Use ice to climate control settlement

The heat wave that my area is going through got me looking longingly at the ice in my freezer. I understand that leaving the freezer door open does not help cool the house, but it got me thinking...

Take a world that has an exceptionally long day/night cycle (or exceptionally long and severe seasons). As normal during the "day" times the planet gets inhospitably hot, and during the "night" times it gets to deathly cold temperatures. For some reason there is some unobtainium ore or similar on the planet that makes colonizing a decent (or at least profitable) idea. Lets say that either you cannot bury the colony in the ground to protect from the temperatures, or that it confers no benefit for some reason.

Using that world, I thought of a cycle where during the cold spells the colony would manufacture large amounts of ice and store them in large vaults and use the heat generated by the process to warm the colony. In the warm months the colony would then use the ice to help keep things cooled off.

Using all of this:

• Would this even be possible?
• How much ice would have to be converted in both seasons?
• Is this a practical solution in this case, or would traditional HVAC still be better?
• How long would each season have to be in order for this to even work?

posted over 9 years ago

Emerson‭

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