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Nebraska retiree uses earths's heat to grow oranges in snow

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EvilFruit:
http://youtu.be/ZD_3_gsgsnk

SoCal2warm:
It's not just the earth's heat. Heat that builds up in the greenhouse during the daytime is pumped down, using the earth below as a heat bank. The temperatures down there aren't very warm, but it's enough to keep the plants from freezing during the night. Instead of venting the heat out in the day, a fan circulates air down into pipes. A depth as shallow as 12 feet is enough to be functional.

Florian:
Have you read the manual that he sells on his website? I really do wonder why this method isn't used more if it is as easy and cheap as he claims..

Ilya11:
From what I read in other forums, the main problem with such systems is water condensate being formed underground. It should be drained somehow and it is not an easy task in heavy soils and high water levels.

SoCal2warm:
Designing a system to drain out condensation in the pipes shouldn't be too complicated.

I don't see any reason why above ground (or shallow in ground) heat banks couldn't be used, assuming they were well insulated.
It could just be as simple as multiple stacked plastic brick containers of water, encassed in a double layer of pumice-rich concrete (low thermal conductivity). It would probably need to be  somewhere around a fourth of the ground surface space of the greenhouse though, in size.

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