[TheSpiceIsLife]

It should be almost trivial for a refrigeration mechanic to build a home scale system like what you have described to take advantage of free / cheap night time electricity.

It's just a heat pump with the cooling side heat exchanger immersed in glycol & water,storwge tank and a pump. Maybe some insulation. Add a heat a set of heat exchanges fir a secondary loop in to the house.

[iamdave]

I know absolutely nothing of cooling and refrigeration, but it is an area I've been thinking of transitioning my career towards (burned out SysAdmin) and learning as a trade.

What you just described is something I actually overheard a couple of guys talking about at a neighborhood pub. A/C and Energy efficiency are bit topics in Central Texas as other posts mentioned.

Do you have any articles you'd recommend for someone with a passive interest in renewables that may cover residential projects like this?

[TheSpiceIsLife]

One of my previous jobs was infrastructure maintenance in a data centre, I've worked closely with refrigeration mechanics quite a bit.

I'm at work at the moment, let me get back to you when I'm home.

[iamdave]

Cheers!

[sargun]

What about the controller? Also, why not use ammonia? I can imagine that condos could also use this in places like SF.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Industrial refrigeration components are very modular, controllers capable of handling this sort of set up are available off the shelf.

The whol set up is pretty much identical to a chilled water data centre cooling set up but with a smaller chiller and a larger chilled water reservoir.

Ammonia would probably be better, I was just thinking on terms of something a fregierstion mechanic could hack together as a proof of concept in a couple of weekends.