Domestic Underfloor Water Heating and Cooling

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/37252/Rainwater-Harvesting-for-Residential-Heating-and-Cooling

Underfloor heating is the most comfortable ways to heat your home, as the heat radiates from the floor and heats the surrounding objects.The worst thing you could do is to try to cool in the same manner. Two main reasons; #1: Hot air rises. For proper cooling you need to pull the hot air off the ceiling and cool it. Underfloor cooling would give you a very cold floor and a nothing but hot air above it. This leads to #2: Depending upon the temperature of your cold floor and the relative humidity you will probably get condensation on your floors. The purpose of air conditioning is not only to cool but to de-humidify.

Good Evening surjunlall,

If you wish to get the best information, you simply must not assume that those of us who would gladly respond can read your mind. We cannot acurately guess at how your home will be constructed.

For me, I simply respond by saying that I presume that your home is constructed with a dirt floor and the walls are constructed of mud brick, openings where a more valuable home would have glazing, you have cloth coverings with ventilated shutter, your bathroom consists of a bucket of water on the roof with the sun to heat it enough to take a comfortable shower. and standing by a basin, is a bucket of somewhat clean water just brought in from the closest community spring and a community dipper for serving the water where ever the occupants desire. Either that or the water is captured in a cistern and used as needed.

I have the latitude of presuming that the roof is made of thatching materials, animal skins or even a layer of mud and straw spred over purlins, assembled in laywer.

If this describes your home then I have suggestions that will help. Cunstruct the floors from several inches of compacted clay. Construct the walls of thicker material as this will ad strength and increas the natural R-value. Where you have window openings build them so that you can open the bottom panels just a little and the top panel should open down from the top just enoughto creat a draft that will provide both cooling drafted air to the lower areas of the room and permit the hot air captured near the ceiling to be dravted out of the building. I some how think that by now you get the picture.

TMF