And when I was cooling the solarium/house with the car rad, I didn't have the tap wide open either, just enough to make the water sprinkler work so I could water my grass. My point also was that it didn't take a lot of water flow to provide a lot of cooling with the rad.
As to which way costs more to the environment, running water or using electricity to run a chiller or air conditioner, I don't know...
I do know that at our cabin at the lake, we have the best solution. We have solar power for lights and small appliances, etc (no hydro connection). Fridge, stove and hot water runs off propane, and costs us about $40 per year. And in the late evening the cabin gets shade from the mountain side trees, so it is cool enough to sleep. In the daytime, when it is hot out, we just jump in the lake to cool off. When it is cold out, we burn wood (no shortage of that out there) in a fireplace.
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