Geothermal cooling

[Southernhighlander]

When the flow is adjusted properly my stills will put out 150°F water from the condensers during whiskey runs.  Most of my customers run their hot condenser water into plastic totes or stainless tanks and they use all of that water for their next mashing in and for CIP and other cleaning.  No chiller needed in places where tap water is less than 62°F.  No underground tanks needed, huge savings on heating water and really fast heat up to operating temp times for mash cookers. All of the condenser water is completely recycled.

[MG Thermal Consulting]

That's exactly right, ground temp is about 55F and you can run a chiller at 45F as well.

[MG Thermal Consulting]

3D has it right there.  I've seen it where initial use was for geo piped grid, but when the distiller added on capacity, he needed to add the chiller anyway rather than the cost of much more pipe that could only get him near 55F- he ran out of field, too.

[niyoc382]

On 5/4/2017 at 4:30 AM, Jesse Alexander said:

Thanks for the help.  Sounds like the heat exchanger in a loop going back to the reservoir would be a good way to go for cooling the condenser.  I could add a good fan and duct work to exhaust the heated air into the building in the winter or divert it outside in the summer.  I would also try to run hot water from the condenser to the cooker and an insulated tank for washing before needing to start cooling it. 

Cooling the mash seems more difficult.  I could also recover the hot water from cooling the mash and put it into the insulated tank to use for my next batch in the cooker and washing.  Not throwing away heat is a good idea.   I wonder what kind of temperatures a pump can tolerate moving hot mash to a fermenter where it could cool on its own over a longer period of time?  I'm thinking about a 200 gallon cookers here so it's not that big.  Maybe the hot mash would need to be put into smaller tanks to allow it to cool better and then move it to a fermenter tank.

geothermal in cold climates

I have been thinking about geothermal for a few years but last year the gas company put in a gas main on my street. Running the numbers I find that there is no way geothermal can compete with natural gas for heating purposes. However, I am left wondering if it could make sense to use geothermal for cooling only? Specifically I want to compare costs of open loop geothermal to a high SEER conventional AC system. I did a crude water quality test/calculation that showed neutral to mild scaling potential so I think I am good for open loop. My ground water temperature is about 55 degF so the compressor sizing should be on the small side since it won't have to do that much work. Anyone have experience with open loop for cooling only?

[MG Thermal Consulting]

I have done it using an underground tank of water pumped through a plate exchanger from where the cooling is transferred via a plate exchanger using a process or recirculating pump from the chiller loop.

If you are located up North, I use radiator type coolers with circulating pump as well. Using a chiller as last step if need in summer.

I has photos of a typical installation.

[SlickFloss]

We use an in ground water reservoir for a closed loop cooling system off our big column that has a loop through the warehouse floor for heating in winter. Using the resevoir without the chill water tower operating is not enough coolant to last a single shift and that was when it had been below 0 outside for quite a while. You could possibly find a solution  depending on the reality of your geography. You’d be better off making a closed loop system for yourself. Or scavenging into totes for cleaning mashing etc per Paul’s Rec