Cooling with a deep freeze
 

I'm relatively new to this site, so sorry if this is in the wrong category.

I have a section of my barn walled off and insulated with air conditioner. During the summers we keep our show cattle in the "cooler" to stay cold and grow hair. I'm here to find out if it's possible to bury a huge loop of pex and connect it a both sides to a deep freeze. It would then get filled with water/antifreeze solution. If we pumped this cold fluid through the pex, would we see a temperature change in the barn?

If so I would appreciate any feedback/tips/other ideas.

Thank you

In theory, this approach would work. The only problem with this idea is that the deep freezer cooling system won't have enough capacity to cool the building unless it it's super insulated. That and the condensing unit (which generates heat) is part of the freezer and would heat the space if the freezer was situated inside the space to be cooled.

If you fill the whole freezer with water and allow it to slowly reach a certain (low) temperature, the idea would work well until your thermal reservoir ran out of charge. After a while, the system would reach a balance point a few degrees below the average temperature of the building. The rig would do a good job of leveling the afternoon swing, due to the inherent thermal mass.

Cooling with a window air conditioner would be more fruitful , although noisy they Pump out the cold very well for such a cheap item. The small 5000 Btu units are about $100 and last for years n years.

Your problem is that you want remove heat faster than it enters the space.

You haven't mentioned how large this room is that you will be putting your cows in (8x12 feet? 40x60 feet?). You haven't mentioned how high the room, or where your room is... Arizona? Maine? you gotta know this stuff, very important. What months do you want to cool your cows?

You also want to remove heat faster than the cattle can generate heat, even if they're just standing around... and when it gets colder, they will naturally generate even more heat, in an effort to stay alive.

So, if you can find out how much heat one of your cows gives off, just by standing, and multiply that by the number of cows, then add to that the normal heat load (heat coming through the wall, ceiling and floor of you room of whatever size, in whatever location) you would begin to have some idea how much cooling power you will need.

Also, hot air rises, so cooling the slab would not be the best place to apply cooling power.

Forget the idea of a $100 air conditioner, sounds cheap, but you're going to need a lot more cooling power.

There are modern, efficient air conditioners that are called "mini-split" this just means that the main noisy compressor is outside, and a smaller, quieter cooling "head" is located inside. There are mini-split heat pumps that will heat and cool, but you don't need heat, so get the cheaper air conditioner only type.

Everything that was previously said about insulating is true. Probably the easiest would be to cover the walls and ceiling with 2" rigid insulation (minimum), and then cover that with OSB or plywood as high as a cow could reach.

So, without knowing anything at all about the number of cows, the location, the kind of insulation, size, etc., etc. I would take a wild guess and suggest that you need a unit that is rated at 3-Tons of cooling capacity. That would mean 36,000 BTU per hour.

It would cost about $2000.

This guess is based on absolutely nothing, because you have not supplied enough information to actually select the proper components. However, the price of a 3-Ton mini-split air conditioner is about right.

More information could change this number considerably.

-AC_Hacker

Of course you would size a Window air conditioner to your needs They are cheap enough and perform.