GeoThermal Greenhouse Build | Part 5

[@didanz100]

Good on you for showing real results. I watch heaps of videos and there are to many wannabe KZbinrs just regurgitating stuff.

[@timhacin8393]

I am so happy I found your channel. As you said in this video there so much content about how this kinda system should work in theory and bunch of people doing some dry calculations, but not much on how this kinda project really works in practice. Also your way of presenting the whole build is really straight forward and really fun to watch. I've been researching this topic for some time now, but your channel has by far the most useful information on how to go about setting the whole thing up. Looking forward to watching your progress with the project. May the force be with you man. Greets from Slovenia Timo

[@notastepizzaface]

I am really excited to hear what you discover regarding using gravel instead of putting the pipes in bare earth. This has been something I've been wondering for awhile, and you confirmed my hope that the air would travel throughout the grave---I thought this could help transfer the heat energy to the ground faster, but your testing could verify if for some reason it doesn't result in better gains warming the growing soil. (If for instance you when you map the heat it is not evenly distributed, or if through testing you discover the gravel layer doesn't transfer efficiently to the soil layer.)

[@patilbhaskar7716]

Nice practical results are always best.

[@noelhamilton8332]

Christopher well done you could perhaps lay black polythene on ground for winter to take any solar warmth into your soil about to do similar geothermal in southland new Zealand good luck noel

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Cool! I there is no sun here in winter, so that would not help here. Make sure you send me an update once you get started! :-)

[@willgaukler8979]

.....passive solar heat collection tho... also could add black barrels of water as heat bank and or ...shelve support... slowly takes in extra heat ...releasing it at night...

[@offgridsweden]

Really awesome man. Have a great evening, Andreas from Off Grid Sweden 🇸🇪

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Thank you so much, Anders! Much love to Sweeden. :-)

[@PrairiePlantgirl]

This is very interesting. Keep the data coming.

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Sure thing! :-)

[@TonyCSmith]

Just love it Chris. Great to watch you work your way through it. And yes, to include all aspects of the process if you can manage it.

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

I will post more often from now on, Tony! :-)

[@brucerazor5202]

Good choice to go with the Polly carbanet sheets(think that’s how it’s spelled) a lot of people go the cheap route with clear plastic

[@kansaiking]

is snow load a problem on the roof?

[@henribg1]

Great job!

[@jimcadwaladr1879]

Have you had a look at using a solar panel/battery stem to run your circulating fans? Great series, thanks

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

I will do a solar project this summer, or the next one I think.

[@bigh650]

yep keep them coming

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

I will, buddy!

[@toddhower8215]

great videos thanks for sharing your adventure!

[@sandyb1184]

Great video! I set my indoor temp in my house in the winter to 18.5 C, so you are warmer in there than I am in my home in April! Our homes should be built using geothermal! Would having rocks inside help, that would heat up during the day and help to maintain the heat at night somewhat? Or some kind of heat absorbing mass?

[@charlesnorvell6393]

look up earthships. Theyre designed around using thermal mass and other renewable energies to air condition, and power a home.

[@jamess1787]

Cold day? We just got out of a cold snap here in Canada. -20*C to -35*C (no windchill). Had a couple days of -45*C (with windchill). ;). Love the videos! Keep them up. Love the videos, been watching your greenhouse build since the beginning of the dig. Staying tuned!!!

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Haha! True. Not cold at all. Hence the t-shirt. We had the same temperatures as you guys just had the whole of january. Finally I can smell the start of something good. We still have two and a half months of snow left. Much love to Canada my friend.

[@jamess1787]

Very interested in the PCB/electronic gardening videos. :)

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

@@jamess1787 Awesome! I'll get right on that! :-)

[@jongyoonoh6721]

It is great job. Build geo thermal green house and editing.

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Thanks! :-)

[@HH-xf9il]

Ask indoor pod ( marijuana ) growers on what fan moves a lot of air but is stealthy silent. There’s a lot of these specialised pod “grow shops” in the Nederlands that exist to feed that niche :). You’re biggest fan is pushing, strange my first instinct would be a pull configuration... although I am a complete noob on this though. Cool videos, interesting project !

[@tzenophile]

Thanks for the update, Christopher! I really admire your curiosity and scientific mindset! But have you just invented a greenhouse refrigerator?? Two more things: 1. Please include links to your temperature sensors and fan in the description (or here). I am very curious to see what they are. 2. I notice that the outer rim of the floor seems wet, is this meltwater coming in from the outside? 3. I keep my own 20m2 greenhouse heated with a heat fan like you describe, and manage to keep my citrus trees alive in freezing outside temperatures over winter, at 4-5C. But I have isolated the foundation of the walls with concrete 80 cm deep and Styrofoam on the outside of that. Have you checked for heat leaks and cold bridges? 4. That was three things, sorry.

[@Geertpieter]

Looks totally amazing Chistopher! What would happen if you would hang a 1000 watt gavita high pressure sodium lamp in there at winter? Would it stay above zero if you keep the lamp on all night? Would you be able to grow tomatoes in winter? Or would you need extra heating? I know you don't want to use the greenhouse in winter, i'm just wondering what would happen.

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Thanks! :-) Well, that would not do a single thing to the heat in the greenhouse. I tested just for fun with a 2000 watt fan oven, and that barely changed the temp when it was cold outside. Never got into the frost free temps. So I guess it would take a very large oven to heat it. I have been playing with the idea of putting in a rocket oven there to grow lettuce year round. We will just have to see what this year brings. :-)

[@Geertpieter]

@@ChristopherBrandsdal Yes indeed lattuce, broccoli, andive and related stuff like cabagess could be grown with some mild frost. Wow so it would take a whole lot of power to heat, i would have never guessed... Thanks for testing! If it would be easy to heat in the winter you could grow a mango and banana tree!

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Haha that would be awesome! But another thing to make note of here is how far north I am. We get at most one hour of sun a day here in the winter. The sun is so low in the sky that it barely comes up at alll.

[@Geertpieter]

@@ChristopherBrandsdal Wow, that's very extreme indeed, the word winter gets a whole new meaning...

[@ATeamAdam]

I wonder what the thermal transfer is on gravel?

[@Cornfed_Off-road]

How are you keeping water from entering the perforated pipe?

[@constitutionscott5416]

I believe you would have better delta t if you use the fans to suck from your pipes. You are blowing air out the slits under ground. You want to be sucking the air thru the slits under ground. Just a thought.

[@lynelgross2880]

Do you ever have high winds in winter? If you do how did the greenhouse handle it & how high were the winds?

[@BenjaminRatsey]

It's amazing matey!! Good effort dude! 😎

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Thank you so much! :-)

[@freddykoopmans6985]

Interesting: The air is looking for the lowes way of resistance. the only way to check how much of the air is leaking from one channel to the other channel, or from one loop to the other is to do Flow measurements on the intakes and exhaust pipes. I could imagine that too much leakage would give less efficiency off the system. The geo batterie efficiency is depending on how easy you can put energy in it and how easy you can extract it. If the voids between the gravel are too big it will charge not to the full capacity of the space and the head storge will not last long. It would be nice to see what kind of gravel he did use for the system ( this is the first upload is did see, so I still have to check more)

[@k.r.6800]

Why is your ground temperature so cold? I thiught that thebtemperature underground would always stay above 10 segrees even in cold winter. Please explain

[@DirkTas]

What sensors do you use, did you build the system yourself? Esp8266, Raspberry Pi or did you use something commercially available?

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

This setup uses a Particle P1 chip with ds18b20 sensors. Will change once i figure out what I want. ☺️

[@craigberube9890]

@@ChristopherBrandsdal,did you post a link to the sensors you picked?

[@donmisener]

Chris, are you planning to put in RH sensors or other sensors on your blowers? It would be interesting if you had mass flow sensors on your outputs and a pressure sensor on your input as well. With that information you could determine how much heat you can transfer in to your "thermal bank" during specific photo periods.

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Yes I will! Will measure RH on both in and out air. Also in general in the greenhouse. More to come very soon! :-)

[@willgaukler8979]

...back pressure is pushing your air down and out into your gravel...lower fan rpm....or lower overall air movement through the geo thermo...allowing it to move more of Your treated air....great system you’ll see... great to remove more heat In Your warm months...you do get warm months right?...jk....

[@flyty2134]

Your video is very interesting but I think you’re right it’s a little bit long I think if you went with a shorter video it would be better all the same I enjoyed it thank you so much for the information.

[@sevensurvival]

You're underground pipes need to be at least 1 meter deeper to work better. Thanks for Your research, and work. Respect

[@ricknelson3607]

Why did you use perforated pipe? Normally these systems just use inducted heat from ground into the pipe.

[@JohnGuest45]

Hi Christopher, i havent visited your chanel in awhile,.You`ve made a huge amount of progress so l will have to catch up on your latest vids. The initial testing is always interesting, dont forget to measure air flowrate and RH% to get the full picture ;)

[@mirkavasinova2858]

do you have any estimation of how long this system could eventually last?

[@radnasirhill]

Hi. Because of tour two half underground setup with perforated an non perforated pipes you do have a great possibility to try combine air fed geothermal on one side an heated water geothermal on other side witch will be a unique project thanks to your dual base set up under your greenhouse. Obviously it is about cheap hot water for use but that's could be sorted if you are adventurous enough. Let us know if you would consider to try it at yours. It would if I am correct could make your greenhouse be useful all year round with no added expenses. One way or another I think you have done well.

[@pacheco2309]

What type of sensors do you use ?

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

These are the wateproof version of ds18b20. I will use different one for above ground readings. Have not decided on the sensor yet.

[@pacheco2309]

Sounds like everything is working how you need, I think you have one of the best explanation and how the geothermal is working , I've been looking in a lot of places for my school report. Keep it up .

[@szczecho]

does this method actually let you cultivate the plants in winter?

[@ChristopherBrandsdal]

Nope, not here in Norway. No sun and very cold.

[@szczecho]

@@ChristopherBrandsdal wonder how would it worki here in Poland maybe you should have put the pipes deeper to get better results

[@JohnGuest45]

@@ChristopherBrandsdal No problems down to -12 deg C, a lot depends on your insulation especially at night.

[@algreen266]

Dear Christopher ,thank you for your unlimited help which no one else has on the Internet. Please im an Architect and would love if you can send me your email so i would send you 3 d drawing of what you have done with simple explanation from fan size to where the pipes are put underground, because nobody on the Internet is explaining this and i would with you help make this so understandable that everyone has access to this knowledge so that even a child can do so if you are interested i would be waiting for your email.Thanks

[@Cspacecat]

This is what I don't understand. Guy has a house. He wants a greenhouse. He digs a hole into the ground for geothermal. Why didn't he attach the greenhouse to the house and build it sublevel against the house with a thermal wall on the south side of the house? That way, in the winter he could have walked out of the house into his greenhouse. The house itself would have been a thermal barrier for the greenhouse on the north side. The greenhouse would have heated the house at the same time. Why dig a hole for geothermal if you aren't going to utilize that which is available from the start?

[@jayclark5034]

I believe too cold in winter with too little sun, approach you describe would take too much heat from house in winter. Would need a very insulated barrier between house & greenhouse. My dad did what you describe on house built for us in lower Michigan, U.S., worked well. I was about 20 years old, took a couple of years and I got to be the "gopher"! Learned a lot! Just sounds like they're too far north for that to work

[@Cspacecat]

@@jayclark5034 I dug 6ft below the foundation of my house 21X50ft at basement level. I added a 90-ton gravel bed. T hat gave me 16ft ceilings in the sunroom I designed. It never froze even without insulation. Once insulated it stays between 60F and 65F year-round. This last cold snap when it reached -10F outside, it got down to 49F. That's the lowest temperature so far. My gas bill was $19 minus the $30 service charge for the house. Needless to say, I know exactly what I'm talking about. They wasted their time.

[@svetusik72]

Could you condense your videos to 5-7 min? There is really not enough substance to make them longer than that. Otherwise, keep up the good work and keep sharing... thank you

[@jayclark5034]

There's always the "skip forward 10 seconds" button...😉