Subterranean heating and cooling system

[GpsFrontier]

Well For those people who are considering building a greenhouse, I just wanted to share this bit of information. Depending on your location, your biggest temperature control problems may be economically controlling excess heat during summer, or cold during winter. My problem is extreme heat during summer. About 6-8 months ago someone in another forum mentioned they built a "Subterranean heating and cooling system" for their greenhouse, and it kept their greenhouse temps cool during summer (with very little electricity). So I looked up Subterranean heating and cooling systems, and found a good source of info on it. I printed it all out and put it into a 3 ring binder for easy reference. It will be the hart of my greenhouse cooling system.

Subterranean Heating and Cooling System Explained
Subterranean Heating and Cooling System (SHCS) and Greenhouse Design FAQ's

I will be using almost twice the recommended amount of tubing for the the greenhouse square footage (1.5 feet of tubing for each square foot of greenhouse). That would be 300 feet of tubing recommended, for 200 square feet of greenhouse. But I'll be using 500 feet of tubing (600 if I have enough space). I will also be splitting it into two separate systems instead of just one (250-300 feet of tubing each), and only cost me about $8 a month to run (total for both systems).

[jamromhem]

I was sitting here thinking (like i do most days) and I came up with an idea for your system.. It may or may not be something your interested in. It is a way to collect the water your system drops out while running. Also I think it would increase the effectiveness of your cooling (more soil contact area). It may or may not be suitable for you, but I thought it prudent to share it.

Intead of using the perforated 4" piping you can use PVC tubing burried instead. A 4" pipe runs down and 7 1-1/2" pvc tubes slit off of that at a slight downward slope away from the inlet tube. It takes 7 1-1/2" PVC tubes to hold the same volume in a 1 ft length. This will go out for a distance and join at a 4" pvc pipe on the other side of the "inlet" tubes and the water will drain into that portion. you can run a 1/2 PVC to run the water to a central point from the base of the 4" PVC. This PVC is joined to a parrallel 4" at the tops where the 1-1/2" PVC slopes back up (also with a 1/2 drain line to the central water point from the return 4" PVC). The central collection point can have a little pump that you can use to pull the water out as needed to water your garden.

I will draw something later to show what I am thinking. It will probably be a bit more expensive, but can collect a ton of water daily with the right humidity. and with more soil contact with the 1-1/2" PVC there is a good chance that you will get a lot more cooling as well.

I will draw a picture of it later to make sure my idea is going through well. :P

[GpsFrontier]

I replied yesterday, but I don't know what happened to it.

[T'Mater]

Wish i could do that set up here, no way with all the rock i have. I don't live in Stone County for nothing. Would need a few sticks of dynamite and a track hoe to lay anything around here.

[GpsFrontier]

I will re-post the post that disappeared somehow later when I have time to re write it. I need to make some calls, and send a few e-mails before businesses close today. But I know exactly what your talking about T'Mater. Our ground is more rock than dirt too. That's why I will be renting a bobcat mini excavator like this one to do the digging with.

Bobcat 2011 325 (Long Arm Option) Excavators

The one in that link is a 325 and if I'm not mistaken the guy told me the one I will be renting will be a 350. But I haven't been able to find any pictures of a 350 online. I found out yesterday I can get a better deal from tri state equipment rental, than I was originally going to rent from sun state rental. I will be saving about $120 with tri state.

The excavator rental is $180+tax, and delivery and pickup will run only $50 total. I will also be renting it on the weekend, and they let me use it for both days for the same price as one weekday. They will drop it off Friday, and pick it up Monday. It will have a hour meter, so I will still only be able to run it for 8 hours total for that price. But it will be shut off when I'm not digging anyway (8 hours of digging will dig one big hole). So I will get the whole thing for about $230+ tax. Where sun state was going to charge me about $220-$240 for the excavator, and $65 for pick up and delivery each way. For a total of about $350+ tax (they had the same weekend two days for the price of one). So call around to get the best deal.

P.S.
I also found the reservoirs I need cheep too. PORTABLE TANKS. Kingman is about an hour and half drive from hear, and I was planing to rent a truck to go get them. The truck rental was $135 (that includes full coverage insurance), and then gas. But there is a guy that is willing to pick them up for me for $150 including gas. So I will get all 3 tanks for $300 total (basically $100 ea). In fact that is the call I need to make right now, and hopefully I will have them here before the weekend.

[T'Mater]

Better deal on the tanks then i found, i found some for $85, but i don't have a trailer and all i have is an '05 Ford Excursion.

Ya, our problem tho is it's not a bunch of little rocks, it's boulder's if not solid underground. It's why we have sink holes in my area of the woods. Would take one of those little hoe's with a jack hammer on it to dig around here.