grnbldr
You can run the hydronic water circuit through the Ice Bear unit to cool it and then through a thermostat controlled valve for temperature control, after that into your underfloor hydronic heating pipes. The effect is that you get a cold floor, which then slowly cools the air in the room from the ground up. Depending on your climate this form of cooling will not de-humidify the air much at all, because there is only a small temperature differential between the ground and air it does not go accross the dew point threshold, so it's good for dry heat climates like southern WA etc.
For humid climates you're better off installing air to hydronic (water) heat exchanger (compact high temperature differential to reach dew point) in forced ventilation air conditioning ducts. The greater temperature differential in the exchanger will reduce the humidity of the air and at the same time increase it's perceived and actual performance. This is because the high humidity of the air stops skin perspiration (which the body uses to naturally cool the body via evaporation ie the dryer the air the more the body can effectively cool itself) and reducing the humidity in the air also reduces the thermal mass of the air needed to be cooled when the air is recycled through the heat exchanger to be cooled again.
Hydronic floor heating also has some benefits: It can "buffer" some temperature in the thermal mass of the floor as well as in a separate thermal store (you can also just do it with liquid coolant with no ice forming) so that you can defer air-con use for some period and like the Ice Bear only run the Air-con compressor at night when it's COP is higher. Secondly perceived temperature is strongly related to feet temperature, so just being in contact with a cold/warm floor can allow you to set the thermostat 2-4 degrees lower than you normally would, and by doing so saving air-con or heating run times and energy.
Posted Wednesday 19 Dec 2012 @ 10:01:06 am from IP
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