You will have greatly reduce the system efficiency with the 4" header. You need at least a 6" header, 8" would be better to ensure you get good air flow.
Hi from Quebec, building my beartaria with the small family. We have very similar aspirations and must say you're truly inspiring. I'm saving up to join your community soon to learn more great tips. Bless you
Ne suis pas son design car il est franchement inefficace. Le collecteur doit absolument pouvoir accueillir sans friction tout l'air provenant des tuyaux sinon il te sera difficile d'obtenir la vitesse nécessaire pour un bon échange de chaleur dans les tuyaux. Autre chose les tuyaux sont, me semble-t-il trop long ce qui va mal répartir la chaleur dans le sol. Ici de bons designs qui fonctionnent (mais mieux vaut être capable de faire des calculs de base pour optimiser le système et en avoir pour son argent): th-cam.com/video/8qCucvh57Ro/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=VergePermaculture th-cam.com/video/o2NtBCS2_WQ/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=CeresGreenhouseSolutions
This gave me an idea. In Scotland, early spring can be cold even when the day light hours is enough, it can still be really cold, I've seen people make a propagation bench with heated cable in a box of sand which evenly heats the whole sand base to start seedlings off but maybe using pex tubing doing it in my raised beds with a layer of sand then maybe a foot of soil/compost.
The air is largely gonna follow the least resistance. Running so many in parallel will likely create pockets of stagnant air. Less efficient unless you add dampeners which would be a major pain.
This is true if any of the hoses are significantly different in length and fittings but if you look the system is mirrored corner to corner so you shouldn’t get too much bias.
@@danielalexanderawakening with water I might be more inclined to agree but air has such a low heat capacity it doesn’t take much to change its temperature . The pipes could be 1/4 the length and the air will come out at practically ground temp.
@@eric4946 The air in the inlet manifold will favour the exit at the far end, which is basically a continuation of the manifold. The manifold should have a closed end and the last tee should be set back a distance from the end.
Dropped an 18 inch tube in the middle to shorten the 4 inch runs. Put a 16 inch fan on it to draw air out of it while blowing air into 10 inch tubes on the ends. Found equipment I can control with Bluetooth. The snap peas are already coming up and the tomatoes will be going into the same cages for the first farmers market of the season. Northern Iowa
Been watching you so long now...probably before you married or I know before that baby. I have always enjoyed your channel and today for the first time I realized why I like it so much. You always have been innovative . You just get an idea and go with it. Critical thinking most dont use anymore. You have accomplished so much for your age and we appreciate you sharing. Our first real polycarbonate greenhouse is waiting to go up. 8x16 which will be great for 2. We intend to run 24/7 as well and im looking at many ways to heat. I wish that could work for us but it won't. Seems like a very cheap way to do it. At least after the initial cost. Since this will be used for bartering as well its worth the expense. Glad I have a couple months to decide. I have no idea what minus 28 Celsius is because we Americans are pretty ignorant of the rest of the worlds measurements. It should have been taught in school, im by the Canadian border and we can go weeks below zero in the winter. The artic fronts have me concerned.
Curtis the way your pipe is designed the air will not flow evenly through all the pipes. I'm not sure that it has to. To have even temperature from the air wouldn't it have to be like a Pex line and be continuous?
Did this for a superinsulated house. You need to shorten the lengths of the ones furthest from the intake or they will receive no circulation. Try a pressure gauge at the end of each and trim to suit, moving the gauge from pipe to pipe during the test. The exhaust leg will wind up on an angle.
You will find the adjustment of any one tube affects the flow in all of the other tubes. How do you access the end of a tube that is buried in the ground? If you propose to adjust the system before its buried in the ground, you need to remember its perforated tubing ;)
@@JohnGuest45 Good point - I missed that. Ours was solid. We did a bunch of flow friction calcs before cutting any tubing. Not sure the perforations are useful when you are relying on contact surfaces Either way, good luck!
@@trainguy55-f6q The perforations will alter the flowrate more if the tubing isnt buried. Flow calculations are difficult with perforated drainage tube because it wasnt designed to carry air so there`s no friction factor data for it. You have to do your own practical tests to figure it out. As far as the perforations go, they are pretty useless for this application because they are designed to let water into the tube.. not out. I`d recommend using non perforated tubing and cutting a straight shallow slot partway through the corrugations. Locate the slot at the bottom when you install. If you simply install the tube (perforated or not) as it is, you`ll have condensate collect in the bottom of every single corrugation with no way to drain out.
Curtis thank you so much for this information, very informative and I appreciate the time you take to pass along your ideas and experiences. Your ftf website it also soooo great! My question is how technical does one have to get to ensure the climate battery works? It seems like your system in the video is relatively low tech and easy to install. Then I start reading the comments and these, what I assume are engineers, are commenting on fan size, tube size etc etc. I want to do this the simplest way, but if I install it, then bury it and it doesn't work, that will be a big problem. How can someone who doesn't have the budget to hire a consultant make this system a success?
Having the tubes protruding into the manifold will not give you a more uniform air distribution.The transition from manifold to tube should be as smooth as possible.
@@offgridcurtisstone I designed and installed mine back in 2009. I consider myself very fortunate that i had John Cruickshank to bounce ideas off which resulted in a design that was radically different to anything that was around at that time or since. Sadly, John passed in 2011 but Jerome Osentowski (ecosystems-design) is still using more or less the same design he and John came up with back in the day. The only real change is he recommends running 12 greenhouse air changes per hour vs the original 5 air changes per hour.. In my experience, you should design the system for at least 25x, but more is better still. I can run upto 60x but find diminishing returns (when cooling) begin at about 45x. These kind of flow rates cant be achieved with the tubing layout shown in the video, you`d be lucky to get 3x assuming its powered by a 4" blower. Quantity is not as important as the quality, having one system that delivers the desired performance is better than having 10 that dont.
Going to be doing this soon. Does anyone have a reason why to use perforated pipe instead of solid? I have lots of soil big o and was going to use that.
I know you were going for simple and cheap with this one, but are you going to be able to get decent performance out of the small 4 inch manifolds? The entry and exits will have 11 times the air velocity of the main parts of the tubes. Also, back of the envelope 40 ft by 12 ft by 12 ft is 5760 cu ft. To get 1200 to 1400 cfm out of a fan, wouldn't that suggest a 10 or 12 inch diameter fan?
@@JohnGuest45 Was hoping for Curtis, but let's discuss here. I have some ideas BTW. How would you re-design what he's trying to do? How easy and/or cheap could you keep it?
@@kitchencone The bulk of the cost is in the excavation and tubing so a system that works will cost about the same as one that doesnt. Most folks simply copy designs they see on you tube...like the one in this video for example. Anyone with the most basic understanding of thermodynamics can see the issues. The most glaring is the idea of using a 4" manifold to supply air to eleven 4" tubes. If that wasnt bad enough Curtis intends to compound the issue by extending the intake to the apex and run it the length of the greenhouse. Fwiw, the 4" tube at the end of the manifold will have more flow than the rest, the manifold should have a closed end and the last outlet should be a foot or so from the end. Given the other issues its a mute point but worth mentioning. Its nice to think you can get the free air flow rate from a fan regardless of the length or diameter of tube/duct but in the real world it simply isnt the case. In the video he says the system will "dump a ton of heat into the ground on warm days", but due to the design issues he wont be able to move enough air to prevent the greenhouse from overheating and will be forced to dump that ton of heat into the yard. Its not easy to design without knowing the parameters of the greenhouse but if its 40ft x 12ft he doesnt have enough tubing, again a mute point, becuase he wont have nearly enough airflow to provide any benefit.
@@JohnGuest45 You're right, this single entry into multiple tubes that join back into a kitty corner exit is all over TH-cam, and the closer I look at it, it will never be properly balanced. It's probably worse with the same sized manifold as shown here, but even a larger manifold won't solve the problem. Not sure that even putting the last outlet a foot from a capped end will have much effect. Here's a link to a computer flow sim at Threefold Farm that shows the imbalance problem. Most of the flow skips the early outlet tubes and goes to the final ones. th-cam.com/video/GYybX525NFk/w-d-xo.html The imbalance occurs in the entry manifold, and there is very little that any exit manifold can do to correct the problem. I think the exit manifold is based more on hope than anything useful. I have some better performing balanced solutions in mind, based around a vertical entry manifold, and no exit manifold, but it's involved enough that I might have to post my own video to properly explain the details.
@@kitchencone In an imaginary world, the air would happily make the sharp right turn into each tee in sequence and the flow into each tube would be exactly 1/11th of the total flow :) In the same imaginary world, a 55 gal drum with a multitude of tubes pushed through the drum walls would be lossless and every tube in the drum would get an equal share of the air. In an ideal world, the entries should be bell mouthed or at least radiused, not just tubes with cut ends protruding into the manifold. I had to custom design and fabricate a lot of stuff for my system as nothing i could buy off the shelf could be modded or adapted to do the job.
I think it’s interesting running air instead of fluid but I suppose your heat exchanger area is so much higher with big air tubes and you cut out the middle man so to speak . Still you’d think with a fluid system you’d have much more options for adapting new systems. Doing deeper geothermal or storing the fluid is something like a cistern for longer term stability and being able to transfer heat from one greenhouse to another for example or a thermal solar array.
Fluid changes everything. You then have to worry about freezing pipes and using antifreeze which adds risk if there's a leak. You don't want antifreeze leaking into your soil. Using air only just keeps it really simple. If you have time to deal with a fluid system then go for it!
I'm curious, what fan are you using to power this? Wouldn't it make more sense to just use one pipe since you only have one entrance and exit to the system though? (Adding the expense and hassle of all those tees just doesn't make sense to me.) On the downside to this, I think it will need a high powered fan since there is only one pipe. Definitely a low-cost geothermal solution though; I'm interested to see how it's worked out!
Think about it this way, if it was one direction, the heat would distribute along the way, meaning the heat near the end would be less then the heat at the beginning. Meaning that the ground heat wouldn't be evenly distributed.
@@offgridcurtisstone maybe that by forcing the air into a singular route it circulates all the air, where like the person’s comment above about some stagnant pockets. Not sure just a guess. Sure wish I knew way more about this all. Love the video and it is definitely inspiring
@@firehorsewoman414 How would you get stagnant pockets if the air goes through tubes all the same size? Unless there is more or less resistance in once place, that's not possible.
@@offgridcurtisstone haha it was actually the resistance I was thinking about - like it would cause some of the tubes to not circulate. Honestly heck if I know. Its all a bit new to me and I can come up with way more dumb statements/questions than smart/insightful ones LOL
Is there a successful way to build an above ground climate battery? Like an extremely well insulated solar kiln perhaps, filled with concrete blocks, water barrels, or something to store heat...then just duct that heat into your building or greenhouse?
@@offgridcurtisstone Phase change occurs due to the air achieving dew point temperature inside the tube. Moisture and air leakage has nothing to do with it.
Cool ideas but man your budget is like 100 times mine. Built a hoop house for like three thousand Australian dollars start to finish. I wish I had more to spend but it is what it is.
@@offgridcurtisstone it’s just a question I’ve seen other installations where they use non perforated and thought after being a long time subscriber to your your channel that I would get a scientific answer instead you call me stupid. I’ll be unsubscribing cause i thought you were the go to guy for a reasonable answers but I was wrong
I would assume to be able to disperse moisture (hot, moist air will condense in the pipes), i'd expect solid pipe would eventually become filled with water otherwise.
@@offgridcurtisstone has your account been hacked or do you need some chill soul searching time brother? What's going on with your answering questions that you seem to be taking as challenges or critical rhetorical questions? Folk are just asking to learn. I've never seen you respond like this. Seems out of character for you. Everything okay brother?
Hey Curtis, can you use that climate battery under a concrete slab? I've plans for a grow room utilizing clerestory windows and I'm hoping to add the climate battery into the plans as well. Love your content.
@@kanddfamilyfarm A grow room is different to a greenhouse in terms of energy balance. Typically they are better insulated and the heat mainly comes from the lights, not the sun which is unpredictable at best. Grow rooms tend to be smaller / more space efficient than a greenhouse because you have control over the light placement/distribution, duration and intensity.You can stack the plants in a grow room without shading issues.The level of control makes it easier to calculate the heating and cooling loads which are necessary for designing a system.
@@JohnGuest45 Sure you have outlined conventional microgreen grow rooms, ours is different. The walls that we have will be well insulated, most likely earth bag. North, East and Western sides (southern hemisphere) will be windows and the front roof up to the clerestory windows will be clear plastic rooting. We use ambient light (some racks will have supplementary lighting but not many) and don't heat the space. We already grow in a brick veneer sun room and know we can moderate environmental conditions even better with a well designed space.
Water has much more thermal mass than sand. So, wouldn't putting soft drink bottles (stronger than water bottles) along your drains before you put the sand down, allow you to store more warmth? It wouldn't cost a penny, one would just need to collect them ahead of time.
He screwed up. Your pipes go into pipe of same diameter. That main pipe (that all other pipes connect to) should be able to receive airflow of all other pipes. Essentially you have choke-hold. Your main pipe can recieve volume of only one pipe. Sorry.
@@offgridcurtisstone P.s. Your answer implies that you dont agree. Did I explain it wrong? Main pipe should have ability to accept flow of all the pipes that go into it. If you have 10 pipes. That means that main pipe should be 10x. It is basic math. Unfortunately I see many people on youtube make this mistake.
@@offgridcurtisstone Well, I didnt expect you to be butthurt when someone points obvious mistake in your design. A lot of people watch your videos (me included). In the comments you can see plenty of people saying that they think about making their own geothermal heating. You are leading them to make a huge mistake in terms of efficiency of their system. I am right. You made mistake. People will follow your example and repeat it. I dont want people to make expensive mistakes. It is the only reason I posted that comment.
Really enjoy your gardening info, but I'm super skeptical about your 'battery'. Air is a horrible conductor of heat/energy and I can't help but think this is all a waste of money, except for the PEX and boiler which is a proven and common technology.
This design is unfortunately highly inefficient. First the pipes are so long that it requires a air speed in them which requires an expensive ventilator. All the air of pipes are collected in the same size collector pipe which create a huge resistance which requires an even bigger ventilator. With this type of design you end up spending more for the ventilator and the heat exchange is inefficient. So not having a big collector pipe is not a good deal.
Using a more powerful fan is not going to solve the issues, you`ll just be wasting more money. The only solution is to dig it up and install one that is designed correctly
You TOTALLY restricted the system by using all 4" pipe. It is impossible for air flow the be anywhere near sufficient. You completely wasted your time and money...very foolish mistake!🤦♂️
You will have greatly reduce the system efficiency with the 4" header. You need at least a 6" header, 8" would be better to ensure you get good air flow.
Yup. Manifold and stand pipes too small
I don't think you could have done anything without your little helper with his dump truck!! Pure worker
Hi from Quebec, building my beartaria with the small family. We have very similar aspirations and must say you're truly inspiring. I'm saving up to join your community soon to learn more great tips. Bless you
Salut Beartaria Québec! :D
@@gropwel Salut de Sherbrooke!
Ne suis pas son design car il est franchement inefficace. Le collecteur doit absolument pouvoir accueillir sans friction tout l'air provenant des tuyaux sinon il te sera difficile d'obtenir la vitesse nécessaire pour un bon échange de chaleur dans les tuyaux. Autre chose les tuyaux sont, me semble-t-il trop long ce qui va mal répartir la chaleur dans le sol. Ici de bons designs qui fonctionnent (mais mieux vaut être capable de faire des calculs de base pour optimiser le système et en avoir pour son argent):
th-cam.com/video/8qCucvh57Ro/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=VergePermaculture
th-cam.com/video/o2NtBCS2_WQ/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=CeresGreenhouseSolutions
This gave me an idea. In Scotland, early spring can be cold even when the day light hours is enough, it can still be really cold, I've seen people make a propagation bench with heated cable in a box of sand which evenly heats the whole sand base to start seedlings off but maybe using pex tubing doing it in my raised beds with a layer of sand then maybe a foot of soil/compost.
Also not using concrete mine for the walls I'm using ICF forms and then I'm pouring those with concrete. But thank you for your knowledge
The air is largely gonna follow the least resistance. Running so many in parallel will likely create pockets of stagnant air. Less efficient unless you add dampeners which would be a major pain.
Yeah, I would think you would want the air to snake through each pipe consecutively.
This is true if any of the hoses are significantly different in length and fittings but if you look the system is mirrored corner to corner so you shouldn’t get too much bias.
@@danielalexanderawakening with water I might be more inclined to agree but air has such a low heat capacity it doesn’t take much to change its temperature . The pipes could be 1/4 the length and the air will come out at practically ground temp.
@@eric4946
The air in the inlet manifold will favour the exit at the far end, which is basically a continuation of the manifold. The manifold should have a closed end and the last tee should be set back a distance from the end.
@@danielalexanderawakening
This is the worst possible option, you should avoid using a serpentine layout at all costs.
Keep up the good work friend. Love your work. Greetings from your blind friend in South Africa
Dropped an 18 inch tube in the middle to shorten the 4 inch runs. Put a 16 inch fan on it to draw air out of it while blowing air into 10 inch tubes on the ends. Found equipment I can control with Bluetooth. The snap peas are already coming up and the tomatoes will be going into the same cages for the first farmers market of the season. Northern Iowa
I'm from NW Iowa. Looking at installing this for our new greenhouse. Be interested in discussing?
Been watching you so long now...probably before you married or I know before that baby. I have always enjoyed your channel and today for the first time I realized why I like it so much. You always have been innovative . You just get an idea and go with it. Critical thinking most dont use anymore. You have accomplished so much for your age and we appreciate you sharing. Our first real polycarbonate greenhouse is waiting to go up. 8x16 which will be great for 2. We intend to run 24/7 as well and im looking at many ways to heat. I wish that could work for us but it won't. Seems like a very cheap way to do it. At least after the initial cost. Since this will be used for bartering as well its worth the expense. Glad I have a couple months to decide. I have no idea what minus 28 Celsius is because we Americans are pretty ignorant of the rest of the worlds measurements. It should have been taught in school, im by the Canadian border and we can go weeks below zero in the winter. The artic fronts have me concerned.
Thank you for sharing so many possibilities, keep up the good work this is great for anyone who wants to be self sustainable
Curtis, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. It's always appreciated.
Is there a follow up? I want actual results, I'm curious about the build. I am in zone 7 in the US.
Thanks for showing the climate battery set up; very informative!
Just saying Hi!!! Living in N CA with 90° full sun today... Cannabis looks amazing almost as good as my tomatoes...
Im in northern BC and this is basically what I had planned in my brain but I was thinking the pexi below the air movers.
Tying into the woodburner, nice!
Curtis the way your pipe is designed the air will not flow evenly through all the pipes. I'm not sure that it has to. To have even temperature from the air wouldn't it have to be like a Pex line and be continuous?
Yes it will. This is the third one I’ve built.
@@offgridcurtisstone thanks for the reply that goes a long way with me. PS love your homestead dude.
Curtis doesnt understand the basics, you might as well just bury the cash and save yourself a lot of digging.
Nice video. With the piping is it better to go for a single long winding tube vs the joined manifolds layout?
How deep was this space dug in the ground? Does anyone know?
Love earth batteries! Even here in an arid area it has shown great promise!
Step by step, just what I wanted to see. Thanks so much.
Should't the pipes coming off the main intake reduce to a smaller diameter?
Curtis-vids kick butt.
Would you have a list of what type of tubing and other material used to build this? So very thank you !
No. But the step by step is all in my vlogs at ftf.tv.
Did this for a superinsulated house. You need to shorten the lengths of the ones furthest from the intake or they will receive no circulation. Try a pressure gauge at the end of each and trim to suit, moving the gauge from pipe to pipe during the test. The exhaust leg will wind up on an angle.
You will find the adjustment of any one tube affects the flow in all of the other tubes. How do you access the end of a tube that is buried in the ground?
If you propose to adjust the system before its buried in the ground, you need to remember its perforated tubing ;)
@@JohnGuest45 Good point - I missed that. Ours was solid. We did a bunch of flow friction calcs before cutting any tubing. Not sure the perforations are useful when you are relying on contact surfaces Either way, good luck!
@@trainguy55-f6q
The perforations will alter the flowrate more if the tubing isnt buried. Flow calculations are difficult with perforated drainage tube because it wasnt designed to carry air so there`s no friction factor data for it. You have to do your own practical tests to figure it out. As far as the perforations go, they are pretty useless for this application because they are designed to let water into the tube.. not out. I`d recommend using non perforated tubing and cutting a straight shallow slot partway through the corrugations. Locate the slot at the bottom when you install. If you simply install the tube (perforated or not) as it is, you`ll have condensate collect in the bottom of every single corrugation with no way to drain out.
Where is the foundation insulaltion & how much did you use?
Hello Just curios did you happen to have this project successful? I am in Kamloops and looking forward to start a similar project.
Cool, Man. What if you added a couple hot compost bins to that? (50 gal drums?)
Curtis thank you so much for this information, very informative and I appreciate the time you take to pass along your ideas and experiences. Your ftf website it also soooo great!
My question is how technical does one have to get to ensure the climate battery works? It seems like your system in the video is relatively low tech and easy to install. Then I start reading the comments and these, what I assume are engineers, are commenting on fan size, tube size etc etc.
I want to do this the simplest way, but if I install it, then bury it and it doesn't work, that will be a big problem. How can someone who doesn't have the budget to hire a consultant make this system a success?
Designing a climate battery isnt difficult, if you understand the principles involved.
No header individual piping for each ventilation, minimum of three separate ventilation systems
I would use bigger pipe for headers drill holes and insert the pipes into the holes to save $ on tees and get more uniform air distribution
I would too on a deeper climate battery like I did with our main passive solar greenhouse. But this one is different.
Having the tubes protruding into the manifold will not give you a more uniform air distribution.The transition from manifold to tube should be as smooth as possible.
Cool. How many have you built before?
@@offgridcurtisstone
I designed and installed mine back in 2009. I consider myself very fortunate that i had John Cruickshank to bounce ideas off which resulted in a design that was radically different to anything that was around at that time or since. Sadly, John passed in 2011 but Jerome Osentowski (ecosystems-design) is still using more or less the same design he and John came up with back in the day. The only real change is he recommends running 12 greenhouse air changes per hour vs the original 5 air changes per hour.. In my experience, you should design the system for at least 25x, but more is better still. I can run upto 60x but find diminishing returns (when cooling) begin at about 45x. These kind of flow rates cant be achieved with the tubing layout shown in the video, you`d be lucky to get 3x assuming its powered by a 4" blower.
Quantity is not as important as the quality, having one system that delivers the desired performance is better than having 10 that dont.
Going to be doing this soon. Does anyone have a reason why to use perforated pipe instead of solid? I have lots of soil big o and was going to use that.
How would the air distribute into the ground without perf pipe?
@@offgridcurtisstoneyou arnt very smart.
@@offgridcurtisstoneair doesn’t distribute into the ground… I don’t think you understand basics of geothermal. This isn’t new!
I know you were going for simple and cheap with this one, but are you going to be able to get decent performance out of the small 4 inch manifolds? The entry and exits will have 11 times the air velocity of the main parts of the tubes.
Also, back of the envelope 40 ft by 12 ft by 12 ft is 5760 cu ft. To get 1200 to 1400 cfm out of a fan, wouldn't that suggest a 10 or 12 inch diameter fan?
Dont ask Curtis to design an air handling system for you. He obviously doesnt understand the basics :)
@@JohnGuest45 Was hoping for Curtis, but let's discuss here. I have some ideas BTW.
How would you re-design what he's trying to do? How easy and/or cheap could you keep it?
@@kitchencone
The bulk of the cost is in the excavation and tubing so a system that works will cost about the same as one that doesnt. Most folks simply copy designs they see on you tube...like the one in this video for example. Anyone with the most basic understanding of thermodynamics can see the issues. The most glaring is the idea of using a 4" manifold to supply air to eleven 4" tubes. If that wasnt bad enough Curtis intends to compound the issue by extending the intake to the apex and run it the length of the greenhouse. Fwiw, the 4" tube at the end of the manifold will have more flow than the rest, the manifold should have a closed end and the last outlet should be a foot or so from the end. Given the other issues its a mute point but worth mentioning. Its nice to think you can get the free air flow rate from a fan regardless of the length or diameter of tube/duct but in the real world it simply isnt the case. In the video he says the system will "dump a ton of heat into the ground on warm days", but due to the design issues he wont be able to move enough air to prevent the greenhouse from overheating and will be forced to dump that ton of heat into the yard.
Its not easy to design without knowing the parameters of the greenhouse but if its 40ft x 12ft he doesnt have enough tubing, again a mute point, becuase he wont have nearly enough airflow to provide any benefit.
@@JohnGuest45 You're right, this single entry into multiple tubes that join back into a kitty corner exit is all over TH-cam, and the closer I look at it, it will never be properly balanced. It's probably worse with the same sized manifold as shown here, but even a larger manifold won't solve the problem. Not sure that even putting the last outlet a foot from a capped end will have much effect. Here's a link to a computer flow sim at Threefold Farm that shows the imbalance problem. Most of the flow skips the early outlet tubes and goes to the final ones.
th-cam.com/video/GYybX525NFk/w-d-xo.html
The imbalance occurs in the entry manifold, and there is very little that any exit manifold can do to correct the problem. I think the exit manifold is based more on hope than anything useful.
I have some better performing balanced solutions in mind, based around a vertical entry manifold, and no exit manifold, but it's involved enough that I might have to post my own video to properly explain the details.
@@kitchencone
In an imaginary world, the air would happily make the sharp right turn into each tee in sequence and the flow into each tube would be exactly 1/11th of the total flow :) In the same imaginary world, a 55 gal drum with a multitude of tubes pushed through the drum walls would be lossless and every tube in the drum would get an equal share of the air. In an ideal world, the entries should be bell mouthed or at least radiused, not just tubes with cut ends protruding into the manifold. I had to custom design and fabricate a lot of stuff for my system as nothing i could buy off the shelf could be modded or adapted to do the job.
Why do headers instead of one or two straight runs weaved through the bed?
Not quite sure what you're asking. They don't weave through the bed, they are under the floor.
Amazing sharing.. 🌷🌷👌👌
Great information Curtis, thanks 👍👍.
Thank you for showing this and going into detail. Getting ready to put up a high tunnel in Georgia, and this is a simpler version.
What is the header diameter to pipe diameter ratio?
On this one it’s 1:1. On the big one is 5:1.
iso-slab system develop geothermal concept ,2 layer thermal mass with eps side +post structure
Always love the episodes really informative keep it up Ty so much 🙏✌️💪
Does the air pipe give off musty earth smell?
Great idea! Greetings from Poland :) what's the air fan power?
Use compost box and copper coil to warm the air to 75 degrees in winter
Have you done that?
I think it’s interesting running air instead of fluid but I suppose your heat exchanger area is so much higher with big air tubes and you cut out the middle man so to speak . Still you’d think with a fluid system you’d have much more options for adapting new systems. Doing deeper geothermal or storing the fluid is something like a cistern for longer term stability and being able to transfer heat from one greenhouse to another for example or a thermal solar array.
Fluid changes everything. You then have to worry about freezing pipes and using antifreeze which adds risk if there's a leak. You don't want antifreeze leaking into your soil. Using air only just keeps it really simple. If you have time to deal with a fluid system then go for it!
@@cupbowlspoonforkknif certainly keeps it simple.
So how much for your concrete for foundation 10 grand I bet eh. I was thinking of using blocks if I do one. I want do one but with fish
That was one and a half trucks so about $2000.
I'm curious, what fan are you using to power this? Wouldn't it make more sense to just use one pipe since you only have one entrance and exit to the system though? (Adding the expense and hassle of all those tees just doesn't make sense to me.) On the downside to this, I think it will need a high powered fan since there is only one pipe. Definitely a low-cost geothermal solution though; I'm interested to see how it's worked out!
Think about it this way, if it was one direction, the heat would distribute along the way, meaning the heat near the end would be less then the heat at the beginning. Meaning that the ground heat wouldn't be evenly distributed.
@@offgridcurtisstone That makes sense.
Curtis, did you consider segregating the pipes so the air would have to travel through every section of pipe before it exits?
No, I did not. The air has only one way in and one way out, so I'm not sure what you're proposing would accomplish.
@@offgridcurtisstone maybe that by forcing the air into a singular route it circulates all the air, where like the person’s comment above about some stagnant pockets. Not sure just a guess. Sure wish I knew way more about this all. Love the video and it is definitely inspiring
@@firehorsewoman414 How would you get stagnant pockets if the air goes through tubes all the same size? Unless there is more or less resistance in once place, that's not possible.
@@offgridcurtisstone haha it was actually the resistance I was thinking about - like it would cause some of the tubes to not circulate. Honestly heck if I know. Its all a bit new to me and I can come up with way more dumb statements/questions than smart/insightful ones LOL
Will it get too hot in there come summer? A hole in the ground and run cooler air into there would be nice. Respect.
I imagine in the summer that same fan / pipe system will pump relatively "cooler" air from below as well.
Is there a successful way to build an above ground climate battery? Like an extremely well insulated solar kiln perhaps, filled with concrete blocks, water barrels, or something to store heat...then just duct that heat into your building or greenhouse?
For sure. Just build a big concrete foundation.
I would assume you're using NON-perforated pipe so that you wouldn't get moisture in them and also air leakage.
You want moisture in and air leakage. That's how the heat distributes into the ground and how the humid air phase changes.
@@offgridcurtisstone
Phase change occurs due to the air achieving dew point temperature inside the tube. Moisture and air leakage has nothing to do with it.
Cool ideas but man your budget is like 100 times mine. Built a hoop house for like three thousand Australian dollars start to finish. I wish I had more to spend but it is what it is.
Why are you using perforated weeping tile
Why are you asking stupid questions?
@@offgridcurtisstone it’s just a question I’ve seen other installations where they use non perforated and thought after being a long time subscriber to your your channel that I would get a scientific answer instead you call me stupid. I’ll be unsubscribing cause i thought you were the go to guy for a reasonable answers but I was wrong
I would assume to be able to disperse moisture (hot, moist air will condense in the pipes), i'd expect solid pipe would eventually become filled with water otherwise.
@@nordicresilience I’d like to thank you for a scientific answer now I know
@@offgridcurtisstone has your account been hacked or do you need some chill soul searching time brother? What's going on with your answering questions that you seem to be taking as challenges or critical rhetorical questions? Folk are just asking to learn. I've never seen you respond like this. Seems out of character for you. Everything okay brother?
So how much electric power does it put out? Can you power a house?
The greenhouse puts out no power dude.
Dope dude!
Thank you for the video. is mold growth in the tubes a potential issue?
Mold in plastic that is buried in packed sand? Where does mold usually grow?
@@offgridcurtisstone What's with the salty condescending comments today guy?
Trying to get you to think for yourself.
Hey Curtis, can you use that climate battery under a concrete slab? I've plans for a grow room utilizing clerestory windows and I'm hoping to add the climate battery into the plans as well. Love your content.
I wouldn’t.
There`s no reason why you couldnt use it under a slab but if you plant directly into the ground you will gain a lot more benefits.
@@JohnGuest45 this idea is part of a design for a grow room for microgreens and market garden starts.
@@kanddfamilyfarm
A grow room is different to a greenhouse in terms of energy balance. Typically they are better insulated and the heat mainly comes from the lights, not the sun which is unpredictable at best. Grow rooms tend to be smaller / more space efficient than a greenhouse because you have control over the light placement/distribution, duration and intensity.You can stack the plants in a grow room without shading issues.The level of control makes it easier to calculate the heating and cooling loads which are necessary for designing a system.
@@JohnGuest45 Sure you have outlined conventional microgreen grow rooms, ours is different. The walls that we have will be well insulated, most likely earth bag. North, East and Western sides (southern hemisphere) will be windows and the front roof up to the clerestory windows will be clear plastic rooting. We use ambient light (some racks will have supplementary lighting but not many) and don't heat the space. We already grow in a brick veneer sun room and know we can moderate environmental conditions even better with a well designed space.
good one
Insulate your foundation on the outside
Water has much more thermal mass than sand. So, wouldn't putting soft drink bottles (stronger than water bottles) along your drains before you put the sand down, allow you to store more warmth? It wouldn't cost a penny, one would just need to collect them ahead of time.
Try it and see. Things that don't cost money, cost time.
If you duct air from your solar panels! When rhey get hot they produce less electricity.
Interesting!
Nice
Idk if this is going to work. It might get water in it constantly
Water from where?
@@offgridcurtisstone ground water
@@tylerpickersgill We're on a mountain, and there is drain tile all around the foundation.
Midgely is using lots of greenwaste and water drums to keep greenhouse warm in utah…
Just say no to background music.
PS. Nice to see your little kid playing in the sand:)
He screwed up.
Your pipes go into pipe of same diameter. That main pipe (that all other pipes connect to) should be able to receive airflow of all other pipes. Essentially you have choke-hold. Your main pipe can recieve volume of only one pipe.
Sorry.
How many climate batteries have you build?
@@offgridcurtisstone 3
Also: 1+1=2 no matter who says it. Phd or a lunatic.
@@offgridcurtisstone P.s. Your answer implies that you dont agree. Did I explain it wrong? Main pipe should have ability to accept flow of all the pipes that go into it. If you have 10 pipes. That means that main pipe should be 10x. It is basic math. Unfortunately I see many people on youtube make this mistake.
@@antesaric4558 your answer implies your an armchair quarterback ;)
@@offgridcurtisstone Well, I didnt expect you to be butthurt when someone points obvious mistake in your design. A lot of people watch your videos (me included). In the comments you can see plenty of people saying that they think about making their own geothermal heating. You are leading them to make a huge mistake in terms of efficiency of their system.
I am right.
You made mistake.
People will follow your example and repeat it.
I dont want people to make expensive mistakes. It is the only reason I posted that comment.
Might be better to hard pipe
Really enjoy your gardening info, but I'm super skeptical about your 'battery'. Air is a horrible conductor of heat/energy and I can't help but think this is all a waste of money, except for the PEX and boiler which is a proven and common technology.
Ok great. Be Skeptical.
This design is unfortunately highly inefficient. First the pipes are so long that it requires a air speed in them which requires an expensive ventilator. All the air of pipes are collected in the same size collector pipe which create a huge resistance which requires an even bigger ventilator. With this type of design you end up spending more for the ventilator and the heat exchange is inefficient. So not having a big collector pipe is not a good deal.
Using a more powerful fan is not going to solve the issues, you`ll just be wasting more money. The only solution is to dig it up and install one that is designed correctly
Using the same size pipe for the manifold (collector pipe) ends up as a waste of money because it makes the whole system so inefficient. @@JohnGuest45
@@denisdufresne5338
I`d recommend not using manifolds..period :)
✌❤🌱
Cheap? LOL
Крайне не эффективная система отопления которая еще и землю будет сушить 😂 так что фигня 👎 зачем вы ее все повторяете 😂
You TOTALLY restricted the system by using all 4" pipe. It is impossible for air flow the be anywhere near sufficient. You completely wasted your time and money...very foolish mistake!🤦♂️
Can you explain why?