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If this interests you, I recommend checking out this video of Russ Finch, a farmer who grows citruses (orange, lemons, etc), figs, pomegranates in his sunken gr
by kingsloi 4y ago
If this interests you, I recommend checking out this video of Russ Finch, a farmer who grows citruses (orange, lemons, etc), figs, pomegranates in his sunken greenhouse in the middle of Nebraska in the snow/20F, and uses geothermal heating (long tubes buried underground) to heat it (and his house) during the winter months, and cool in the summer months. Really interesting story/concept and I'm hoping to replicate on a small scale when I renovate my back yard in the coming years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD_3_gsgsnk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD_3_gsgsnk
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoA friend/acquaintance of mine who lives a few miles from me built a setup based on this, here in southern Ontario. It's pretty neat. Big tubes into the ground and fans to run into/out of them to circular air from ground heat storage. Ended up costing him quite a bit to build even though he did a lot of the work himself. But he does have a full season growing setup though, and a swimming pool in there. Not sure how much if any supplemental heating he uses; but he's got various citrus, bananas, etc. growing.
- kingsloi 4y agowow, sounds incredible! He should blog his experience - I'd watch it!
- steve-benjamins 4y agoNo way! Do you think he’d be interested in visitors? I’m in southern Ontario and I’ve wanted to visit Russ Finch’s for a long time but would love to see something closer to home…
- cmrdporcupine 4y agoI haven't spoken to him in a while, but I could ask. I think he's mulled it over before and spoken of touring to the local area (Hamilton) permaculture guild, so he might be open to it. I can try to reach out.
- mapmap 4y agoHow does one control moisture in this system? I would worry about excess moisture buildup in the dark tubes where mold could grow.
- simonebrunozzi 4y agoWow. Love this. Thanks a lot for sharing it. I am thinking about something like that in the Venice Lagoon, Italy.
- dejv 4y agoThere is also Trail Break Farms channel[1] that document his experience with growing inside this greenhouse. [1] https://www.youtube.com/@trailbreakfarms/videos https://www.youtube.com/@trailbreakfarms/videos
- kingsloi 4y agoawesome, thanks for sharing!
- mcnugget 4y agoThe tubes are called earth tubes or ground-earth heat exchangers. If you look for geothermal heating you'll end up getting the wrong information, mostly for ground source heat pumps. The earth tubes aren't strictly speaking geothermal though, they're massive thermal reservoirs that you're taping into. You extract heat and then putting it back later either from day-night cycles or seasonal cycles.
- tylorr 4y agoHow is that different than what heat pumps are doing?
- jnsaff2 4y agoWell it does not have the heat pump. So you will only ever get the temperature the ground is at. In his case the temperature of the ground is 11C. Which I guess is fine for the greenhouse with the additional sun gain. This is nowhere near enough for human habitation comfort let alone hot water.
- mcnugget 4y agoYea, the difference is in capex cost and capabilities so the best you'll get is the ground temperature. Ideally you put a ground source heat pump but the energy needed to run it is high, COP for a ground source heat pump is like 3-6, cop on earth tubes are like 30 because you're only running a fan but you get whatever temperature the ground is.
- latchkey 4y agoPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33933892 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33933892