Last Updated on August 16, 2023 by Real Men Sow
You can use a car radiator as heating and cooling system for greenhouses. It can be expensive to use an electric or gas heater. We used a recycled car radiator to do the trick.
Does A Car Radiator As Heating And Cooling Work?
It can heat up in a greenhouse during the summer. You can cool it with shade cloth and automatic window openers. Radiator heating and cooling systems’ simple heat exchanger absorbs heat energy from the air and stores it in water. At night, it returns that heat to the ambient air in a greenhouse.
Simply put, water cools when it is colder than air and heats when it is warmer. The radiator operates in an extremely simple, but efficient way. The system works without a filter. The filter controls the water quality of the tank.
If day and night temperatures are the same, and there is no sunlight to heat the greenhouse, the heating and cooling will not work. We need to heat the greenhouse during longer periods of cold, overcast weather. Both have been done, either adding hot water to the tank or adding a heater in the greenhouse. The system is great because we get many sun hours.
Materials Needed For A Car Radiator As Heating And Cooling System
- 1/4 HP submersible utility pump
- Car radiator (cleaned)
- Hose
- Electric wiring with a switch
- Fan (if not attached to the radiator)
Installing The Radiator System
There are many options for car radiators. You can choose one based on the size of your greenhouse or water tank. You can add a fan to the top of the radiator if it didn’t come with one. This will push the air through the radiator, creating heat or cooling it. A classic, flat-floor fan is the best.
Once you’ve installed the radiator, you must connect it to the tank’s water pump to allow water to circulate through the radiator. It is important to clean the radiator before it gets dirty.
