That's what we're doing Jim, I think. Yes, the hole is filled back in. So essentially it is an 18 foot tall styrofoam box buried in the ground to 8 feet with 10 feet above ground and just one side, (south facing) open to receive sunlight. Both end walls are insulated as well. The key is not letting any heat out once it gets in, but you know that.
That little factoid I sent you the other day about lack of sun here made me nervous, as sun is the only heat source and we get so little. So I built a little one as a prototype to see if it would work. It woks. Although we'll see how well next winter. I finished it about 6 weeks ago, so days are longer and it's warmer than Jan and Feb. Will be interesting to see how well it works in the short days with a week of no sun. If you watch that Citrus in the snow video, he just trenched outside his greenhouse and threw about 8 pipes down in there and covered them up, not very efficient. Plus he was drawing air from outside, and it still worked pretty well. A group called Greencube Research picked up on the idea and brought in thermal engineers to make a new design, and it is much more efficient. The earth in my box is up to 60 degrees. Run the fans all night and it is still blowing 60 degrees in the morning. It's pretty darned amazing.
So when you consider all the problems they're having in Florida with the green rot or whatever it's called, then the crop they do get sits in warehouses and finally gets shiped 1500 miles up north, that's some old fruit that cost a ton to ship and has been sprayed about 8 times with all kinds of gunk. This is naturally organic, don't have bug problems as it's mostly sealed all year. Local citrus up north, and it costs so very little produce. The excavation was by far the most expensive part, as I had to rent equipment. Spent about 3k on that, the rest was only about $2500 for pipe and a ton of polystyrene. To build a 30x100 woul dprobably cost about 60k, but almost no maintenance and very low heating costs. Like I say, this small one costs less that a dollar a day in electricity. Could easily be powered by solar panels in most places, just not here.
They call it a Thermal Battery. Filling in is the hard part. Important to pack dirt tightly around pipes.
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Today's Featured Article - Hydraulics - Cylinder Anatomy - by Curtis von Fange. Let’s make one more addition to our series on hydraulics. I’ve noticed a few questions in the comment section that could pertain to hydraulic cylinders so I thought we could take a short look at this real workhorse of the circuit. Cylinders are the reason for the hydraulic circuit. They take the fluid power delivered from the pump and magically change it into mechanical power. There are many types of cylinders that one might run across on a farm scenario. Each one could take a chapter in
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