strange question

[Dale1962]

have a question or a thought on something. im in the planning stages of a garage. I saw in a magazine many years ago where a guy when he built his farm shop buried about 300 ft of drain tile in a loop about 4-5 ft down, then the 2 ends opened thru the floor of the building and had 1 or 2 fans circulating the air thru it. said it kept shop at about 55 degrees in winter and cooler in summer would this actually work? if you kept it on 24-7 thinking basically free heat and ac to a point, may have to run a dehumidifier too. was thinking cheap geothermal system.

 

[rsanter]

If you go about 5 ft down, the ground temp gets very stable year round.
Yes it will work if you do not get very hot where you live.
There will be a point that it will work to and you will get no better than that.
The more tube you bury the better

I have also seen where people will bury tubing that they fill with water and an antifreeze solution. They then use a small pump to run it through a radiator that has a fan blowing over it

Bob

 

[Dale1962]

im in central Illinois, down to -20 to 105 degrees thru the year those are the extremes. was trying to save a few bucks and kindof go green altho im not a tree hugger, I figure without sudden temp changes, it would stay fairly constant in there. if not it would sure help on heating and cooling costs. thanks for any help guys. was planning 6 inch insulation in walls and 12 inch ceiling insulation in a 30x45 pole building

 

[p_mori7]

Hmmm...I wonder if that type of system would be suceptible to condensation pooling & mold growing inside the pipe and then being blown out into the garage ?

 

[Dale1962]

that's a thought

 

[Strouty]

They do geothermal wells for similar reasons.

 

[Steevo]

I once had a neighbor who had 120' of 2'; diameter pipe buried 6' underground, running uphill towards his home. The lower end was a grating system to keep critters out, and the upper end was what would typically be the HVAC ductwork system for his house.

In the summer, the thermal convection effect caused the warmer air to rise out of the house through high vents, drawing the cooler air from the underground piping. In the winter, he kicked on the low-speed fan in the 2' diameter duct to pull in the warmer underground air.

It was almost as cool as his suspended, old growth, redwood slab dining table.

 

[Jackfre]

Earth Tubes! Yes they work and yes they create mold and mildew and some Mankiewicz air quality issues. I worked on an underground house back in the 70's. the tubes were abandoned after a short time due to the noted problems. Not saying that it can't work, but be real careful. On that job, the owner insisted upon the system. I did the piping but had the owner sign a performance disclaimer so I wouldn't be on the hook for operation, fortunately. We used smooth wall pipe to prevent moisture accumulation. He tried to skin me on the pipe selection. We parted ways.