Geothermal tank heater

[Walkin Horse]

I don't know if saw this idea on TBN or I dreamed it up. I have seeded a paddock close to the barn and need to keep the horses off of it. I am separating and closing off this part of the paddock and the part where I'm going to keep 3 horses is about 500' from the barn. Hauling water is no problem but keeping the trough from freezing is going to be the problem.

I have some 3' sections of 8" concrete pipe. If I dig a hole and stand this pipe up in the hole and backfill it. Then sit the tank on top of the pipe. Will I get enough warmth out the ground to keep the tank from freezing. Is 3' deep enough or would 2 of them stacked 6' deep and at least 2 lines in the ground. A 100 gal tank is about 4' long. I thought about burying the tank about half to keep the wind off it but it would be a pain to clean. If 8" pipe is not enough, would 2 plastic barrels be enough.

Has anybody tried this. Will it work. Is there something else that needs to be done besides just burying the pipe. If this works I see a lot potential energy savings since most winters I use 4 heaters for about a month or more.
Thanks for any ideas.

 

[whistlepig]

I'll share my experience with a Nelson automatic waterer that we have had for many years. A 12' foot hole was dug and then a 12" diameter plastic drain tile inserted into this hole and back filled around. The Nelson waterer was mounted directly over this hole on a concrete pad. All of this for the geothermal heat. Still our Nelson waterer has an electric thermostatically heater mounted on it. Once our electric heater failed and the waterer froze. Albeit it was wind chills of -20 degrees that day.

There is great benefit from geothermal heat. We heat and cool our house with geothermal. But a tank over a geothermal hole would not work here without some assisted electrical heat.

 

[boggen]

just digging a hole, and inserting a pipe, and then setting a tank over it, does not equal geothermal.

the ground is naturally around 55 degrees F, but you should get below the frost line for your area.
you need a water pump, to flow fluid from colder area (water above ground) to pushing it through pipe/pipes that are below ground.

livestock water tanks. geo-thermal, you will most likely want to always avoid, running the actual drinking through the pipes that go below ground, (to much crud that the livestock drops into there watering tank, that could easily clog the pipe/pips and or water pump)

 

[fishheadbob]

I can't see the buried pipe idea working. Geothermal is a lot more involved than digging a hole and hoping that it will magically generate enough heat to replace 500 watts of electric heat. Absent a solid and dependable heat source outdoor water will eventually freeze up in your area.

 

[Walkin Horse]

Okay that's what I needed to know. I'm in an area they say is borderline for a heat pump. I had no intentions of circulating the water underground, just catching a good warm draft.
Next idea is I will create an alley up to the barn with a sacrifice area for the tank where I can reach it with the hose and electric.

I know the right way is trench out with water and electric out there. But I don't have enough power in the barn and the water is coming 600' from the house in the opposite direction.

 

[PILOON]

Just thinking...
Moving water will not freeze, at least in moderate cold situations.
Might agitation not be a solution? some sort of pump or impeller just to keep the water stirred up?*
Maybe combined with a portion of the tank buried (and insulated) to capture the warmer ground temps?

*small impeller or pump would draw minimal power so @600', it could work.

 

[BeezFun]

Thanks for any ideas.

I had a 100gal tank that consumed quite a lot of electricity to keep thawed, so I built a plywood box with 1" pink insulation on all sides, top and bottom. Made a hole in top just big enough for horse nose to stick through. That cut my electric use way down. I would guess that if you built a box and put it out in the sun and painted it black, you might get by for most weather. I'd like to rebuild mine using foam insulation, so the tank would be completely surrounded by foam and it would be pretty much air tight. I think that would be better than using foam.
I put a small sump pump in it to speed up draining it for cleaning, you could run the tank drain to the outside of the box for winter draining, but I'm not sure how you'd keep that from freezing.
I think if you have much cold weather, you'll need backup electric in case things freeze.