Living Grid free and loving it

Didaskalos said:

That is a dream... currently we are looking at solar. We live in the deep south so the heat is sometimes unbearable. Heat index will hit over 100 for a week at a time. We have considered a partially underground home and take advantage of an underground heating/cooling system. Building codes around here are a pain. But there are many possibilities. If and when we go that route, I may be picking your brain. It is one thing to read a book on it, and quite another to actually do it.

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I have read a little about Geothermal cooling and heating. This idea fascinates me, and if i had the means i would try it. Supposedly the ground temperature stays constant year around and you can cool and even heat you home using air conditioned by a geothermal system. This has the potential for either eliminating the need for cooling altogether, or at least dramatically decreasing the amount of energy that's needed to cool a home. This is true with heating a home as well. There are expensive systems you can buy, but you can also do it yourself with little more than some pipe i think. This system would be very basic and easy to build when compared to the system found in this video.

Poster0 said:

I have read a little about Geothermal cooling and heating. This idea fascinates me, and if i had the means i would try it. Supposedly the ground temperature stays constant year around and you can cool and even heat you home using air conditioned by a geothermal system. This has the potential for either eliminating the need for cooling altogether, or at least dramatically decreasing the amount of energy that's needed to cool a home. This is true with heating a home as well. There are expensive systems you can buy, but you can also do it yourself with little more than some pipe i think. This system would be very basic and easy to build when compared to the system found in this video.

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Yes, as you said it is little more than running a grid of pipes underground a few feet down. The temperature 8 feet down stays right at 55 degress all year round. Love it. Drill a lot of vertical holes in your yard and place durable plastic coils into the holes all into one loop. The interior system would include a heat exchanger using Freon. Some systems are expensive but I think a clever person could do it rather cheaply with off the shelf material.

Didaskalos said:

Yes, as you said it is little more than running a grid of pipes underground a few feet down. The temperature 8 feet down stays right at 55 degress all year round. Love it. Drill a lot of vertical holes in your yard and place durable plastic coils into the holes all into one loop. The interior system would include a heat exchanger using Freon. Some systems are expensive but I think a clever person could do it rather cheaply with off the shelf material.

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I have read about systems that don't use a heat exchanger at all. The underground pipes themselves would be the only heat exchanger. They just allow a draft to naturally circulate the air in the pipes throughout the house. Of course i think that would require disinfecting the pipes periodically. I'm not sure but there might be a cheap solution, as you have said. The system in that video i posted uses a heat pump i think, im not exactly sure how that works.

Poster0 said:

I have read a little about Geothermal cooling and heating. This idea fascinates me, and if i had the means i would try it. Supposedly the ground temperature stays constant year around and you can cool and even heat you home using air conditioned by a geothermal system. This has the potential for either eliminating the need for cooling altogether, or at least dramatically decreasing the amount of energy that's needed to cool a home. This is true with heating a home as well. There are expensive systems you can buy, but you can also do it yourself with little more than some pipe i think. This system would be very basic and easy to build when compared to the system found in this video.

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Here's a DIY site for geothermal heating: http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-Geothermal-system/

Didaskalos said:

Yes, as you said it is little more than running a grid of pipes underground a few feet down. The temperature 8 feet down stays right at 55 degress all year round. Love it. Drill a lot of vertical holes in your yard and place durable plastic coils into the holes all into one loop. The interior system would include a heat exchanger using Freon. Some systems are expensive but I think a clever person could do it rather cheaply with off the shelf material.

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Here's a gov link to geothermal heating: http://energy.gov/energysaver/articles/geothermal-heat-pumps

This link has closed loop, open loop (vent tubes), pond systems, etc.

It's quite comprehensive IMO.

Here's one on cool roof:
It includes having roof gardens etc, to reduce the heat a roof will absorb in the summer.

IMO, a cool roof and a solar array shading the house are the 2 best ways to keep a home cool in the summer.

Solar array shade: http://earthsky.org/human-world/surprise-benefits-of-solar-panels

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable...elp-keep-buildings-cool-reducing-c-needs.html

AND this site shows via thermal imagery how tilting the solar array keeps the house cooler than flat solar arrays: http://www.gizmag.com/solar-panels-cool-buildings/19257/

There is also the option of simply building your home into the side of a hill.

I love the whole hobbit house look, they are just too cute



This is my dream hobbit hole house

Truthfrees said:

Here's one on cool roof:

It includes having roof gardens etc, to reduce the heat a roof will absorb in the summer.

IMO, a cool roof and a solar array shading the house are the 2 best ways to keep a home cool in the summer.

Solar array shade: http://earthsky.org/human-world/surprise-benefits-of-solar-panels

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable...elp-keep-buildings-cool-reducing-c-needs.html

AND this site shows via thermal imagery how tilting the solar array keeps the house cooler than flat solar arrays: http://www.gizmag.com/solar-panels-cool-buildings/19257/

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Thanks for all the links, very informative. I rent instead of owning but if i owned i would find a way of using the technolgy

Didaskalos said:

There is also the option of simply building your home into the side of a hill.

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That's another idea i have found interesting. I have also heard about greenhouses that were partially underground which takes advantage of some geothermal heating. When i was very young my uncle had a home that he build out of cinderblock. It was really more like living in a basement with no house built on top. That would be ok if you could avoid any flooding problems. It would be cool in the summer and warm in the winter if done properly.

Fireinfolding said:

I love the whole hobbit house look, they are just too cute

This is my dream hobbit hole house

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Thats in my country....

If you going to be buidling, i heard rammed earth houses are best. Also, to take advantage of the sun, orient your house and roof accordingly to trap the heat.

If you live in Rotorua, you dont really need to pay for heating as its got geothermal springs coming out of the ground.

In middle east countries they have cooling towers and courtyards.

Goodbook said:

Thats in my country....

If you going to be buidling, i heard rammed earth houses are best. Also, to take advantage of the sun, orient your house and roof accordingly to trap the heat.

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I am in a semi earthberm home now and my roof tarps way too much heat now

My husband wouldnt allow it anyway.

But its still my dream house, I love dreaming of tiny holes in the ground LOL

You have to be pretty tiny to live in a hobbit hole!

Goodbook said:

You have to be pretty tiny to live in a hobbit hole!

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Makes me think of that old Gandalf guy going into that hobbit house in that one movie lol

I wince when I see that, and I think man, that must be a killer on the lower back.

But who says that little round opening must be 2-3 feet high?

It seems to have been a chosen lifestyle for some

Heb 11:38
(Of whom the world was not worthy
they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Reminds me of John the Baptist eating locusts and honey.

Btw the underground churches in china I dont think are literally underground. But the ones in greece and ethiopia I think were.

Goodbook said:

Reminds me of John the Baptist eating locusts and honey.

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Yeah, now adays they are doing locusts and chocolate