** edit 9/18 - I'm surprise there hasn't been more discussion about this. Surely others have thoughts, opinions, or information regarding this approach. I still have time!

Greetings, new to this forum but I've been reading a few posts related to this topic. I haven't found anything that specifically addresses what I am thinking about doing.

In a few days I am digging my basement floor down about 2 inches so that I can get a concrete floor poured. I also need to level it out. Currently the basement is about 2/3 dirt and 1/3 concrete slabs, where the various appliances are. The slabs will be covered with about 2 inches of concrete and the dirt will get 4 inches. Total dirt area is probably 800sqft.

I was thinking, since I need to dig anyway could I dig some 1-2ft deep trenches in the dirt and lay a few hundred feet of tubing to then fill with antifreeze and recover with dirt? I would hook this up to a radiator or similar, circulate with a small pump, and use a box fan or similar to keep my house cool in the summer. I have great access to an area of the house that I could build a relatively hidden vent and cool the entire lower floor. I'm in Connecticut so we do get freezing temps (less and less frequently) but the basement is well below grade and isn't going to get to freezing temperatures.

If this is just a total waste then that's fine and I won't bother, but it seems like it could work and I don't need it to be a major cooling source, just exchange some of the heat we get in late summer into the ground. I probably wouldn't run it in winter but I suppose this could also help with keeping a consistent temperature in the home.

Maybe it's not deep enough and wouldn't be enough coil? I see the larger systems require hundreds of feet of coil buried pretty deep. This would be auxiliary cooling and is not intended to replace AC units or heating systems.

Thanks

Sound like a lot for work for what you will get out of it.

For reference I have heated floors throughout our house and in the summer I run 50 degree F well water through the floor and water the grass with the water that comes out....if it is hot out usually the grass needs water... We are in Michigan with plenty of ground water.... This is a super insulated house and it will cool the house about 5 degrees from the outside temp....not that good but works on mild days.

good luck....I would go a different wrought but anyway.

Thanks for the input. You are probably correct that the effort won't be worth it. However, I think we may be describing different cooling mechanisms. I think the transfer of energy in the system I describe might be a little more efficient as I would be pulling heat from the air of the home into the sub slab basement loops. The system you describe would take a lot longer to pull heat energy out of the home by rapidly running cold water through sub floor piping. I may be misunderstanding though.