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Originally Posted by Otto
Then you're in excellent shape: Rent one of those 2-stroke augers to drill down to the ground water, to a depth ~10' below the water table, making a couple of holes laterally separated by ~50' to ~100'.
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I have access to an auger for the tractor no problem, but I may need to make some sort of extension; might be 6 feet max now. . . .
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Originally Posted by Otto
Or, Google for "driven well point," available at home improvement centers and hardware stores for ~$50. Pump water up out of one hole, pass it through the heat exchanger, then drain back down the second hole.
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Originally Posted by Otto
If your'e in Lousisana, soil is probably pretty sandy and wet, with ground temp ~60ish, which is perfect.
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Soil here is high clay, but where the clay isn't it is sandy.
Where my camp is (15 miles east) is blackjack.
My well water temp is 63~68 depending on season.
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Originally Posted by Otto
This will provide all the heat and cooling you'll ever need, assuming your place has decent insulation.
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Actually no insulation at the moment; but very well sealed. I will be hanging sheet rock and filling the 2x4 walls with cellulose before the cooling season comes around.
Garage is 200 square feet, asphalt roof, metal walls concrete slab floor.
I don't want to get ahead of myself but the house with the same setup would be killer.
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Originally Posted by Otto
For the barrel test, I suggest immersing the heat exchanger at the bottom of the barrel, making sure that there is adequate space around it for the water to circulate by convective heat transfer (Google for it), as works with an old fashioned room radiator.
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My "Plan" is to leave the condenser in place, building a box around it and pumping the water around it, I prefer the submerged idea, but then I'd have to re-charge the a/c unit.
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Originally Posted by Otto
Once the barrel test works out, you could simply bury the barrel in the yard, below frost line, then route the tubes to/from the wells into/out of the barrel. The barrel itself with also radiate or absorb heat through its skin into/out of the surrounding soil, effectively increasing the size of the heat exchanger.
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No frost line here :-) Buried barrel/s sounds like a good idea to me. Best part is that way I would have x btu's pre transfered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Otto
Since water is ~800 times denser than air, and since the ground water at your place is probably just about perfect temp, you oughta have lots of free heat and cooling.
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Heat would be cool also :-) Do you happen to know if the Heat/ Cool window units are heat pumps, or just heat strips?
I'm getting excited