Wait ... what ! I am totally fascinated by this. Thank you for your cost breakdown. $200 is nothing in light of ever continuing rising utilities. Would placing Mason jar in a black wrapping for solar gain help ? Or bubblewrap for insulation ? Can't wait for part 2 !
Thank you! Part two will be next weekend for temps* yes, I believe there would be better ways to insulate and passively heat the little mason jar reservoir much better. I haven’t done anything that far yet as we’re at the end of winter, however I am redeveloping an outside insulated box to pick up more heat than one inside the greenhouse. I plan to run insulated lines underground from the outside box to a heat transfer system inside, possibly with the same fans and pump and heat exchanger from this system but the reservoir tank will be much larger and better protected/insulated. Not to mention possibly using different types of diy coolants that are Nontoxic. Thank you for the interest and ideas!
I’m curious if that pump would be quieter if you had the mason jar physically above the pump. This increases the available water head pressure at the pump suction. Not sure about that particular pump but some pumps get loud if there is air present in the water and they’re cavitating-that is little vapor droplets form and cause noise and worse things (leading to premature failure). Maybe that pump is supposed to sound that way tho. 🤷🏻♂️ Love your experiments and watching you learn and ultimately share. It’s great!
Thank you! Raising the pump above or level with the pump quiets it down but really noticeable. The bubble and air cavities created through the flowing water are causing a little bit of that noise I believe. But running this pump previously it was just as loud leading me to believe it’s just the nature of the beast lol. Next winter we plan on developing a larger system like this to run from outside to inside for more heat productivity. Thanks for checking this out and commenting! There’s also lots of options for inline pumps that are quieter ac or dc current, this one was the strongest I had on hand without purchasing anything lol
Nice idea. Have you looked into aquarium external cannister filters? I recall hearing, they were used in the very early homemade PC water cooling loops. They could act as the pump as well as a reservoir and can be very low wattage depending on volume (as low as 8-11w), although I'm not sure if they could cope with the pressure in a long closed system with big air gaps and are made for indoor use so not sure how well they would last in a greenhouse.
That’s an idea I can look into! We’re almost to the point we won’t need a heater much anymore but I am going to develop a larger insulated box I can keep outside next winter and run insulated lines underground into the greenhouse to transfer heat in a similar way to this system just bigger and better lol thanks for checking this out and commenting!
Yes I spent a good bit of time going over thermodynamics this winter. I noticed our window heater with copper inside pushed the water up when it was fully sunny as water rises and we top fed the system. It was a slower flow when I hooked the small pump up to the bottom and pushed through 50 ft of copper, plus the natural heat flow. I wanna expand upon the natural flow either water or air it’s all fascinatingly free
Nice one. I don't know heaps about it myself, but from diagrams that I've seen, if you add a venturi between the topper tank and the feed line it can increase flow.
![DIY Greenhouse Heat Transfer System - DIY Coolant / Antifreeze [ PART 1]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
