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#1
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released
during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15 degrees? I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me and I'll send it to you. Thanks, Trace Zone 5/Ohio |
#2
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
Trace Curry wrote:
What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15 degrees? I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me and I'll send it to you. Thanks, Trace Zone 5/Ohio Plastic soda bottles. That assumes that the water will pick up enough heat during the day. -- Susan N. --------------------------------------------- Click this site daily to help fund mammograms for women who cannot afford them. http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/ |
#3
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
Trace Curry wrote:
What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15 degrees? I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me and I'll send it to you. Thanks, Trace Zone 5/Ohio Milk jugs full of manure tea. The dark liquid absorbs more heat during the day then plain water. I don't use cold frames, but with a square of milk jugs around each plant, I grow lettuce otherwise out in the open in temps down to 15F. And in the spring, I have lots of well aged manure tea for fertilizer. Lorenzo L. Love http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove "A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reforms. It does not haggle over expenditures on armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain." Anatole France |
#4
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
How much room do you have? If you have a green house, a row of 55 gallon
drums along the south wall, painted black or dark green will do very well. In addition they are just about the right height to cover with wood and use it as a work bench/seed tray shelf. If you have lots of room, put another row on the north side and do the same. Otherwise use two liter, or one gallon, or five gallon plastic bottles/jugs/buckets as mentioned before. You can get 5 gallon buckets free or for almost nothing at bakerys, or other companies that sell a service in which they use a lot of chemicals that come in five/six gallon buckets. Be careful of what kind of chemicals were contained in the buckets. Good luck. Dwayne "Trace Curry" wrote in message ... What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15 degrees? I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me and I'll send it to you. Thanks, Trace Zone 5/Ohio |
#5
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
Trace Curry wrote in message ...
What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15 degrees? The heating cable will give you a few tens of watts, and that is just not enough. Black balloons is a very good idea (they will absorb of order 100W on a sunny winter day, and give it back at night), but keep in mind that they will probably only keep the temperature above 27 or 28 degrees. They give back heat through conductivity, which is proportional to the temperature difference, so they give little heat until there is a difference of several degrees between water and air. 27 degrees is fine for lettuce or cabbage seedlings, after a bit of pre-hardening. For the tomatoes, you may have to wait. |
#6
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
I have a cold frame that I put a row of narrow cement blocks against the back,
and put plastic bottles. I have mostly 1 gallon size. I used red and green food coloring in water in the bottles. This makes a sort of black, which will absorb the heat better. I have raised lettuce in it all winter, and we have had 3 degrees here several times. I also will use it for hardening off plants before they go in the garden. susan Trace Curry wrote: What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15 degrees? I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me and I'll send it to you. Thanks, Trace Zone 5/Ohio |
#7
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 16:40:37 -0500, Trace Curry
wrote: What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? I got one of those Gro-quick heating cables, but it doesn't seem to be doing much as far as heat production, maybe because it's only 15 degrees? I have some plans for a great cold frame, not that it's rocket science or anything. If anybody is interested it's just a PDF file - email me and I'll send it to you. Thanks, Trace Zone 5/Ohio The cables are intended to warm the soil rather than the air. My experience (though in a much warmer climate) has been that I needed to insulate the area heated by the soil cable. I was heating a 3'x6'x6"deep "tray" of sand and peat on which my flats of sown seeds were placed. It was elevated and so needed insulation on the bottom and sides. I keep 8-10 large (26"H x 26"Dia) faux terra cotta pots (plastic) full of water in my cool/cold greenhouse. They are open on top but covered with plastic or old greenhouse roofing (Tuffak). Half of them are filled from runoff from the roof of the greenhouse, the others from a hose. I use the water in the winter to water seedlings as it is warmer than the tap water from the hose and contains less chlorine. Since you have power, there is another "Rube Goldberg" setup that I have used but never perfected. It consists of an aquarium heater (900W as I recall), a 10 Gallon insulated metal container (because the aquarium heater will melt plastic if it touches it), a small aquarium circulating pump and some copper tubing. The tubing was run under my seedlings, and the heater (it is controlled by a built-in thermostat) kept the water at a set point. I think that it can work, but in my experience the thermostat should be in the soil near the roots/seeds and the flow should be balanced such that the heat of the water is not largely dissapated at the "front end". |
#8
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
I have a small homemade greenhouse (hoophouse) heated with two liter
plastic Pepsi bottles. The difference in mine and everybody else's seems to be the fact that I fill the bottles with hot water at night and put them inside the cold frame. Since I live in South Carolina, I don't have to do this for long, and it doesn't seem to be that much trouble. Six hot water filled bottles keeps my little greenhouse plenty warm enough. Never lost a plant yet doing this, and I don't have to worry that the water didn't get warm enough. Casey On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 12:27:35 -0600, B.Server wrote: On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 16:40:37 -0500, Trace Curry wrote: What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? |
#9
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Using water as thermal storage in cold frame
Where in SC are you?
-- Sam Along the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach SC "Sasha" wrote in message ... I have a small homemade greenhouse (hoophouse) heated with two liter plastic Pepsi bottles. The difference in mine and everybody else's seems to be the fact that I fill the bottles with hot water at night and put them inside the cold frame. Since I live in South Carolina, I don't have to do this for long, and it doesn't seem to be that much trouble. Six hot water filled bottles keeps my little greenhouse plenty warm enough. Never lost a plant yet doing this, and I don't have to worry that the water didn't get warm enough. Casey On Mon, 17 Feb 2003 12:27:35 -0600, B.Server wrote: On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 16:40:37 -0500, Trace Curry wrote: What's the best method for using water to store heat to be released during the night to keep a cold frame from going below freezing? I was thinking a bunch of those black balloons that you often see at people's 40th birthday party - filled with water of course. Any better ideas? |
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