Heating a semi-pit greenhouse with a canadian well

[John85]

I'd like to keep a semi-pit greenhouse frost free with a canadian well.The pipes 'd be at a dept of 6'.
May be a member has already done this or knows about one in the UK?
On the web information is mainly for houses.

[Susan Band]

I am not sure what a canadian well is but I presume it might be a heat sink. Try looking up 'Heat sink in greenhouse' there was a program on the telly 'It isn't easy being green' making one.
Susan

[Lori S.]

I'd never heard the term, but it seems to refer to using a geothermal set-up to heat or cool the air, as noted:
http://www.terreabatir.com/en/articles/puits-candiens-le-rafraichissement-ecologique.php
http://nesa1.uni-siegen.de/wwwextern/idea/glossary/descript/c.htm

[Maggi Young]

I tried Susan's suggestion for an internet search and thereare quite a lot of references both to the TV programme Susan mentioned and to various attempts to use the method - sounds like a lot of hard work to me ( and my aging back!)

[John85]

Susan it is not the same thing :have a look at the site given by Lori
Thank you Lori;I had seen those:good explanation
Maggi,heat storage is not enough to maintain the greenhouse frostfree if there are several consecutive frosty cloudy days.But the air coming from the pipes is at about 10°c in the winter,a bit more in the summer,so then it can also be used for cooling.
My back is as bad as yours so I used a JCB to dig the hole and I can borrow a minidigger to dig the trenches.
But I have no idea how long to make them and how many.
There is(was?) a site of somebody who had done that,located in a "cold"state of USA and was able to grow oranges in his greenhouse but I can't find it back.He also used the system to heat his house with the help of a heatpump.

[Maggi Young]

Now I've had a  look at Lori's links I see the difference


I never thought about using machinery, John - no access here so it doesn't occur to me!

[cohan]

This is the site I've looked at in past on this topic, not sure if it will add anything to what you already know- they do mention somewhere some people in Edmonton (z3) able to grow vegetables for 8 months with this set-up- that's much much longer than the frost free season outdoors..
http://www.sunnyjohn.com/indexpages/shcs.htm