Energy savings for ponds; HEATING/COOLING

[steve/gridnot]

Addy1 pointed me over here since winter is coming.
I'm an old energy consultant; although I'm semi retired I have contact with a lot of do it your self people. Ponds have been one of my hobbys for 36 years(I call it the never ending hobby)
I don't get get many Winters where I worry about ice depth, but along time ago (sounds like Star Wars), I lost a pond due to ice. Now I use methods that are simple and some not so simple(I have a Bosch Distributorship,LOL) It just depends on application.

I keep up on the latest applications, and thought I would see if there is any interest? opinions? Do it yourself people?

I have one heater I made with $5 worth of black tubing and a coiler. It is 30 years old and still does its job.

I did an outdoor experiment about 4 years ago using a 4000 gallon pond with a geothermal teabag heat exchanger attached to a water based geothermal heater/air conditioner. In the winter I had a bank of glass faced collectors to control the heat loss when I ran it in heating mode. For fun I raised a bunch of tropical fish all winter.
It was pretty strange to see the steam coming up in the cold mornings. It looked like a volcano. This is a much more efficient way to heat and cool a house, so all you people that have ponds have a way to cut your heating/cooling expenses way down.

 

[topofthehill1]

So can you describe the black tubing and coiler? And what temp you keep you water at?

 

[steve/gridnot]

Heres a pic of the coil. I just use it to keep the ice from getting thick. I haven't used it in 20 years since the warming trend has kept my ice to less than 2 inches.

 

[topofthehill1]

Well I don't think you could get that much tubing for $5 any more.

I live in NJ and met another guy at the local fish store who puts his tropicals in a pond over the summer and brings them inside in the winter. I'm afraid I would have to do some reading on geothermal heating before I could even begin to ask questions. So far the best thing I can do to hold my water temp up is the polycarbonate panels.

 

[steve/gridnot]

I'm originally from N.J. and did the same thing fifty years ago; except my first tropical fish pond was 4 washing machine tanks that my dad welded together. Those tropical fish thought they were in the amazon in the summer. I sure had to hustle to bring them in when the weather turned cold.
The polycarb panels work great. I held 10,000 gallons at a temperature of 75 to 85 degrees year round using a combination of geothermal heater/air and 8 Bosch glass faced thermal panels. That was in Redlands, CA about 4 years ago,where the temp is between a 105 in the Summer and 30 in the Winter. On a guess I think you would need twice as many panels for those temperatures in N.J. and you would need a mixing area. The problem is when you have a long cold storm you would also need a pool heater.

 

[topofthehill1]

Wow washing machine tubs. I bet those fish grew big.

I have a large natural pond across the street from my house. I spent along time trying to figure out how I could exchange water from that much warmer and deeper pond with mine. However the drainage ditch that actually leads to the pond underneath the road is in my neighbors yard. I'm certainly not going to ask him if I can dig a ditch through his yard and and run a pipe to the pond. But I thought I was onto something for awhile.

I did do some reading on geothermal heating. I guess what I don't understand about geothermal heating is doesn't the ground get cold after a while? Or do you use so much tubing it doesn't have a large impact?

 

[snoozer]

We have a closed loop geothermal system for heating and cooling the house. Sure would be nice to be able to tap in to keep the pond open in the winter.