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Creative Transmitter Shack Cooling

B

BobOnTheJob

I've thought about this for some time...wonder if anyone has ever tried some variation of it. When you go underground (cave, basement, storm cellar, etc), it's always cooler. When they install geothermal systems, they use the always cool underground temps to their advantage. My question: has anyone ever buried say 50'-100' of duct work several feet beneath the ground surface & pulled in filtered air from the surface at the end? In theory, the air would be cooler than air pulled in from above ground..the question is, how much cooler based on a typical amount of air moved through say a tube type 5KW FM transmitter? Yes, this would be expensive to do, but I'm the kind of guy who'd rather spend a lot up front & reap the benefits indefinitely. The question..are there any benefits to be had with this method?
 
Interesting concept! I have heard of a station that was formerly in ShameRock, TX that utilized a natural convection system to cool the transmitter. I think it was a tall silo or something. Maybe Keith Hammond could enlighten us on that design as he was the owner of the station...
 
I think the geothermal systems use a liquid, rather than duct work, but the theory seems practical. Still ends up as a forced air system but energy costs would be lower.
 
My brother built a "solar assisted" house. It has a very large atrium to the south, and there are windows from there into various parts of the house to allow adjusting air flow for the season etc etc.

The house is rather "tight" of course, with lots of insulations etc.

The primary air opening into the house is a roughly 12-18 inch metal conduit that is buried for a several hundred feet and vents into the basement.

All of it combines, but it works. He's in new England and has a 1000 gallon oil tank that he fills once a year!

As far as cooling a transmitter I think you'd need a lot of surface area under the ground.

Rolf Taylor
 
You might consider building a three-sided (roof and two walls) shell over the building, shielding it from the sun, and letting the wind move through the space. Venting the hot exhaust air in to that "venturi" are might help pull the heat away from the building.

Houses built this way are situated to take advantage of prevailing wind direction.
 
One down side that I can think of [That would not bother the XMTR, but those that would maintain it.] would be mold and mildew growth in the ducting itself.If at or below dewpoint temperatures are achieved with regularity inside the many square feet of ducting buried, a perfect environment for growing things that your service personnel would not want to breathe in would exist.

True, the same thing can occur with mechanical refrigeration, but remediation would be much simpler.

RJ
 
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