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Old 01-14-14, 01:32 PM   #11
jeff5may
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Ooh, I don't know, man. That sounds like a waste of a good heat exchanger to me. Once you do something like that, there's no going back. Not to mention any warranty you might have.

If you're considering something of that nature, consider enclosing one side of the outdoor HX with a shell, like an auto radiator. Water conducts lots more heat than air, so you don't need very much surface area to do the job. The bends and u-turns that contain the refrigerant would gain or lose heat (depending on operating mode) to the river water just fine. Since the river water would be under very low pressure, you might get away with sealing the end with silicone and clear plastic or pond liner material.

During cooling season, I know for a fact you can just feed cool water into the drain pan to submerge the bottom inch of HX. This alone will boost the capacity and efficiency of the outdoor HX A LOT. Those half a dozen passes or so of piping at the bottom are enough to lower condensing temperature 20-30 degF. The hotter it gets in the summer, the better that little bit of water will boost your efficiency.

Both of these suggestions make no major material mods to the outdoor unit. To resume original operation, you just quit pumping water and let it drain out. Your warranty stays intact and you can easily remove the mods for a unit swap or factory repairs.

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