this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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It works quite well, but you might need to dig deeper than that depending on your soil conditions. If you have the time and room to dig, you should watch Tech Ingredients video on it:
"Turning a $150 AC Into a Super-Efficient Geothermal Unit!"
YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-41UF02vrU
Non YT: https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=s-41UF02vrU
So TLDR is you are cooling the hot side of it with water and then that water goes through the pipes underground. As its even hotter you are going to lose more temp to the ground - realistically you wouldn't even have to go as deep for something like this surely? Though you do want a decent surface area for all the pipe.
I did have this sort of thought a while back, but I was thinking of getting a water source heat pump instead and found not many options. Modifying a cheap unit may not be too hard, shitloads of silicone and some boards around as much of the hot part as possible.