[stevehull]

Been following the posts on storing and/or lugging water about. Seems like a lot of work. But I do have something to contribute that is directly applicable to the "stone age geothermal". It provided me with about 12-18 K BTU of cooling and very little cost.

Some 22 years ago I designed and built a home for us in central Oklahoma and built a basement. The "knowledgeble people (AKA builders) said it would not work, would be wet/clammy etc. It was not and is not.

Standard poured 3000 psi walls on footings, however, I applied closed cell foam on the outside of the walls. This minimized, actually completely prevented, condensation as the wall surface never got to the critical dew point. Deep well temp here is about 60F, but closer to the surface it approaches 70 in the summer.

We also had all the return air go through the basement. The proforma, before building, showed an additional 12K BTU cooling. Measurements show that I was a bit conservative and it is about 18K BTU.

Subslab insulation still has me on the edge. In the summer the floors are delightfully cool, but in the winter, they feel cold. The floor adds a lot to the thermal mass, but perhaps I would have used an inch of closed cell foam there too.

Note that the above is highly regionally specific. Lots of cooling degree days, not a lot of high dew points in the summer and a ground water temp in the low 60's.

I have seen a very interesting applications where large diameter (24") deep water columns were put in basements (New Hampshire) with convection in the vertical column providing heat movement. The column went up to the first floor, but did not provide the amount of heat projected. Very good convection as some of the colums were clear plastic and a drop of dye showed the water movements.

And no lugging water jugs!!

Steve