I was going to raise this in the wood heating thread but thought maybe a new post.
I don't know if this is worthwhile so I put it up for comment.
The basic idea is we build a box in glass, probably clear plastic...old windows..whatever such that we have a compartment, how big not sure yet...in there we lay insulation and lay about rocks, painted black maybe...a pipe of what diameter I am not sure runs to the house ...ideally the box is below the house and the hot air in the box will rise to the house however I expect small solar powered fans would be needed.
So the rocks heat up and warm air pumped into the house.
Now tell me why it won't work...
Alex
I have seen designs for thermal mass storage systems such as this. The inground heat pump loop systems appear promising as well, as the temperature below ground stays pretty constant. The commercial systems are expensive, but i believe i saw some plans in Mother Earth News (yes it still exists for all us old hippies).
It's just a matter of efficiency and losses, Alex. What you are describing is the basis of passive solar design, and it works well when the house is designed this way.
To put it into perspective, the glasshouse collector would have to be bigger than your house by a factor big enough to cover the heat loss in getting the heat from the collector to the house.
If you have that sort of money to spend, a passive solar house is the go.
The great thing about my ideas is I rarely follow thru...this seems like another.
Not that it worries me that I don't follow thru...can't help think about the guy who thought building a 48 cylinder motor bike was a good idea and actually built one...you would think when what ever he was on wore off the next morning he would have done a rethink and a laugh...but no and so the 48 cylinder motor bike lives.
And I don't think you can even ride it.
Alex
I used this method for my crayfish farm and increased the breeding season by 6 weeks.
Basically it was a 8 foot by 4 foot frame with silver foil insulation (roofing insulation) on the back and 300 feet of 12 mm black plastic tube inside the 6 inch deep frame laid carefully in loops (might have been less than 300 feet - it was as much as I could get laid edge to edge) and then run into a manifold each end and piped in 2 inch pipe to the breeding boxes. The front of the box was covered in lexan.
This could just as easily be run to a thermal mass.
The water went up by about 7 degrees per cycle through the plastic. The volume was quite low so if you increase the volume the temp delta would decrease. but in a day, you could get significant heating.
Hi Jennifer
Thank you for your post.
I was trying to get something going like your enterprise at the other place.
I even started the aquaculture course out of the Uni at Lismore..it was a tech course but you ended up with a degree in environment science or something..was strange..but I found out I was becoming a father and gave up...but I kept.fish and tabbies and coming up with ways to air rate ,feed and heat.
Do you still run the farm?
The spitfire thing confused me for a moment..I had.a vision of exhaust gasses warming the house but then it came to me a merlin motor in a bike..it was a merlin wasn't it?
They had water injection..boost..which I have always liked..
So many things rev up when warm plants and animals...
Thanks again for your interesting post.
Alex
I remember that a V8 Commodore model many years ago had optional
water injection. I don't know why it was discontinued, it worked quite
well. I remember a local [to me ] man put a Merlin in his Rolls Royce,
and was caught doing about 300 clicks on the Autostrada in Italy.
This was about 55-60 yrs ago.
raymo
Oops! sorry, somewhat off topic.
Last edited by raymo; 23-07-2017 at 02:38 PM.
Reason: more text
The basic idea is we build a box in glass, probably clear plastic...old windows..whatever such that we have a compartment, how big not sure yet...in there we lay insulation and lay about rocks, painted black maybe...a pipe of what diameter I am not sure runs to the house ...ideally the box is below the house and the hot air in the box will rise to the house however I expect small solar powered fans would be needed.
So the rocks heat up and warm air pumped into the house.
Now tell me why it won't work...
Alex
I would imagine that it would be relatively easy to harvest some warm air that way but the the limiting factors would be how much could you get - i.e. could the system warm cool air fast enough and generate enough flow to be of practical use. Plus it would work much better in the summer - when you don't need any more heat, and fairly poorly in the winter, especially at night, when you do.
And the compressor driven systems on reverse cycle aircons do an amazingly good job of extracting some usable heat from cold night air, but they need additional external energy to work.
Maybe if we could build a big enough Newtonian style reflector we could harness reflected sunlight from the moon, add a dash of starlight, and focus the beam on a steam boiler...
Like you Alex, I love dreaming up new projects, but have a similarly low conversion rate - although I definitely do build some of them
I've done a little preparatory work on the idea of a very large nocturnal solar reflector that could orbit the earth and reflect sunlight down to my personal power station at night.
it still needs a lot of work, and the power is currently very low,but here's a picture of me adjusting the prototype reflector. Just kidding of course.
However, I did build a weed extractor that actually worked
We had a plague of dandelions around the house - 20,000 plus. I began digging them out by hand but then designed and built the device in the other pictures. The idea is to push the forked plate into the ground so that it grips the sturdy taproot of the dandelion. You then use the hinged part to drop it down onto the fulcrum beneath. Then a firm downward press on the handle shoots the offending weed into the air.
It actually works! (Note the startled expression on the face of the rising dandelion in the last pic). Sadly it wasn't any quicker than digging them out by hand, although it was a little easier on the geriatric knees - and lot of fun to use. You could fire a dandelion up to about waist height. I spent some happy times laughing at the results, but still eventually dug them all out with a trowel and bucket.
A bromine heat pump could suck the heat from a high mass water system and make quite good use of it.
Insulated 10 cu m tank of water could produce more than enough to heat a house during the evening . from a 2sq mtre solar water collector used during a normal day
Despite the quite cold climate where we live the below ground temperature is a constant 17dec C. The cave guides at the Buchan Caves have to warn people not to be overdressed when they go down into the caves.
So there is a lot of energy available. If that energy is collected by burying water pipes it would make a good heat source for a heat pump arrangement.
Ian
Effective passive heaters can be constructed from old sliding glass doors. They are used as the outer face of the "box" which is painted matt black internally. A vent panel strip is at the bottom of the box to allow cold air in, and the box can be leaned against the house. If you have a sash window, it is a simple task to create an exit panel at the top of the box, which sits wedged under the lower frame of your sash window. Thermal air rises and enters the house. These are removed during the warmer months, and can be so constructed as to not detract from the appearance of the home.
Chris that is a great idea.
I can in my minds eye see a sleek one on one of those home shopping Chanels
Jenifer
That is a great idea
I could use the fresh water tanks.
And been pricing a solar hot water roof system and I could see it all linking up.
You really have got me thinking.
Rod
Can't do that here but that is a fantastic idea and would have to take the edge off by reducing the temp.
I have one...
I don't like the thought of a black roof which would help but maybe an ordinary iron roof could be used...
Simply reverse ceiling fans that in winter drive the warmer air trapped in the region between the ceiling and the roof down into the test of the house.
I visited a guuys house once and he had two sewer PVC pipes from floor to ceiling with little fans that forced the hot air at ceiling level back down...as he said "I am not paying to warm the ceiling".
Still here we are trying to save energy and others just waste it...fine for personal saving but rich humans don't give a toss about the planet...generally, and sometimes ...so many things should change as to energy consumption but let's face it.the power company want your money and the best way is to sell you more at a higher price...
I just like efficient things and spending as little money or energy as possible...
I had a terrible job cleaning to add to my income from the legal office..my wife did not work.. that was looked down upon...anyways at firstI got $5 per hour and every time now I spend $5 I think how much I had to do to get $5...
Got to go I am house minding and the cat wants to be fed, the horses want their treats and the dogs will star barking at 5 to be fed...then of course there is me...I wonder what they feed the cat.
Alex
Animals fed and I found half a chocolate bar that will hold off cooking something...maybe a pkt of biscuits or some breakfast cereal.
Anyways I figure I can remove the manhole cover to the roof cavity above the ceiling here and replace it with a panel with an electric fan (there is one in the shipping container I noticed the other day) and put the idea to a test... Maybe stick a thermometer up there and see how it warms up on a winters day...may be hot may be cold only testing will answer...
The good thing here is its on top of a hill faces North and full length windows all along, the Sun rises at the same time as it says to the left here and comes beaming in ...so with the curtains back it is really nice...and it warms the place up.
Alex
