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Earth tube cooling: Why not clay/concrete pipes?
By domwild, Section Housing Posted on Sat Mar 1st, 2008 at 08:06:35 AM MST
Keep on reading plastic earth tubes, why not clay?

In the Middle East the mosques and surely some houses are cooled via porous clay or concrete pipes laid into the ground.
The air for cooling the mosque comes from the tower (minarette) the faithful are called to prayer.
Clay/concrete pipes into damp ground would cool the air adiabatically. Is this clay/concrete pipe solution too expensive compared to PVC and is therefore not listed on any of the many links when googling for earth tube cooling??
Or does the air smell badly as it wafts over moss covered insides??

Earth tube cooling: Why not clay/concrete pipes? | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 editorial)

Re: Earth tube cooling: (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by ZooT on Sat Mar 1st, 2008 at 01:22:43 AM MST
(User Info)

I don't think I'd worry about moss, but instead about other nasties that could grow in there.

I guess some folks that built "rock box" thermal storage devices had problems with nasties growing in them too....

Re: Earth tube cooling: Why not clay/concrete pipe (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by wdyasq on Sat Mar 1st, 2008 at 04:59:08 AM MST
(User Info)

ZooT got that one right. Many of the early rock bed thermal storage things got mold/fungus infested and were removed. In all of the projects I have planned, I planed on designing where any cooling tubes would have clean-outs and one would be able to clean the tubes if necessary. They would also need to drain any condensation to a sump where it could be dealt with.

One should remember it takes probably 20F 'Delta' before any effective cooling can take place. 40F+ Delta is what AC folks want for effective cooling and humidity control.

The ground temperature at any reasonable depth will be the average temperature for the area. Here, in North Central Texas, it is in the low 70F range at 20' or so. Seldom would it be useful for cooling. Heat is not a problem in a sunny climate.

A clay pipe system here would be a giant petri dish.

Ron
Adventure is just bad planning." -- Roald Amundsen

Re: Earth tube cooling: Why not clay/concrete pipe (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by DanG on Sat Mar 1st, 2008 at 08:07:03 AM MST
(User Info)

Here in Minnesota we get molds growing in & under snow that damages lawns regularly.

If there is stuff that thrives under snow think how much more the wee-beasties will bloom at a tropical 60°F and if re-circulating household air those are YOUR wee-beasties from microscopic skin flakes, cough and sneezes, pets, cooking and whatever was in the home before you arrived. If you decide to provide for some energy savings by using earth temperatures make the system scrubbable or floodable using non-porous plastics...

Re: Earth tube cooling: Why not clay/concrete (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by BigBreaker on Tue Mar 4th, 2008 at 09:04:34 AM MST
(User Info)

You might be better off with a heat driven cooling strategies - kind of counterinuitive.

One method is to use silica gel to dehumidify incoming air. Heating the silica gel releases the trapped water and recharges it. The incoming air can be dried so completely that a swamp cooler is effective.

There are also water chillers that use an ammonia cycle with hot water and cool water.

Another way to go is a ground source heat pump. That will take some watts though.

Re: Earth tube cooling: Why not clay/ (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by fcfcfc on Thu Mar 6th, 2008 at 07:48:08 PM MST
(User Info)

Hi: I have mine that I just put in for my new storage building, I used 12 - 100' lengths of 6" PVC flex drain pipe. The pipes all run in parallel. This summer will be the first. I plan on hanging 3" dia chlorine tablets at the air inlet and put enough tablets in to make the incoming air at about the same level that you get around a YMCA pool. The air goes in and out, no recirc.. If that doesn't work or seems un necessary, I will just flush them going into Summer and leaving Summer with a Clorox solution... Plastic is light, fairly cheap and easy to work with...

Re: Earth tube cooling: Why not clay (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by befnme on Mon Mar 17th, 2008 at 09:41:18 AM MST
(User Info)

We have large hog houses here. And in order to efficiently cool them we use "cool cells" . What this does is pull ground water by pump into the top of cardboard type material. As this happens fans on the inside of the house pull hot air from outside thru the water and cool it considerably. As the water flows from top to bottom it goes back down into a container to be leached back into the earth.

Earth tube cooling: Why not clay/concrete pipes? | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 editorial)

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