat injuries.
You are thinking about a different type of system I suspect. If anything the air would be cooler above a system of this sort as the heat is being carried away by pipes.
Forget geothermal, I'd love an air-exchange system for the summers where I live. It's not uncommon for the low to be in the 50s, with the high in the 80s. If I could just store some of that overnight cool in water and then run it through the central air system, I almost wouldn't need AC.
> If the servers do heavy data processing when no one needs the heat, the system stores hot water in a “buffering tank.” And the Cloud&Heat cabinets can also vent outside in the spring and summer.
I live in Southwest US where it’s common to use a swamp cooler (aka evaporative cooler) for your house. Instead of the normal refrigerated air unit that sits outside your house, there is basically a box with a big fan that pulls air across a big wooden or synthetic “sponge” and pushes it into your house ducts. A small pump like in a fish tank continuously pulls water across the sponge to keep it wet. You leave a couple windows in your house cracked open to leave an exit as new cold air is pushed in. Has a nice humidifying effect which is good in the desert too!
From the title, I thought it would be a pumped-storage system basically using gravity as the energy medium. They're instead using it as a thermal system and cooling the water for use in air conditioning. It's an interesting setup for areas where AC is almost always needed.
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