Do you know any geothermal tricks and hacks?

So glad UKposts suggested your channel to me. I've been researching geothermal cooling for a while but was put off by the prices. Will definitely give this a try when I'm ready to build our home. New subscriber, and thanks!

To use with a central HVAC system, a radiator could be added into your duct work (inside a sealed box). It will supplement the air temp to decrease the demand on your HVAC unit.

I appreciate watching your videos since I came across your channel a couple of months ago. I tend to live in the city so digging a long enough and deep enough trench to do this would not be possible ... but you give me pause to maybe move outside city limits. Keep up the videos.

It's good to note that the radiator or windshield fluids also contain preservatives, which stop microorganisms from fouling your system. So if you use pure glycols make sure you add preservatives.

thanks for this info, i've studied a lot of geothermal situations and in my books it's the best for the price.

What about circulation pumps? any tips on sizing the pump based on the system installed? Also does a larger pipe = more cooling? ie can you used less length of a larger pipe to achieve equivalent BTU power?

Awesome answers to some great questions, thanks.

Another question. These systems often depend on charging the ground with hot during summer and cold during winter, and the ground volume storing that temperature, which means that eventually surface area can outstrip the storage capacity, and depending on the nature of the area, reducing the cooling or heating effect (you can run lines into solid rocks hundreds feet to pick up heating from radioactive decay even, but over a century deplete the built up warmth). Is there a better way to design it?

LOVE your videos BTW!!!!

Is it just about square footage then? Would a 400 or so foot system be able to cool a greenhouse or garage sized house?

How does a two well system work? It's no longer a closed loop system. Rather than a circulating pump that is overcoming the friction in 3/4" tubing (not much friction for that laminar flow), you'll have a well pump pushing cold water up and that'll use much more energy. In theory, the weight of the falling water can siphon water from the other well but in practice, the water will drain down and the suction will be lost. For my area with a lot of limestone, I considered a closed loop system with a stainless coil down a single 6" diameter well, but unless the water at the bottom is an underground aquifer with good flow rate, it seems likely that the local area will not sink enough heat to air condition a house.

Thank you for actually showing Celsius as well

Great Video. Just wanted to ask what the best 3/4" pipe to use for 800ft (average 2-ton AC performance) at about 5 to 8 ft in sand ground material? What's the best quality brand pipe and depth for coiling the pipe?

The thing to remember when talking to a heat and air guy is he doesn't want you to do it yourself. Plus he gets a commission on whatever they sell you.

awesome stuff!

For straight-line pipe burial, an ordinary trencher would probably be more practical than a backhoe or an excavator. Some have extensions for extra depth.

Here I am. I will explore this idea and I hope expand on it.

My ground temperature is pretty close to 57 F I did not actually measure it. But I took a trip due west to visit the Jack Daniels whiskey facility. They use ground temp water as part of their process. It comes from a cave. So while your method of figuring the ground temp is indeed correct thought mine was a lot more fun.

Thanks for the follow up! I’m in Manitoba and seriously planning this for next year. The main argument against this is that for under $2000 I can install a smaller mini-split that has a professional appearance my wife will appreciate. When I have panels and batteries they be overproducing when it’s hot anyways. And a mini-split can be used as a heater in spring and fall. How I can make a nice looking blower is a question. If I did do it I could have valves to divert for garage heating in winter.

Thank you for this! Do you have a way to calculate the length and width of the trench per feet of pipe if coiled?

Hey you got me all excited about this idea. You explain well what all you need. But you stop at the fan and the radiator. How do I get this cold air into my house? Please do another video and explain that part. Thank you

It would be really nice to see the finished product and how it works what kind of air temperature you're getting

So I recently took the plunge and have buried 3 different loops each of about 1200 ft of 1" I have it hooked into a radiator I picked up at Autozone for a 2000 Civic as the shape fit perfectly between my ceiling joists. I have a overkill Grundfos 3 speed circulation pump hooked into it where the water will cycle through slowly on Medium and fastly at High. The whole system is filled with RV Fluid (the pink stuff that's capable of -50). The issue I've run into is a simple box fan is not cutting it. It doesn't have enough power to blow the air through the radiator. My thoughts are that I need to 1. buy a squirrel cage blower. 2. build an enclosure around the fan/radiator to direct the airflow. or 3. swap out the radiator/fan for more effectient products. Any Suggestions? What kind of fans/setups have you or anyone else used?

hi.... excellent video!!!! I grow tomatoes in my green house, the out side temp in the summer in around 37 degrees celcius. its abit hot for the tomatoes this time of the year. how many degrees do you think geothermal with radiators and fans can drop the temperature... just to note, the green house has sun block on the top. thanks

Hello! Thanks for sharing all this information! Do you know anyone from Brazil who has build an open loop system?

Thank you for these amazing videos. I have one question though, I live in India in a very humid environment and I mostly need this system for cooling so can this system remove humidity without a heat pump? is there any other way to remove humidity using this system?

Can you hook the radiator portion to an exist PAC (propane) outdoor heat pump unit? We are in the southeastern US. It already has the ductwork, etc. set up.

I know this was made years ago, but I'm pretty sure you will greatly improve the thermal dissapation if you use metal type pipes, and you're in wet soil.

Would this work in tropical climate like costa rica? could i also increase efficiency by placing the coils in a pond?

Question, could a system like this be used to make a hybrid geothermal/ conventional central ac. My thoughts would be to add the geothermal radiator into the central system on the return side to pre-cool the return air just before it goes through the evaporator. Would this increase efficiency substantially?

Where can I find detailed information such as transfers pump gpm the cam of the blower motor how much piping for sq footage

Nice explanation! What happens if the pipe gets cut? Would you need to put in some redundancy?

I am looking for an answer for my elderly friends. They live in the ca high desert. Off grid. And they can’t keep their home cool enough with a swamp cooler when temps are over 100F. I have watched two of your geothermal videos. I still don’t understand how it works. Do you have step by step planes?

I have 2 houses about 10 meters apart. Plenty of land, so I can easily get the meterage for the pipe. Can I use the same pipe and connect a radiator and fan to each house? If so, are there plans for such a system?

I would love to hear your thoughts on a home cooling system that I first heard of a few years back but has since gone out of business. The company's product was called "the Ice Bear". The device was basically copper coils submerged in an insulated water tank that was attached to a refrigeration system that would slowly freeze the water during the day with the use of solar panels until the water tank became a giant block of ice. The copper coils were attached to a radiator and fan system with pump similar to the low grade geothermal hack you describe here but instead of the cool of the earth, the system would use the ice created by the power of the sun. The sun would power the system during the day to make the ice and you would use the ice at night to cool the house for small amount of power generated by the fan and pump. Not sure why the company folded but I am intrigued by this idea. Do you think its dumb or might work under the right conditions? Thanks.

Technical question. If I spiral tubing clockwise underground will Coriolis Effect accelerate air flow? Just like water spins clockwise in the northern hemisphere. Maybe we don’t need a fan for airflow.

When laying down the hose/pipe..do you put gravel around it or should it be in direct contact with the soil?

Will it work on a house? Our next & last house will be 12-1500 s.f with a basement, (hopefully), & will have anywhere from 5-20 acres. We always buy land with at least half of it open, looking to go to southern MO next...I HOPE I can do this for a house & perhaps take the radiator part & drop it right in the air handler so we can use the rest of the system as a backup for colder winters or hotter summers, & be able to use the existing vents ideally. Is this doable?

Your horizontal loop layout will work much better than the highly engineered multi well system I saw fail miserably. I would suggest some kind of spacer between the pipes where they cross. Water source heat pump and well kept fluid chemistry, even in a closed loop. You will heat when air to air heat pumps can't keep up in cold weather. You will cool in hot weather when your neighbors won't be able to. About 1 GPM per ton of capacity.

My new shop system just like this is working. Ground temp 8' down seems to be 15 C, and 800' of 1" line warms up to maybe 17C after a couple days of running, so for passive cooling the rad stays cooler than the air. If I could tap into some of that 6-8C ground would make for super AC. I bet if the water table with higher this year it would be more efficient, water in my well is about 15' down this month.

My self I would never tie wrap the water pipe to each other . Even though it is underground rated it is not rated for rocks hard debris so that being said with such a DEEP excavation that is a lot of weight that over time the pipes will begin to crush into each other. Proper installation would be to have a 2 to 4 inches minimum spacing between all water tubing . I know no one has complained yet BUT also it takes time and some equipment to check for flow reduction. I have been installing electrical - communications - underground cables - water supply tubing and always all of them MUST have spacing. BUT it is the QEW ( quick n easy way ) to just tie wrap everything together burry it and run to the next job. If you never have to repair your mistakes you never learn. These horizontal trench installations should be back filled with at least 10 ( 5 under and 5 over ) inches of sand type fill before and heavier rocky back fill is added. I know because I have been the one in the trench spreading the sand and making sure that there is 5 and five and NO pipes touch each other. I have been involved in many pipe trench repairs SO I am speaking from experience . Take the time to DO it RIGHT the first time. Far too often people want to be finished the job before they start ...... You have inspired me so much with these videos that I am installing both horizontal coils with no overlaps and dug well type install with the coils installed still in the coil in a a dug well that has been cemented ( with Sahara sealant as used in swimming pool installs ) The well type has a water supply from roof drainage and a berried house tap water supply to keep the coiled pipe wet at all times. When I am back in the Philippines I will send you pictures.

You don't need to use pure glycol as a coolant. Not unless you live in a place where the surface temperature might actually approach negative 40c. You can easily Google a table for the mixing ratio you need to keep your coolant flowing at X degrees C. Water conducts and stores heat way better than glycol so it only helps efficiency. And it's free... That said - It would be wise to use a large safety margin of course. As for how much you need to fill a given length of pipe, that is pretty simple math to calculate as long as you know the inside diameter. just Google a calculator for a cylinder and put in the known numbers.

there are huge geothermal power plant about 30 km from my house our area basically are part of active volcano, i dont know water temp but it is always very cold so basically i can make refrigerator only use a YARD? please enlighten me, i just starting hear diy geothermal in recent time, greet from indonesia

Maybe I missed it, but did you address condensation issues with cooling radiant?

I have a 4” well casing available , how deep do I need to go and what pump is needed?

I have plenty of land behind the house. If I buy 1500 ft of sprinkler grade pipe, can I trench for it 6' deep about 700 feet away, 50 foot over, and 700 feet back in one circuit? Basically I just want to make a big U shape. Will this type of distance put a lot of load on the pump? It is very flat ground with nothing in the way. I am mainly looking for something to supplement the cooling for a 1000 sq ft house. I would like to get the electric bill down. What about the humidity in the house? Will this type of flow over a radiator in line with my existing duct work reduce the humidity in the house?

I'm in the tropics, high water table, what should I do?

Interesting. I have a water well 30 feet down and you have me thinking in the winter I can heat my raised garden bed the same way by putting the coiled water pipe under the soil a foot or more when I build my next raised bed. I will cover the bed with a greenhouse covering. Why not?

Can you tell us how large the loops should be and how long a trench to accommodate the 400’ of tubing should be? I’m in northern MI with an off-grid cabin and have a septic system going in soon-I’m seriously considering doing one of these systems as the excavating equipment will be on site already.

I wonder if it's possible to do this in New Orleans? I've got 100 feet i can trench and the water table here is super shallow, like you get to water after just a few feet.

Hi there. I like this idea. What are the typical dementia’s of the trench? 8’ deep by 2’ (bucket size?) by 100’ long? 1 trench or more. I haven’t found this information yet. Please help.

I am a 30 year tech. I have seen over those years multiple leaks in the field wether it be dx or indirect you still have to dig to find and repair them

Figuring how many BTU heat transfer. A couple of things. How deep can you go. How large a diameter pipe. Internal friction of smaller but longer runs. These all make a big difference in how many BTU and how long it might take for the ground to recharge the heat around the piping. Have heard of people doing a wider trench and then after backfilling enough to keep the tubing in place they cut foam panels wide enough to just fit the trench. Why? They do this to keep the warmer or cooler temps of the surface air from slowing the recharge time. For me to get close to the # of BTU needed I figured for the 10 degree difference from where you are in canada to here in SE Tn but using the same 3/4 in tube likely will need 800 ft per ton of cooling. Hope this is helpful to other folks reading the blog

can we put lines in a septic tank which 15-20feet deep. coz a septic tank may be have the same temperature as a water body of same depth? when you are putting options you may ask for each and every possible option. is this can be done or there may be not same temperature ? please answer. I may be wrong but i want to know.

is plastic tubbing a good conductor of either hot or cold.Is there a substitute material that could absord cold like cooper or stainless tubing?

I did something similar for my garage, storage building, and greenhouse. It's keeping the buildings less volatile. I also run a dehumidifier in summer to keep moisture down and a humidifier during the winter to help heat the space

I would like to know how to attach the water line to the auto radiator? Is there some kind of fitting?

Can I use 100mm PVC tubes? If so, how do I calculate the length necessary to get the BTUs that I need?

First time watching a video from your channel so I do not know fi you have addressed this other places, and if so, please put the link in a reply. So, lets say someone is building a house. Would, while digging the foundation, it be a good idea to dig several feet deeper and lay the pipe underneath the foundation (slab style)? If not, how about the non slab style?

Can this work in place where the ground water temp is around 77f and summer temp is around 90-95 f with high humidity?

I have a heat pump installed but have been thinking abou making it a (redneck) geo thermal. I have been told it won't work but can't give me a good reason why it won't work. I'm thinking about 2 ways of doing this. Both ways are to change the temp. of the condenser air intake temp. for both winter and summer. The first and cheapest way for me is I have a 250 foot deep well. I'm going to run a 2 inch pipe with a loop in it to the bottom and back up and through some radiators and attach them to the condenser. I figure I should be able to get between 10 and 15 degree temp. differential. The other is to place 6 inch tubes in the ground at 6 foot deep. Build a wall around the condenser to pull the air through the tubes.

Pretty simple Google ground temperature for your town . You must bury the lines below the frost line in your area that's where you are most area's 4feet is all the deeper you need to go . To go deeper below the frost line the temp won't change until you get hundreds of feet deeper .

How would you remove the humidity?

Should the water lines be filled and or pressurized before backfilling?

Could you run hydroponic nutrients in the water to lower the temperature of the water going to the plants?

Can you recommend a heat pump manufacturer to look for thats affordable?

X6 - 1000ltrs IBC tanks piped together and buried under the ground .. they will be the heat sink to utilise ....I guess that will work too.

I was also wondering about the coils. I was wondering if you ran, say a 100 foot trench 6 foot deep, and 12 inches wide, and you ran 6 lines out, put 1 foot of soil, then added 6 more lines, would that give you 1200 feet of cooling/heating lines?

Will this system work on a off grid cabin about 220 sq. ft. for cooling?

You brought up using the main water line to determine an estimated ground temperature. Could this not be taken a second step and use the water main to cool a heat exchanger tank and use that water flow to cool a water mass flowing through a air to water heat exchanger? Only downside I can see would be having slightly warmer tap water, and if you don't use enough water you could heatsoak the cooling water mass?

Interesting idea for water storage...large diameter pipe underground negate the need for storage tanks.

Possibly crazy thought that might modify your design slightly. The big expense / labor item is the install of the coils. There's nothing stopping you from installing the basic AC system, then at a later date installing the heat pump (maybe say, when your furnace dies). Just size the coils at the start planning for a future upgrade. You might spend a few hundred extra in PEX and backhoe rental but you're prepared for the future.

What kind of solar powered pumps will you need for two hundred feet of one inch line ? Do you need two or one pump ? How powerful do they need to be ?

2:49 Here, if it gets overcast and cold for a few days the municipal water from the mountain lake gets cool. Sun come out, a few days the lake heats up, and the temperature goes up. So, the municipal supply is cold charged.

How do I make all the connections do you have schematics or a drawing you could put on the video

What if I put a radiator in the ground, too? It will help?

Heat transfer coeficient is the spread of temperature creating the opertunity to increase efficiency.

Is there a way to help reduce the humidity?

Some plans of your own system would be helpful to gauge what would be required for individual as application

What type of pump could you build if you do not need to heat?

Put a thermometer in your sump well. We need to design a system that has an exchanger at your sump pump. My basement always has water.

Will it work I Nevada desert

You should make a DIY heat pump video if possible

if you can't get an excavator for some reason but can get a trencher, you can make a grid with narrow (6-inch) trenches ... you obviously can't coil the lines, but with a little planning, you can run multiple passes through the same trenches, kind of like the copper wire in an electric motor. Perhaps not quite as efficient, but for many DIY'ers, a trencher rental is a much more realistic option than an excavator.

will this work in the tropics tho?

It might be nice to tell your followers who have soil that has rocks in it to place a layer of sand down for the pipe to rest on and also to cover the pipe with sand to stop rocks (sharp) from damaging you pipe.

Great ideas overall. But figuring out the ground temperature at around 6 foot depth by taking the water temperature after running it won't work if you have a well and a pressure tank. The pressure tank will hold the water at the air temp where it's located and with most modern deep wells the temperature of the water coming directly from it will reflect the ground temperature at the depth of your well. Probably 100+ feet down.

well my water pipes run under the black tar road ...so it works like a solar heater....not a good measure of ground temp.

What circulates the coolant?

Why not add a solar water heater to the heating system portion of this build just add a section where it can be attached and disconnected for the season.

Hi, has anyone use a Thermodynamic Solar Panel instead of a thermal solar collector

If you have 1 acre of cleared land and plan to install the pipes in a coil configuration, how wide and long should the trench be? Definitely don't want it too narrow, but I wouldn't want to greatly over-dig the trench either.

U work in a house for bout 24 yrs it has 19 water source heat pumps no back up strip sizes 7000 btu to 48000 original lines 20k 1" 10' deep done ok until water leaks started showing after small earthquake owner kept having lines fixed finally he went to vertical lines. Only main problem was heat exchangers would leak. 2 units in pool house 2 in guest house also thats 23. Will be glad when house sells gettin tired of it time for someone else to worry bout it.

Do you really need glycol in the pipes? You have running water in the system. You have to have extremely cold temperature for extended period of time to get running water freeze.

In Florida our ground temp even at 30 ft is way too hot. But with a open system would work no problem. I'm on a well. I wonder if I could put radiators on the income line in the house then going to the hot water heater. How to tell the wife I'm retrofitting radiators into the living room air intake 🤔

When studying Earth-sheltered housing I learned that the average ground temperature is the same as the average temperature above the ground. Colder climates have colder ground and warmer climates have warmer ground.

A circle trench is best, running 3 large coils is less turbulent than 30 coils. Energy efficiency.

A heat pump can always be added later . Most important is to properly install your circulating system.

İ was trying to figure out away to heat or coll my water ponds inside the greenhouse using this method to keep the temperature around 25 C degrees. İ thought maybe İ won't need a fan to do that, probably just let the water tubes pass through the pond will be enough. What do you think? İ am growing Duckweed in the pond and Fishes in the Tanks.