i love this idea!!

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf

5 ай бұрын

Thanks Tyler!

It’s a good idea for folks with the right house features. I would guess that the carbon footprint of the upgrade is minimal compared to a traditional geothermal system too. I wish Cool Down success.

@IlyasFrenkel-nx5mv

5 ай бұрын

Thank you very much!

Living in an un-insulated 1940 framed house with brick siding in western NC, and opening up the windows at night, using an 'entire house ventilation fan' to draw cooler night air through the home, then closing everything up at night allowed us to turn on our air-conditioner 60 days after our neighbors equivalent aged home. Note: the full brick exterior allowed for 'thermal lag' which also helped.

Smart use of free energy (ground) 🌻 Zac & Jesse, EXCELLENT Interviewing!!

ok I'm intrigued, I'm and architectural designer, and I've been looking into hybrid water heaters. You could duct the cool air are being exhausted by the hybrid water heater's heat pump into the duct to help condition the space as well. I don't completely understand heat pump technology, but this has to be doable....

This is just what I’ve been looking for!! @cooldown is there a way to get this in WA?

What about using the unheated swimming pool to cool the house by circulating air pipes in the water, perhaps under a false floor in the pool.

@jonnyde

5 ай бұрын

I am not an engineer, but to me this sounds like a possible plan for a supplemental loop to a heat pump using a liquid, not air. Of course your climate zone and size of pool will be BIG factors as to the pay back period (if any).

Bring in Edison Motors for a DI episode! They are awesome!

Still listening. Any words on new basement builds, specialty cement blends for better thermal conductivity?

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf

5 ай бұрын

Cool Down is a great fit for new builds and yes, a more conductive composite cement for a basement floor slab would definitely improve the overall system performance.

@lii1Il

5 ай бұрын

@@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf TY!

Office towers and condo buildings have underground parking which I suppose could be used for this purpose.

@SubvertTheState

5 ай бұрын

Would have to be a complex owner solution then.

@jonnyde

5 ай бұрын

Are those conditioned spaces or open to outside climate?

@HepCatJack

5 ай бұрын

@@jonnyde not opened to outside climate except when the parking door opens to allow access to the car to enter or leave.

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf

5 ай бұрын

That's true! Right now we install these system primarily for single family homes but there are definitely some larger scale commercial applications as well.

Will cooling down my upstairs area using cool down stairs air raise the temperature of my basement in the summer? I ask this questions because in the heat of the summer my basement needs to be heating or it's just too cold to be enjoyable. Generally, the basement is around 18 degrees Celsius in July. Typically we air condition (A/C) the upstairs to 24 degrees Celsius and then we heat the basement to about 21 degrees using our in floor natural gas fires hydronic heating system so it's usable. But, the A/C system still cools the basement, to a degree due to the colder A/C air descending down the staircase even when the in floor basement heating system is running. This summer time heating and cooling process is costly and just makes the energy conservation notion a big joke. However, if I can take the cool air from the basement and more it upstairs I could possible turn my basement in floor hydronic system off for the summer. Do you need a test home in Canada?

@IlyasFrenkel-nx5mv

5 ай бұрын

Good question, Garry. The Cool Down system is designed to move warm temperatures from your upstairs to your basement. So, it will warm your basement. However, depending on the size of your basement, and the depth of your basement, a natural heat exchange process will occur with the earth, where heat energy will dissipate into walls / floor of the basement. Long story short, it should warm your basement more than a Central AC system. But, maybe not significantly more. We'd have to do an assessment to see.

If you just put a heat pump hot water heater in your basement it will do the same thing. It uses heat from the surroundings to heat up water.

During that 5 minute roll over period when the AC runs to dehumidify the initial basement air, could you save a watt or two by running the AC in dry mode?

@IlyasFrenkel-nx5mv

5 ай бұрын

Тhat's a really good point. Our control would definitely allow for that kind of programming to take place.

So, instead of all that, can't I just install a mini-split anywhere in my basement and put the heads upstairs? Plus a heat pump water heater that takes all the heat pumped downstairs and sticks it in water?

@dsemeldefeo

5 ай бұрын

That's right! Our newest patented system uses an air source heat pump with the outside coil placed in the basement. It's a higher price but it does both heating and cooling.

@jonnyde

5 ай бұрын

@@dsemeldefeo Which climate zones will have a positive ROI? I am thinking this wont work in N. Dakota or other northern states, as far as $: unless of course if there is grant available as it is now a heat pump???

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for writing ing. For the basic Cool Down system that we cover in this video there will be more benefits in warmer climates. That being said our customers here in the Northeast are enjoying great savings and ROI. Our heat pump based system will be even more versatile and provide both heating and cooling savings for homeowners! @@jonnyde

Looks useful for unfinished basements but what happens if you plan to finish it later? It seems almost useless for finished basements because you can just run fan only on HVAC for a while. Most smart thermostats let you run fan only mode on a schedule already. There are also whole home fan and exhausts for much cheaper. Dandelion seems a lot more useful. Heating is also a lot more energy intensive than cooling. So Cool Down not getting the largest part of geoTHERMAL is already a big step backwards.

I’d like to know what they could do with a crawl space. Most houses I’ve lived in don’t have basements, and aren’t slabs either. The crawl space is like 3 feet high and seems to have potential for this

@IlyasFrenkel-nx5mv

5 ай бұрын

Hi there, it would depend on the temperature and positioning of the crawl space. Long story short, it may be possible, but we'd have to investigate.

It looks like a nice system, but nothing that a diy'er couldn't do with a raspberry pi or arduino. It still runs the air handler. To bad we have a 'package unit', so it is not possible (our air handler is built into the compressor, so package units would not be great for this). Diyers could also do this well with HomeAssistant or similar.

@ecospider5

5 ай бұрын

I have added a wall switch to a couple 1970’s houses that just turned on the circulating fan. This works great when there is already a cold air return in the basement. So I really question the $5000 price tag and you have to keep your current AC system. But they might get the main floor cooler so who knows.

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-yo7no

5 ай бұрын

@jackcoats4146 Thanks for mentioning this. We do offer a very affordable kit with the control system including temperature sensors for DIYers or for HVAC professionals who would like to install Cool Down. As to building from scratch without our kit, folks who are talented DIYers would need two separate skill sets. They have to able to do the necessary IOT coding to do the following functions: tell the AC condenser to turn off but leave the air handler on and open and close the Cool Down system dampers (a warm air exhaust damper, a cold air intake damper, and an inline/choke damper); this has to happen whenever two conditions are met: AC is being called for by the thermostat and the basement is cold enough for cooling. Then perform the opposite functions (run the AC condenser along with the air handler and set the dampers to the opposite position) whenever AC is being called for and the basement is not cool enough. They also have to be comfortable cutting into their return ducts to add the Cool Down system dampers that we install. We do that with angle grinders and compass style sheet metal cutters. (As a separate matter, HVAC pros who do this without our kit would actually be infringing on our patents.)

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-yo7no

5 ай бұрын

Thank for mentioning this. There is a huge difference between what you're describing and what Cool Down does. The circulator or fan-only mode will bring warmer air from the conditioned space through the return register and return duct and distribute that air through the supply ducts. This excludes any cold temperatures from the basement and doesn't really take any advantage of the geothermal properties of the basement. Cool Down actually brings cold temperatures from the basement into the return duct and distributes that cooled air through the house. We do offer a very affordable kit with the control system and temperature sensors for DIYers or for HVAC professionals who would like to install Cool Down. Our control kit performs the following functions: tells the AC condenser to turn off but leaves the air handler on and also opens and closes the the Cool Down system dampers (a warm air exhaust damper, a cold air intake damper, and an inline/choke damper). The control system does this whenever two conditions are met: AC is being called for by the thermostat and the basement is cold enough for cooling. Then the control system performs the opposite functions (run the AC condenser along with the air handler and set the dampers to the opposite position) whenever AC is being called for and the basement is not cool enough. @@ecospider5

@ecospider5

5 ай бұрын

@DamienSemel-DeF So when you turn on the circulating fan do you close the cold air returns from the hot rooms somehow?

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-yo7no

5 ай бұрын

Exactly. We use a control system with temperature sensors and a series of dampers. Great question.@@ecospider5

No basement, just a crawlspace. Doubt crawlspace floor runs at 50F in NOCAL. But good stuff.

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-yo7no

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for mentioning this. The short answer is if the crawl space is at least 5 degrees cooler than the first floor then Cool Down will work to help reduce cooling costs or act as a stand-alone home cooling system. Fortunately most crawl spaces will work to support enough heat exchange to allow Cool Down to work.

How well does it work with a finished basement with people living there? Will the basement get cold in the winter?

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf

5 ай бұрын

Great question. The Cool Down system works very well for finished basements. It is not running in the winter because it provides cooling so it will not make your basement cold in the winter.

@Vaseemm

5 ай бұрын

The Heat pump water heater at a friends house makes the basement cold since it extracts the heat out of the basement. I am assuming this does the same extract heat from the basement to provide heat upstairs right? This process would make the basement colder!

@IlyasFrenkel-nx5mv

5 ай бұрын

The Cool Down system is designed to cool by bringing upstairs temperatures down into the basement. It should warm your basement sligtly.@@Vaseemm

Why can't they do something like this with heat pumps for heating? Some how put the heat pump or part of it in the basement so that it doesn't have to work so hard in the winter to warm up the air.

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf

5 ай бұрын

Great question, Steven. The basic Cool Down system covered in this video is limited to cooling but we now offer a new system that does exactly what you've described using a heat pump with the outside coil placed in the basement!

@andreycham4797

5 ай бұрын

There are some people who tried to put outside heat pump unit in crawl space. They got better performance of those heat pumps. I put mine in an attic

@steventaylor4159

5 ай бұрын

@@DamienSemel-DeFeo-mi9pf Would love to see you on this show talking about that system.

Will this be effective in a walk out basement?

@DamienSemel-DeFeo-yo7no

5 ай бұрын

Great question. The short answer is if the basement is 5 degrees cooler than the first floor then Cool Down will work to help reduce cooling costs or act as a stand-alone home cooling system. Fortunately most walkout basements will work to support enough heat exchange to allow Cool Down to work.

@srikanna4597

5 ай бұрын

@@DamienSemel-DeFeo-yo7no Thanks

This is a limited option with limited benefits for limited use cases

@SubvertTheState

5 ай бұрын

Everything is limited. The house I'm sitting in right now would seriously benefit from this. I'm the perfect market actually. 120 year old house, hot upstairs where I need to cool, cold basement which is unfinished and partially a dugout.

We're, we used to call that a whole house fan!!!😅😊

@dsemeldefeo

5 ай бұрын

A whole house fan will displace conditioned air out of the house and draw hot air from outside into your basement. That's why a whole house fan is significantly less energy efficient in the end.

Smart use of free energy (ground) 🌻 Zac & Jesse, EXCELLENT Interviewing!!