I have just subscribed to your channel and have already watched five episodes tonight. A common theme I keep seeing happen is breakdowns of your equipment. As someone who has ran heavy equipment for many years I would recommend a pre-trip inspection. In other words walk around your machine and look for any problems before you just jump in it. It will save you a lot of time later. I have noticed bolts that were loose on a pre-trip that took me 2 minutes to tighten. If I would have let those bolts continue to walk their way out where things start falling off it would have taken hours to fix. A pre-trip inspection doesn't take very long and can save you a lot of time.
According to your sponsorship: When I google Shaun Overton, I see a young man, proudly wearing his Starfleet uniform (and to be clear: I can't wait until it's finally 10/11/2161), but the blueprint for this project totally reminds me of Tatooine. I'm really impressed by your creativity and pioneering work - keep it up! Great respect from germany to everyone involved! You better watch out for the Tusken Raiders...
I have actually done the geothermal cooling/heating. I built an off-grid house in AZ. I have been watching your vids since the 2nd one with great interest and think what you are doing is great. I am not sure that you are going to get the results expected. I went down 8 feet, 100 foot long trench, with only a 45 degree at each end. I also used thin walled PVC. Drilled holes on the bottom side of the tubes for the condensation to escape (with rock underneath). I also spaced my tubes further apart. I hope that it works well for you.
You should lay some water hose and conduit in the trench so you can communicate with the fan, and the utility could also cool a water tank. Add a loop that goes down and back through the tank.
Hello, Shaun, just want to congratulate you for your update project There always some comments that tell you how to do it better,, I just want to remind to to not take it negatively coz they come from care for your success. And there's no such as perfect project, even with months planning, so enjoy what you built, and keep a good work
Just to reinforce the sentiment, Shaun: I really love that you dream big and tackle things you’ve never done before. Yet you’re not afraid to make mistakes or ask for help. You’re an inspiration!
I would love to second this comment.... and I know you've exposed yourself to just learn from the experience!! and that is really the fun in this!!! It's like a road trip with buddies and along the way you tell experiences that are slightly embarrassing in life and although slightly or severely uncomfortable lol yet looking back it was so liberating!! I guess in most of the videos I see that! this liberation of not knowing everything yet enjoying it as you share your experience!! I need to relay a sincere thank you for this!!! Fun stuff... just a good ol fashion journey!! Thanks for bringing me along!! @@dustupstexas Would like to add that the engineer didn't add; is any shade cloth over the structures will aid in keep it cooler.... using the desert night time Temps... to push through the day. What is so awesome about this is using natural or cultivate Fiona can affect the temps 5 plus degrees during the high points... We have so much to learn about creation!! again thanks!
@@dustupstexasif you are actually planning on living there you aren’t going to be happy with the investment you are currently making. If this is a RUclips vanity project, then feel free to edit as needed and disregard my comment. To make this as short and readable as possible, I know what I am talking about, trust me. There is a reason people love air conditioning and not burying tubes 2 feet underground, which will be destroyed, if they aren’t already. Abort, get rid of your “engineer”, and build your house with massive amounts of foam. Foam with lath and mortar, foam with corrugated steel, foam domes, foam quonset huts, foam-crete cast or in blocks, any kind of foam and a lot of it. Earth structures will never approach the performance of foam, ever. The yakhchals won’t do anything about humidity or offer any real cooling in summer. A foam structure will need only a tiny air conditioner and powered by diverse sources of power like a generator, batteries, pv panels, and air turbines (in that order), it will be very reliable, less expensive, and give you results you can live with. Besides, you will need a fridge, freezer, computer, washer, and all the other electrical goodies we just can’t live without. Abandon the current strategy now.
@@bill4639just curious how did you end up watching this video if you are already convinced it's all bullshit? Have you just happened to watched Citrus in the Snow also?. They manage to grow citrus in Nebraska using a similar system. Would be interested to hear what you think of that.
@@lisakenton2392 I do construction, especially underground utilities. As soon as I saw the disaster unfolding before my eyes, I had to say something. I’m guessing this is just a fake youtube video because any professional builder would laugh at the poor workmanship. I mean this is God awful. If it real, I had to offer advice. Sound advice, from experience. I have no idea what citrus in the dessert in, but I do know most produce is grown in the dessert.
Hi Shaun, The performance of Earth Pipe Cooling is affected by four main parameters : 1. Pipe length; 2. Pipe radius or diameter (balance should be found radius decreases, air flow increases) 3. Depth of the pipe inserted into the ground; 4. Air flow rate inside the pipe. Resulting temperature decreases when : • Pipe length increases • Pipe diameter decreases • Air flow decreases • Depth increases to 4m (beyond no effect because temperature stable I have read many scientific publications (I can share with you if you want), the best configuration is: Depth: 3 to 5meters Length: 30m
@@tankfilms.If the dew point of the incoming air is lower than the ground temp, yes. In a dry desert cooling ambient air that probably won't be an issue though
@@bbsnows I was in a community that where someone attempted to drain a pond in their lawn and it worked initially until the pipe collapsed. The answer is to buy heavier wall 4 inch corrugated pipe from a drainage supply company or consult a drainage contractor. Avoid the big box stores!!!
Wonderful episode👏👀 The aerial shot of the construction site was one of the highlights of the entire series so far!!!! I can’t wait to see this cabin 🌞🤝🌞
It looks like a termite mound, that cooling structure. Termites start their structure underground where its cooler and humid, and have a hole or holes or air vents above the ground through which heat leaves the underground resident chambers. The chambers are thus kept cool in the summer and warm in winter, with very little temperature variation when the seasons change. Another way to keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter is to use thatch for roofing. Works insanely well.
@@dustupstexas We use a lot of thatch roofing here in South Africa. Great natural insulation but does need to be replaced more often than roof tiles. Stating the obvious given that it's an organic material. Standing by for your next updated Sir! Appreciate you sharing this with us. Amazing learning experience. Thank you.
@@cy-villianWhy not combine the two, tile with thatch over top? Seems like the best of both worlds. Obviously extra cost and work but cooler than just tile.
Maybe it’s being overtired, maybe it’s the pain med, but my first mental impression to seeing you cutting, scooping, dumping, repeat was, ‘Sorta like WALL-E.’ Post-op my 2nd total hip replacement and stuck in the house, I’m running through your videos from the first to keep my brain from turning to mush. So interesting, and can’t wait to see how things are going for you now in 2025! Keep these videos coming; will send your link to my sister in Marfa. Good luck from a former a San Antonian, now stuck in the dreary PacNW; can’t wait to get back to Texas.
Frank Lloyd Wright knew this in the 30's. Studying how he utilized it (building into a hillside, pipe between floors, etc) is fascinating. Nice work, Shaun.
Your Geothermal tubes remind me of the berms used for the EarthShip style homes founded in Taos, NM. I was enthralled by the idea, and suddenly I realized the connection... Great Idea for cooling and for warmth in the winter (I'm sure you won't really have to worry about that) You probably have already looked over the earthship designs, but its a great idea to look into.
I just started watching this weekend. I am full of admiration for what you are doing and would love to do it myself. I'm a bit disturbed by the engineer telling you that you can tape the up pipes for your cooling system to the flexible pipes underground. I am over 50 and have done some projects - that look's like a failure point in 5 to 10 years.... or less.
So this is what you wanted the doo-zer for, I wouldnt fancy digging that hole by hand in any heat but especially not out there. Interesting stuff this these aerodynamic cooling systems...I use a certain amount myself in greenhouses and for cooling my workshop in summer so I am familiar with the processes involved. It will be interesting to see how it works out there Thanks for sharing
This is rapidly becoming my favourite chanel. I would love to be doing a project similar to this myself. So much fun to follow your progress. Keep up the good works.
To Drain the pipes, Make sure they have a 4 degree slope to one direction, at the end of this direction, you will have them terminate in a drain T allowing the moisture to drop down into the earth there, and the air to blow through or be sucked through the other half of the T. This way you will need zero drainage in the system, and you can flush them of dust and debris easily. (Think like a Roman.) Using sealed pipe, you could seal the system and bleach it or otherwise let it soak to kill off mold, which in future builds can improve longevity. Mold might not be a concern in your situation however.
Have you heard of that guy in Nebraska who uses this constant air flow system to heat his green house? He is able to grow oranges year round, it keeps a constant 54 degrees through freezing winters.🎉
I live in a relatively similar environment. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing to chill down the cabin in the summer. I hope this works cause I’m looking to get started in the next year or two!
i'm about halfway through binging through all your videos. Just a thought I'd really like to see some overhead footage before you started and afterwards to see if you started making a footprint. I'm really enjoying what you're doing from over in the UK. Keep it up 🌲 are coming
One thing I worry about is radon gas and the fact those perforated pvc pipes would bring in a constant source of radon, go borrow a digi radon tester so you know what you are dealing with, better know now than dealing this later. The constant moving air flow might also make radon a non issue. But it's worth thinking about
If the area has a high incidence of decomposed granite, that could possibly be a concern. Otherwise, radon is not normally associated with sandstone. Nonetheless, it never hurts to test for it.
Dear Shaun, Love the channel super impressed and love watching you learn and grow as a person and more! I feel a strong need to comment as I have researched many of the same things as you and we have VERY similar dreams and alignments of study. However in my research PVC would have been the better choice than corrugated tubing... mold is a serious problem and with the perforation in the tubing and the now stone pool (under the dirt) that you've carved with the limestone standing water is going to be an issue. This could block air flow, and encourage mold and bacteria growth. with the Corrugated tubes, back filling with stone would have helped however that creates a bit of insulation and less contact with soil.. thus PVC would have been the ideal choice. Putting the tubes on a slight gradient in a V pattern with drainage in the center would ensure that the condensate would drain. With the smooth pipes you need less force to allow for natural convection of the air, as well less electricity to "force" the air out on an especially hot day or with a pressure system disrupting flow think of your chimney in winter some days it goes like a inferno some days you can get the damn fire to start. Also i've been wondering for the life of me why you havn't started with a tractor front loader backhoe... but seeing the limestone I can understand why, I wish you all the best on your journey's I am super proud of you! you're doing incredible! Hopefully my wife and I can come visit sometime in the future, we are working on a similar project in Tucson! 90acres! All the best Ethan
Interesting. I am glad you chose to install the passive/ active heating cooling air system. Once you get the dirt on them I hope you can test air flow thru the pipes.
There was a youtube series that showed a similar cooling method, only it was entirely passive and the pipes didn't need to go down into the ground like that since they built an earthen bunker atop them. The pipes actually sloped upwards into the house too so you didn't have to worry about water flowing in or pooling in the pipes. I can't find it now but you might have better luck. Some of their early buildings looked straight out of Tatooine, but later builds look more traditional. I belive it was in Arizona but I'm not sure.
Well,I wish I could have got to you before you started your geothermal system. I'm from Alpine and have been here for approx 35 years and am a retired herpetologist. Admire what your doing. Hopefully we'll run into each other eventually and it would be nice to see your property up close.
When I worked in road maintenance, we used a lot of sandbags for culvert ends. We would mix bags of concrete into our sand mixture before filling the sandbags. Then when the bags got wet the concrete would harden the bags.
USACE would just buy it already bagged. Place the bag, drive in a rebar, pull out the rebar and stack the next bag. The rebar made a hole so the water could get in easier. Quikrete sells them in 80lb bags.
Why not take the trench on into the house and dig out a 3' to 4' deep basement and foundation? Still shallow enough for functional windows, but you get the thermal benefit of the "basement" walls. I worry a bit about that thin-walled pipe holding up under all that dirt. Earlier he mentioned embedding the pipe in concrete for thermal transfer, but that would have also provided significant strength to prevent the pipes from collapsing. I'd definitely plan to berm up the outer walls of the domes 2 or 3 feet, to help shed water and provide more thermal protection for the foundation. Do you have clay soils available? Hyper-adobe or super-adobe might be an option. Loose sandbags don't harden or stack reliably. Getting the soil damp as you're filling the bags will help regardless.
I saw on another video where they encountered significant clay sediments... not sure how far away they were though. They talked about mixing some into the planting soil...
If you open the roof of the building, the fan can be omitted due to the suction effect of the rising air, because if the diameter of the suction pipe is over 3 cm, the cavitation flow starts and together with the chimney effect, it absorbs the heat from the ground, which knocks down the house, only the air movement can help , hey, if you make small clay pots and drip water on them and the evaporation is partly in a water tank, it takes heat away from the space by running the supply pipes through it, then it cools it too!
i am excited to see this system working. I learned of this method probably 12 years ago. I intended to implement it on our AZ property but my partner has issues with mold (cannot rid her body of it as most healthy people can) so we decided not to do it. I noticed Nick had/has the same concern so I'm interested to learn how you address that concern and if you encounter mold issues in the future. I hope you don't. Nasty stuff.
I was thinking how, say, a 4" or 6" smooth pvc pipe, on a slope(for drainage) would do with mold. This including a yearly cleanup like with a same pipe diameter cloth pompom dragged by a rope through the pipe using sodium percarbonate as a cleaning fluid.
I used to live in a tipi in new mexico. We had dug down 4ft or so into the ground and laid concrete flooring. We then lined the walls of the pit with gravel in an aluminum wall. It was very comfortable and beautiful. When i go back im hoping to build a bâdgir.
I think the engineer brought up a good point about the pipes growing mold underground when the soil gets wet. May not ever be an issue in the desert but definitely could be in a wetter climate.
I like the effort but I feel like just buying some solar panels and a eg4 mini split would handle all your needs much cheaper and easier. Get some eg4 battery packs to cover non sunny days but its def more sunny than not sunny there. either way looking forward to your progress.
I'd like to suggest a few ideas. EARTH HOMES are built with some of your concepts including Geothermal. The use of sand filled tires as the structure. Cutting the top sidewall allows simple easy fill like in ROAD BASE construction. Another building material to consider are used BILLBOARD VINYL - 14'x48' durable and waterproof
I don't know if you have been doing this. But I would suggest you write down everything you ever have to run back to town for and compile into a list of keeping extras or atheist one of and pack it all into a shipping container or something along those lines and your emergency trips to town will be much less likely.
Just a thought, if you use the more active system at 18:33 in reverse and then place Hydrophobic material into the stack and provide a reservoir you would create condensation and perhaps eventually fill a tank for water by just using passive air flow.
I think you need much more distance under the ground for cold the air. Or install the tubes in zig zag. Better if use metal hoses for more thermal transfer. You can put a tube under the outside perimeter of the house fence before enter to the room.
Their is also way called rammed earth mostly can be built with materials we found in our land and keeps temperatures normal , sand bags are also good but after I seen some rammed earth structures I loved it, was something you can consider for your future projects happy to see the progress of your property
Last time I investigated ventilation, I learned to avoid PVC/plastics like the plague. They (like plastic clothing) help bacteria growth. For home ventilation, pipes exist which counter that using nano coatings. I don't know how effective these counters are, I just settled on galvanized metal pipes.
I forget if it was in the video or not. We considered steel, aluminum and various plastics. The advantage is the HDPE is that it's dirt cheap and perforated. Working with metals was significantly more expensive
Worth the wait! Just curious Shaun,, when was this drone aerial footage taken? There was some footage of digging the trench from March 2023. Were these (drone) shots recent? So cool to see how you can just go and build anything you want on the property. Truly a man's dream.
OMG, when I first came across your videos this cooling system is exactly what I thought of!!! It's cheap, or at least relative to a solar panel or any other electric system would be.
Broken hill is vity of underground homes, ex mining town, but dont know soil things, but aussies friendly try tourist info center for whom to talk to. Country people understand distance
Mr. Overton, there appears to be some technical difficulties. a few screen glitches, and at the end, the "thanks for watching" showed up without any pictures, just white shapes! i like the design, cool- as far as those tube thingies, .. kind of so-so. i would do like a concrete large tube, single. like those big blocks with the circular opening one sees laying about in industrial areas. or even one of those metal shipping containers... if it is deep enough, it would work (and that looked deep enough for sure) THAT WAY, there's is plenty of cool air and you don't have to worry about the integrity-- AND it would be easily accessible! that's all! thank you! always a treat 🎉 😁
Thats why I had an engineer manage it. He helped me balance cost against performance. I didn't have the equipment to lift manage 25' long concrete tubes
Sandbag home building sounds great. Obviously UV stable sandbag material. I like the cooling system too. Fingers crossed your engineer has it right. If not just extend the pipes and move the mechanical room. Best always
Did I miss the point where you explained why you didn't do the standard method geothermal with water pumped thru piping? Same trench could have had 20x more length of 1" PE pipe. More heat transfer, easier to use in the buildings. The same system could be tied into a solar water heater system to give you even more heat in the winter. Video could be titled "$5500 landfill" because it looked like someone digging a hole and burying some useless plastic. If you could keep a house cool in the summer, in the desert even, with 100ft of cheap drain pipe buried just a few feet underground, then I think it would be quite popular. The fact that Nick's original idea used aluminum pipe indicates that he either thought you had a crazy high budget or he has no real experience relating to this sort of project. When he switched to corrugated plastic, I assumed he meant plastic that was actually designed to be buried 6ft underground. Nope. Just grabbed the cheapest, flimsy, expandable, corrugated pipe and dumped 4-5ft of rocky dirt on top of it as if its are not going to be immediately crushed. So silly. At 28:24 you just slightly put your knee on the pipe and it immediately deforms under that slight load. And you think 5ft of dirt didn't crush it? Laughed out loud when I heard "The engineer said I could just tape it". CFD of HVAC systems just means plugging the specs of a building HVAC into a program to check if all the components are sized properly. Its presumably commercial HVAC and working with a team of engineers where others are doing the design and selection of components and he does the analysis. He likely has minimal experience actually selecting components and likely zero experience with geothermal. All that aside even, I'm quite certain he has no experience with proper connections of underground corrugated drain pipe. He can likely do the analysis to show the required piping size and heat transfer rates, but its obvious that he should have admitted that his expertise ended there and sought advice from someone with geothermal experience. The separate building for a "mechanical room" is normally a good idea, but in this case its working against your air based geothermal. You're not circulating the same air thru the system. You're simply pumping in your conditioned air and venting the same CFM out of the building. That could work if you had a very powerful system capable of bringing the outdoor air to the desired temperature at a CFM high enough. Generally forced air HVAC systems circulate the same air throughout the house with a small fresh air inlet. This way your ~95% of the air going thru the system is already close to the desired temperature. The issue described above could be fixed by pairing the pipes such that 2 feed the blower in the mechanical room and 2 return the air to the main building. You could add a small fresh inlet at the blower if needed. Basically a standard forced air HVAC system at that point with the ground acting as furnace/AC. That is assuming the pipe isn't all or mostly crushed. Braving the cartels to make a cool off grid oasis is a fun idea, but this is shaping up to be a few years of wasting time and money before hopefully getting it right.
@@vica153 as passive as possible was his plan. Not saying the engineer succeeded 🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️ I also find it weird in a very sunny place that he outright refuses to use solar to power electrical cooling
@@uribove Water would be better in every way. Air could work, but the amount of piping required would be WAY more expensive. Plus with water you don't have to worry about the pipes getting contaminated dirt/mold/animals like the air pipes will. His design, especially with the joke pipe selection, isn't going to work at all. Solar would too easy. That area gets over 2000hrs of sunlight per year. ~4hrs of sunlight even in "winter". More than 5hrs of sunlight per day on average. $5500 spent on this landfill would have gotten him a 2-3kW with a little bit of battery backup and bring in ~5000kWh per year. That would be enough for well over 1000hrs of runtime of a 25k BTU heat pump. For the cost of this whole silly air setup he could have solid off grid power setup and heat pump. I imagine the problem with solar would be sticking out like a sore thumb when you're alone in the middle of no where with desperate people trekking northward.
Actually if you pay attention the method he's using is an adaptation of a technique that has been used for a couple thousand years. The fan and buried pipes are substituting for for the pit in center of building . You also have too take into account the shape of the building allows the exchange to happen more naturally then traditional box buildings. From a electrical perspective a fan is more economical then a heat pump (used in most geographic thermal
you can get plastic pipes that are corrugated on the outside but smooth on the inside. they use them for electrical cable protection under ground. the problem that I predict is that between the corrugation and the smooth lining is an airgap that creates isolation for the heat transfer
Next time elbows on the pipe joints elbows can be bought from large to reduced in a commercial market place Lowes etc. Better seal and control of joint pressure underground shielding the connection so to speak. No pressure on joint as you have.
The dark brown part is moisture in the soil. Get a book on swamp coolers or temperature differentials at depth. A mini-excavator is better than a skidsteer to move dirt vertically.🤔
I've used those black pipes before and mine collapsed, if you have to redo this, fill them with rocks so they don't collapse.. the rocks allow water/air to pass, but provide the structure too
While watching you digging down into rock I had the thought that if you could not go down 8 feet the other option was to add fill on top of the trench to make the pipes 8 feet deep.
Thoughts on plastic pipe/soil weight, all plastic pipe used underground should be laid on bed of well screened sand and covered with same, perhaps 8” top and bottom…
I LoVE your project!! I wonder if once U get some desert forestry going there should be an Earth bag home/center on the Ranch. It could be your Nursery.
Geo Thermal is the way to go. I don't understand why this hasn't become a standard for mainstream housing... I've built a similar system to cool my off grid home but without any fancy structures. I'm just using a quantity of three 4" sewer pipes in an 18" wide trench 7' to 8' feet below grade. They run 120' feet in length underground from the inlet to the house. On 100+ degree days, I get 62 degrees out of the pipes all day long. I use 3 very low power consumption computer fans. One on each pipe to cool the house... I was initially using an 3Ah M18 Milwaukee battery to run the fans and it would run the fans for two days before needing to be recharged. Granted I'm not in the Chihuahuan desert but where I am is high desert experiencing temperatures from minus 16 degrees in winter to over 105 degrees in the summer. My home is built using ICF construction for the walls with about R-40 insulation on the outside of the walls and about R-60 in the roof. This puts the tremendous thermal mass of the ICF's on the inside of the structure. This makes for incredible interior temperature stability requiring minimal thermal input to heat and cool...
Regarding the masks and conversing, I think you'd have reasonably good success using two way radios or a megaphone of some type so you neither need to shout nor doff, although you'd have darth vadery mask valve breathing noises on the mic. For me, for my own risk level, for what I do (which is basically just consuming, occasional roadside bike rides, which are super dusty, especially on River Road here which has pulp mills, and gardening in a sub-boreal zone: 4°C average annual temp, 55cm average annual precip, 110 day warm-season growing season) and for my values, I see that as worth it, if I have to wear a respirator I'm willing to accept darth vadering at anyone I've to talk to on a two way. I understand well if you don't. Great build. Unbelievable ingenuity.
I feel like those flimsy black plastic pipes are going to just flatten once the weight of the dirt/rock is on top of them and starts to settle. I really hope that doesn't happen, because it would be such a waste of effort, time, and money.
True, but they need to be thin so they can transfer the colder temperature on to the air that travels through, an ideal solutuon could be to put larger rocks around the pipes (not on top) and then to cover them with dirt
With 30 years irrigation experience, yes the ground moves once disturbed, must support pipes place them apart fill with soft sand first underneath and on top of the pipes about a foot, lightly compact then fill trench, the compaction over time, of the fine sand, will naturally support the pipes like concrete. Avoid at all costs right angles use slow bends, as compaction occurs over time right angles can leak/ tear as well as restricting flow. Love what you doing . Thank you for sharing
Hopefully your engineer checked the allowable burial depth on those black corrugated pipes, considering your soil properties. They look pretty flimsy, but that's really difficult to tell from just watching a RUclips video. Also, I would have used some long radius ells on the vertical pipes. Avoid any possibility of crimping the black pipe at the transition to horizontal.
At 13:58 the engineer says "pour cement on top of the pipes for a good thermal connection to the ground" - How come you decided to ignore that and just go with the crushed rock?
This is so close to my dream home. Almost everything is the same, but I want to use the same concept that the Earth ships do here in NM and use a built in greenhouse in addition with geothermal to help heat and cool, but all the ideas are the exact same.
That's what I want.... tip for you. I'm thinking clay pipes wrapped with fiberglass mesh in epoxy for strength. Because when used as sewer pipes, roots grow into them.
I've always been a believer in geothermal... advances are being made everyday... I believe there is a way to install fans in the geothermal duct work... if you can get a 2 degree energy split.. you should be able to turn a fan.. if you can turn a fan ... you should be able to generate electric.
You could film hours worth of building stuff or just planting etc. I would still watch it. Did you think about an second channel with "uncut" episodes where you do not need to put in all the highlights but just put the filmed material in a Video?
One thing you should be aware of is that during the wet part of the year, you have to do something to keep the pipes dry on the inside to prevent bacteria growth... (Legionnaires' disease)
Guy in Nebraska grows some of the best oranges with geothermal setup. Young kids should be learning things like this in schools. Too bad they don't want a self sufficient public.
You can get an EG4 minisplit and connect it to like 600 watts of Solar Panels and run it directly off the panels during the daytime. Pair it with a charge controller and appropriately sized battery and it can run over night no problem. Even just an evaporative cooler in the dry months would use a fraction of the power (but you need water, hence why it's vital you sort out some gutters and water catchment for your shacks). Probably far less cost or effort to install a mini-split and you will be needing solar anyways. These cooling tubes seems like a way over-engineered solution for a problem that could probably be solved by 1/3 of the cost.
I have just subscribed to your channel and have already watched five episodes tonight. A common theme I keep seeing happen is breakdowns of your equipment. As someone who has ran heavy equipment for many years I would recommend a pre-trip inspection. In other words walk around your machine and look for any problems before you just jump in it. It will save you a lot of time later. I have noticed bolts that were loose on a pre-trip that took me 2 minutes to tighten. If I would have let those bolts continue to walk their way out where things start falling off it would have taken hours to fix. A pre-trip inspection doesn't take very long and can save you a lot of time.
Preventive maintenance helps
The sandbag bucket filler was ingenious. That is such a game-changer. Thank you for the ideas
According to your sponsorship: When I google Shaun Overton, I see a young man, proudly wearing his Starfleet uniform (and to be clear: I can't wait until it's finally 10/11/2161), but the blueprint for this project totally reminds me of Tatooine. I'm really impressed by your creativity and pioneering work - keep it up! Great respect from germany to everyone involved! You better watch out for the Tusken Raiders...
😂
None of us will be alive.
Tusken raiders...that explains the side arm.
Amazing progress. This channel sure has gotten exciting lately. So much has been accomplished in a short time. Keep up the good work.
I have actually done the geothermal cooling/heating. I built an off-grid house in AZ.
I have been watching your vids since the 2nd one with great interest and think what you are doing is great.
I am not sure that you are going to get the results expected.
I went down 8 feet, 100 foot long trench, with only a 45 degree at each end.
I also used thin walled PVC. Drilled holes on the bottom side of the tubes for the condensation to escape (with rock underneath).
I also spaced my tubes further apart.
I hope that it works well for you.
I see what you did wrong, ironically because of something you DIDN'T say.
How big is your house?
You should lay some water hose and conduit in the trench so you can communicate with the fan, and the utility could also cool a water tank. Add a loop that goes down and back through the tank.
Hello, Shaun, just want to congratulate you for your update project
There always some comments that tell you how to do it better,, I just want to remind to to not take it negatively coz they come from care for your success. And there's no such as perfect project, even with months planning, so enjoy what you built, and keep a good work
Thanks for that!
Just to reinforce the sentiment, Shaun: I really love that you dream big and tackle things you’ve never done before. Yet you’re not afraid to make mistakes or ask for help.
You’re an inspiration!
I would love to second this comment.... and I know you've exposed yourself to just learn from the experience!! and that is really the fun in this!!! It's like a road trip with buddies and along the way you tell experiences that are slightly embarrassing in life and although slightly or severely uncomfortable lol yet looking back it was so liberating!! I guess in most of the videos I see that! this liberation of not knowing everything yet enjoying it as you share your experience!! I need to relay a sincere thank you for this!!! Fun stuff... just a good ol fashion journey!! Thanks for bringing me along!! @@dustupstexas
Would like to add that the engineer didn't add; is any shade cloth over the structures will aid in keep it cooler.... using the desert night time Temps... to push through the day. What is so awesome about this is using natural or cultivate Fiona can affect the temps 5 plus degrees during the high points...
We have so much to learn about creation!! again thanks!
I’m not seeing negativity, just constructive criticism from seemingly knowledgeable people.
@@ourmobilehomemakeover662 LOL just do it! By the end you will be the expert.
Filling that trench sure lived up to the ranch name! Love the passive heating and cooling approach. You'll appreciate it for many years to come.
Lol. I hadn't drawn the connection. But, I wore a respirator for good reason
@@dustupstexas Your respirator looks just like an Imperial Storm Trooper mask. You must be building on Tatooine 🤣👍
@@dustupstexasif you are actually planning on living there you aren’t going to be happy with the investment you are currently making. If this is a RUclips vanity project, then feel free to edit as needed and disregard my comment. To make this as short and readable as possible, I know what I am talking about, trust me. There is a reason people love air conditioning and not burying tubes 2 feet underground, which will be destroyed, if they aren’t already. Abort, get rid of your “engineer”, and build your house with massive amounts of foam. Foam with lath and mortar, foam with corrugated steel, foam domes, foam quonset huts, foam-crete cast or in blocks, any kind of foam and a lot of it. Earth structures will never approach the performance of foam, ever. The yakhchals won’t do anything about humidity or offer any real cooling in summer. A foam structure will need only a tiny air conditioner and powered by diverse sources of power like a generator, batteries, pv panels, and air turbines (in that order), it will be very reliable, less expensive, and give you results you can live with. Besides, you will need a fridge, freezer, computer, washer, and all the other electrical goodies we just can’t live without. Abandon the current strategy now.
@@bill4639just curious how did you end up watching this video if you are already convinced it's all bullshit? Have you just happened to watched Citrus in the Snow also?. They manage to grow citrus in Nebraska using a similar system. Would be interested to hear what you think of that.
@@lisakenton2392 I do construction, especially underground utilities. As soon as I saw the disaster unfolding before my eyes, I had to say something. I’m guessing this is just a fake youtube video because any professional builder would laugh at the poor workmanship. I mean this is God awful. If it real, I had to offer advice. Sound advice, from experience. I have no idea what citrus in the dessert in, but I do know most produce is grown in the dessert.
Hi Shaun,
The performance of Earth Pipe Cooling is affected by four main parameters :
1. Pipe length;
2. Pipe radius or diameter (balance should be found radius decreases, air flow increases)
3. Depth of the pipe inserted into the ground;
4. Air flow rate inside the pipe.
Resulting temperature decreases when :
• Pipe length increases
• Pipe diameter decreases
• Air flow decreases
• Depth increases to 4m (beyond no effect because temperature stable
I have read many scientific publications (I can share with you if you want), the best configuration is:
Depth: 3 to 5meters
Length: 30m
Can mold be an issue or problematic in a system like this?
@@tankfilms.If the dew point of the incoming air is lower than the ground temp, yes. In a dry desert cooling ambient air that probably won't be an issue though
I was wondering the same about the weight of the rubble stressing the pipes.
Spot on
@@bbsnows I was in a community that where someone attempted to drain a pond in their lawn and it worked initially until the pipe collapsed. The answer is to buy heavier wall 4 inch corrugated pipe from a drainage supply company or consult a drainage contractor. Avoid the big box stores!!!
Wonderful episode👏👀 The aerial shot of the construction site was one of the highlights of the entire series so far!!!! I can’t wait to see this cabin 🌞🤝🌞
Thanks for sharing about the drone
the production value of this is f ing insane. If this project doesn't come off you'll do just fine in TV! LOVING the content and the dream.
It looks like a termite mound, that cooling structure. Termites start their structure underground where its cooler and humid, and have a hole or holes or air vents above the ground through which heat leaves the underground resident chambers. The chambers are thus kept cool in the summer and warm in winter, with very little temperature variation when the seasons change.
Another way to keep the building cool in summer and warm in winter is to use thatch for roofing. Works insanely well.
I like the analogy
@@dustupstexas We use a lot of thatch roofing here in South Africa. Great natural insulation but does need to be replaced more often than roof tiles. Stating the obvious given that it's an organic material. Standing by for your next updated Sir! Appreciate you sharing this with us. Amazing learning experience. Thank you.
@cy-villian I live in Botswana. Thick thatch can last 20 years. I agree that roof tiles last longer.
@@cy-villianWhy not combine the two, tile with thatch over top? Seems like the best of both worlds. Obviously extra cost and work but cooler than just tile.
You're killin' me with the HazMat gear while in the trench....
Maybe it’s being overtired, maybe it’s the pain med, but my first mental impression to seeing you cutting, scooping, dumping, repeat was, ‘Sorta like WALL-E.’ Post-op my 2nd total hip replacement and stuck in the house, I’m running through your videos from the first to keep my brain from turning to mush. So interesting, and can’t wait to see how things are going for you now in 2025! Keep these videos coming; will send your link to my sister in Marfa. Good luck from a former a San Antonian, now stuck in the dreary PacNW; can’t wait to get back to Texas.
Frank Lloyd Wright knew this in the 30's. Studying how he utilized it (building into a hillside, pipe between floors, etc) is fascinating. Nice work, Shaun.
get a peek at the central AC in death valley scottys castle
I love how the videos are edited! It doesn’t feel like a vlog that usually takes hours
I really want to see what this all looks like 10 years from now. Great stuff Shawn.
Your Geothermal tubes remind me of the berms used for the EarthShip style homes founded in Taos, NM. I was enthralled by the idea, and suddenly I realized the connection... Great Idea for cooling and for warmth in the winter (I'm sure you won't really have to worry about that) You probably have already looked over the earthship designs, but its a great idea to look into.
I love the concept. The design isn't my favorite though
Awesome job Shaun. Can’t wait to see the next steps in this project.
I just started watching this weekend. I am full of admiration for what you are doing and would love to do it myself. I'm a bit disturbed by the engineer telling you that you can tape the up pipes for your cooling system to the flexible pipes underground. I am over 50 and have done some projects - that look's like a failure point in 5 to 10 years.... or less.
Glad to see you are going to make a solar chimney. I will enjoy watching that process!
I enjoy seeing the big ideas come to life here. Great project.
So this is what you wanted the doo-zer for, I wouldnt fancy digging that hole by hand in any heat but especially not out there.
Interesting stuff this these aerodynamic cooling systems...I use a certain amount myself in greenhouses and for cooling my workshop in summer so I am familiar with the processes involved.
It will be interesting to see how it works out there
Thanks for sharing
This is rapidly becoming my favourite chanel. I would love to be doing a project similar to this myself. So much fun to follow your progress. Keep up the good works.
Finally, a video longer than 5-6 minutes.
That's refreshing to hear. Most people won't sit through a video longer than 10 minutes.
I'm getting a sense for length and pace. I'm learning as much about social media as I am about the plants
To Drain the pipes, Make sure they have a 4 degree slope to one direction, at the end of this direction, you will have them terminate in a drain T allowing the moisture to drop down into the earth there, and the air to blow through or be sucked through the other half of the T.
This way you will need zero drainage in the system, and you can flush them of dust and debris easily.
(Think like a Roman.)
Using sealed pipe, you could seal the system and bleach it or otherwise let it soak to kill off mold, which in future builds can improve longevity.
Mold might not be a concern in your situation however.
Loving the progress, i had no idea that you were putting anything like this in.
Have you heard of that guy in Nebraska who uses this constant air flow system to heat his green house? He is able to grow oranges year round, it keeps a constant 54 degrees through freezing winters.🎉
Yep. I loved that video
I am literally binge watching your channel for 4 nights now ! hoping to buy my land in Arizona . ❤❤❤🎉🎉
I get excited every time you post a video. Watching from the gulf coast of Texas.
I live in a relatively similar environment. I was thinking of doing the exact same thing to chill down the cabin in the summer. I hope this works cause I’m looking to get started in the next year or two!
Excellent projects. Lot to learns. Designer is Mechanical Engineer. He has good knowledge about soil Mechanic and foundation Engineering
i'm about halfway through binging through all your videos. Just a thought I'd really like to see some overhead footage before you started and afterwards to see if you started making a footprint. I'm really enjoying what you're doing from over in the UK. Keep it up 🌲 are coming
One thing I worry about is radon gas and the fact those perforated pvc pipes would bring in a constant source of radon, go borrow a digi radon tester so you know what you are dealing with, better know now than dealing this later. The constant moving air flow might also make radon a non issue. But it's worth thinking about
If the area has a high incidence of decomposed granite, that could possibly be a concern. Otherwise, radon is not normally associated with sandstone.
Nonetheless, it never hurts to test for it.
Dear Shaun,
Love the channel super impressed and love watching you learn and grow as a person and more! I feel a strong need to comment as I have researched many of the same things as you and we have VERY similar dreams and alignments of study. However in my research PVC would have been the better choice than corrugated tubing... mold is a serious problem and with the perforation in the tubing and the now stone pool (under the dirt) that you've carved with the limestone standing water is going to be an issue. This could block air flow, and encourage mold and bacteria growth. with the Corrugated tubes, back filling with stone would have helped however that creates a bit of insulation and less contact with soil.. thus PVC would have been the ideal choice. Putting the tubes on a slight gradient in a V pattern with drainage in the center would ensure that the condensate would drain. With the smooth pipes you need less force to allow for natural convection of the air, as well less electricity to "force" the air out on an especially hot day or with a pressure system disrupting flow think of your chimney in winter some days it goes like a inferno some days you can get the damn fire to start.
Also i've been wondering for the life of me why you havn't started with a tractor front loader backhoe... but seeing the limestone I can understand why, I wish you all the best on your journey's I am super proud of you! you're doing incredible! Hopefully my wife and I can come visit sometime in the future, we are working on a similar project in Tucson! 90acres!
All the best
Ethan
Interesting. I am glad you chose to install the passive/ active heating cooling air system. Once you get the dirt on them I hope you can test air flow thru the pipes.
There was a youtube series that showed a similar cooling method, only it was entirely passive and the pipes didn't need to go down into the ground like that since they built an earthen bunker atop them. The pipes actually sloped upwards into the house too so you didn't have to worry about water flowing in or pooling in the pipes. I can't find it now but you might have better luck. Some of their early buildings looked straight out of Tatooine, but later builds look more traditional. I belive it was in Arizona but I'm not sure.
Well,I wish I could have got to you before you started your geothermal system.
I'm from Alpine and have been here for approx 35 years and am a retired herpetologist.
Admire what your doing.
Hopefully we'll run into each other eventually and it would be nice to see your property up close.
Come on out!
Do you post dates when you'll be on your property?
This time of the year outside temperatures and conditions can be at their best.
I've overcome the heat problem by building mostly underground. My house stays a comfortable 24 degrees all year.
thanks for the continuous work you do, weekly inspiration
When I worked in road maintenance, we used a lot of sandbags for culvert ends. We would mix bags of concrete into our sand mixture before filling the sandbags. Then when the bags got wet the concrete would harden the bags.
USACE would just buy it already bagged. Place the bag, drive in a rebar, pull out the rebar and stack the next bag. The rebar made a hole so the water could get in easier. Quikrete sells them in 80lb bags.
Some of the old, old buildings in Prescott Az have somewhat similar. That air coming up was cool as AC and Swamp cooling.
My bad. I finished the video. You are already well started on your layouts. Still enjoying your progress.
Why not take the trench on into the house and dig out a 3' to 4' deep basement and foundation? Still shallow enough for functional windows, but you get the thermal benefit of the "basement" walls. I worry a bit about that thin-walled pipe holding up under all that dirt. Earlier he mentioned embedding the pipe in concrete for thermal transfer, but that would have also provided significant strength to prevent the pipes from collapsing. I'd definitely plan to berm up the outer walls of the domes 2 or 3 feet, to help shed water and provide more thermal protection for the foundation. Do you have clay soils available? Hyper-adobe or super-adobe might be an option. Loose sandbags don't harden or stack reliably. Getting the soil damp as you're filling the bags will help regardless.
The soil is only 7% clay. Part of the goal is to keep the construction simple. This was the most complex part
I saw on another video where they encountered significant clay sediments... not sure how far away they were though. They talked about mixing some into the planting soil...
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode! One of the best episodes you've ever made!
This episode really lives up to the "Dustups" name. Thank you for sharing I am enjoying your progress.
Love your commitment to this project 🎉
I was waiting 10h for this video !!
Thanks for sticking around. I hate not running on time.
If you open the roof of the building, the fan can be omitted due to the suction effect of the rising air, because if the diameter of the suction pipe is over 3 cm, the cavitation flow starts and together with the chimney effect, it absorbs the heat from the ground, which knocks down the house, only the air movement can help , hey, if you make small clay pots and drip water on them and the evaporation is partly in a water tank, it takes heat away from the space by running the supply pipes through it, then it cools it too!
I'm impressed. That is such a brutal environment. Amazing!
i am excited to see this system working. I learned of this method probably 12 years ago. I intended to implement it on our AZ property but my partner has issues with mold (cannot rid her body of it as most healthy people can) so we decided not to do it. I noticed Nick had/has the same concern so I'm interested to learn how you address that concern and if you encounter mold issues in the future. I hope you don't. Nasty stuff.
He determined it's not an issue because the perforated pipes drain directly into sand. There's nowhere for moisture to really stick around
@@dustupstexasplease tell us in the future if the Holes in the pipes worked
I was thinking how, say, a 4" or 6" smooth pvc pipe, on a slope(for drainage) would do with mold. This including a yearly cleanup like with a same pipe diameter cloth pompom dragged by a rope through the pipe using sodium percarbonate as a cleaning fluid.
I used to live in a tipi in new mexico. We had dug down 4ft or so into the ground and laid concrete flooring. We then lined the walls of the pit with gravel in an aluminum wall. It was very comfortable and beautiful. When i go back im hoping to build a bâdgir.
I think the engineer brought up a good point about the pipes growing mold underground when the soil gets wet. May not ever be an issue in the desert but definitely could be in a wetter climate.
Exactly. Could've been a problem, but not in a desert
You run nylon lines through two pipes in a loop. Put a bleached towel through once a year.
These systems have been around since the 70s at least
hightec engenering combined with a shovel, great !! good luck from the netherlands, europe.
I like the effort but I feel like just buying some solar panels and a eg4 mini split would handle all your needs much cheaper and easier. Get some eg4 battery packs to cover non sunny days but its def more sunny than not sunny there. either way looking forward to your progress.
I'd like to suggest a few ideas.
EARTH HOMES are built with some of your concepts including Geothermal. The use of sand filled tires as the structure. Cutting the top sidewall allows simple easy fill like in ROAD BASE construction.
Another building material to consider are used BILLBOARD VINYL - 14'x48' durable and waterproof
I don't know if you have been doing this. But I would suggest you write down everything you ever have to run back to town for and compile into a list of keeping extras or atheist one of and pack it all into a shipping container or something along those lines and your emergency trips to town will be much less likely.
We've only had two incidents that required runs into town. The list is pretty easy to remember
Just a thought, if you use the more active system at 18:33 in reverse and then place Hydrophobic material into the stack and provide a reservoir you would create condensation and perhaps eventually fill a tank for water by just using passive air flow.
Great vid
Thanks for sharing all this thinking, I really appreciate the intel!
I think you need much more distance under the ground for cold the air. Or install the tubes in zig zag. Better if use metal hoses for more thermal transfer. You can put a tube under the outside perimeter of the house fence before enter to the room.
Their is also way called rammed earth mostly can be built with materials we found in our land and keeps temperatures normal , sand bags are also good but after I seen some rammed earth structures I loved it, was something you can consider for your future projects happy to see the progress of your property
I settled on sandbags over rammed earth because it's so much faster
@@dustupstexas understood thanks for your reply
Back in the late 70s worked with early solar/thermal mass underground large scale piping, mold/mildew eventually killed the test project…
It is so cool to watch you learn and grow new skills, build confidence in yourself to tackle this dream♡
Last time I investigated ventilation, I learned to avoid PVC/plastics like the plague. They (like plastic clothing) help bacteria growth. For home ventilation, pipes exist which counter that using nano coatings. I don't know how effective these counters are, I just settled on galvanized metal pipes.
I forget if it was in the video or not. We considered steel, aluminum and various plastics. The advantage is the HDPE is that it's dirt cheap and perforated. Working with metals was significantly more expensive
Wow, you got so much done. You are rocking it (bad pun) out there…
Worth the wait! Just curious Shaun,, when was this drone aerial footage taken? There was some footage of digging the trench from March 2023. Were these (drone) shots recent?
So cool to see how you can just go and build anything you want on the property. Truly a man's dream.
The drone footage is also from March
OMG, when I first came across your videos this cooling system is exactly what I thought of!!! It's cheap, or at least relative to a solar panel or any other electric system would be.
Our ancestors have been using a similar method to keep their living spaces cool, and preserve food, for thousands of years.
It's called a basement.
Very Interesting concept you going for. Nice. Well done so far. Regards
Broken hill is vity of underground homes, ex mining town, but dont know soil things, but aussies friendly try tourist info center for whom to talk to. Country people understand distance
Mr. Overton, there appears to be some technical difficulties. a few screen glitches, and at the end, the "thanks for watching" showed up without any pictures, just white shapes!
i like the design, cool-
as far as those tube thingies, .. kind of so-so. i would do like a concrete large tube, single. like those big blocks with the circular opening one sees laying about in industrial areas. or even one of those metal shipping containers... if it is deep enough, it would work (and that looked deep enough for sure) THAT WAY, there's is plenty of cool air and you don't have to worry about the integrity-- AND it would be easily accessible! that's all! thank you! always a treat 🎉 😁
Thats why I had an engineer manage it. He helped me balance cost against performance. I didn't have the equipment to lift manage 25' long concrete tubes
@@dustupstexas ok
Sandbag home building sounds great. Obviously UV stable sandbag material. I like the cooling system too. Fingers crossed your engineer has it right. If not just extend the pipes and move the mechanical room. Best always
The UV is only an issue if they are left uncovered. Once there's stucco over them, they should be fine
@@dustupstexas Sounds good. My fault I missed the stucco part. You should build about a dozen of them. Then rent them like air bnb, joking
Ok this is awesome, it's basically the tech version of what Geoff Lawson is doing. Love your work man
Did I miss the point where you explained why you didn't do the standard method geothermal with water pumped thru piping? Same trench could have had 20x more length of 1" PE pipe. More heat transfer, easier to use in the buildings. The same system could be tied into a solar water heater system to give you even more heat in the winter.
Video could be titled "$5500 landfill" because it looked like someone digging a hole and burying some useless plastic. If you could keep a house cool in the summer, in the desert even, with 100ft of cheap drain pipe buried just a few feet underground, then I think it would be quite popular.
The fact that Nick's original idea used aluminum pipe indicates that he either thought you had a crazy high budget or he has no real experience relating to this sort of project. When he switched to corrugated plastic, I assumed he meant plastic that was actually designed to be buried 6ft underground. Nope. Just grabbed the cheapest, flimsy, expandable, corrugated pipe and dumped 4-5ft of rocky dirt on top of it as if its are not going to be immediately crushed. So silly. At 28:24 you just slightly put your knee on the pipe and it immediately deforms under that slight load. And you think 5ft of dirt didn't crush it?
Laughed out loud when I heard "The engineer said I could just tape it". CFD of HVAC systems just means plugging the specs of a building HVAC into a program to check if all the components are sized properly. Its presumably commercial HVAC and working with a team of engineers where others are doing the design and selection of components and he does the analysis. He likely has minimal experience actually selecting components and likely zero experience with geothermal. All that aside even, I'm quite certain he has no experience with proper connections of underground corrugated drain pipe. He can likely do the analysis to show the required piping size and heat transfer rates, but its obvious that he should have admitted that his expertise ended there and sought advice from someone with geothermal experience.
The separate building for a "mechanical room" is normally a good idea, but in this case its working against your air based geothermal. You're not circulating the same air thru the system. You're simply pumping in your conditioned air and venting the same CFM out of the building. That could work if you had a very powerful system capable of bringing the outdoor air to the desired temperature at a CFM high enough. Generally forced air HVAC systems circulate the same air throughout the house with a small fresh air inlet. This way your ~95% of the air going thru the system is already close to the desired temperature.
The issue described above could be fixed by pairing the pipes such that 2 feed the blower in the mechanical room and 2 return the air to the main building. You could add a small fresh inlet at the blower if needed. Basically a standard forced air HVAC system at that point with the ground acting as furnace/AC. That is assuming the pipe isn't all or mostly crushed.
Braving the cartels to make a cool off grid oasis is a fun idea, but this is shaping up to be a few years of wasting time and money before hopefully getting it right.
Water pumping requires way more energy and he wanted a passive system.
@@uribove huh? His plan uses a fan to move air thru the pipes. It's not passive. A water pump could be sized use the same power as the fan.
@@vica153 as passive as possible was his plan. Not saying the engineer succeeded 🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️🤷🏼♂️
I also find it weird in a very sunny place that he outright refuses to use solar to power electrical cooling
@@uribove Water would be better in every way. Air could work, but the amount of piping required would be WAY more expensive. Plus with water you don't have to worry about the pipes getting contaminated dirt/mold/animals like the air pipes will. His design, especially with the joke pipe selection, isn't going to work at all.
Solar would too easy. That area gets over 2000hrs of sunlight per year. ~4hrs of sunlight even in "winter". More than 5hrs of sunlight per day on average. $5500 spent on this landfill would have gotten him a 2-3kW with a little bit of battery backup and bring in ~5000kWh per year. That would be enough for well over 1000hrs of runtime of a 25k BTU heat pump. For the cost of this whole silly air setup he could have solid off grid power setup and heat pump.
I imagine the problem with solar would be sticking out like a sore thumb when you're alone in the middle of no where with desperate people trekking northward.
Actually if you pay attention the method he's using is an adaptation of a technique that has been used for a couple thousand years. The fan and buried pipes are substituting for for the pit in center of building . You also have too take into account the shape of the building allows the exchange to happen more naturally then traditional box buildings. From a electrical perspective a fan is more economical then a heat pump (used in most geographic thermal
That sounds great 25 degrees difference in temperature from outside !
you can get plastic pipes that are corrugated on the outside but smooth on the inside. they use them for electrical cable protection under ground. the problem that I predict is that between the corrugation and the smooth lining is an airgap that creates isolation for the heat transfer
Next time elbows on the pipe joints elbows can be bought from large to reduced in a commercial market place Lowes etc. Better seal and control of joint pressure underground shielding the connection so to speak. No pressure on joint as you have.
The dark brown part is moisture in the soil. Get a book on swamp coolers or temperature differentials at depth. A mini-excavator is better than a skidsteer to move dirt vertically.🤔
I've used those black pipes before and mine collapsed, if you have to redo this, fill them with rocks so they don't collapse.. the rocks allow water/air to pass, but provide the structure too
While watching you digging down into rock I had the thought that if you could not go down 8 feet the other option was to add fill on top of the trench to make the pipes 8 feet deep.
I asked about that, but that's not how heat moves in soil.
Thoughts on plastic pipe/soil weight, all plastic pipe used underground should be laid on bed of well screened sand and covered with same, perhaps 8” top and bottom…
I LoVE your project!!
I wonder if once U get some desert forestry going there should be an Earth bag home/center on the Ranch. It could be your Nursery.
loving this series
Homes in central Iran are built this way. The architecture is amazing!
Little idea right here. Maybe you could use part of the dirt you´re digging for building more checkdams. Cheers from Argentina, good luck.
It's a bit too high up from the watershed, but possible
Geo Thermal is the way to go. I don't understand why this hasn't become a standard for mainstream housing...
I've built a similar system to cool my off grid home but without any fancy structures. I'm just using a quantity of three 4" sewer pipes in an 18" wide trench 7' to 8' feet below grade. They run 120' feet in length underground from the inlet to the house. On 100+ degree days, I get 62 degrees out of the pipes all day long. I use 3 very low power consumption computer fans. One on each pipe to cool the house...
I was initially using an 3Ah M18 Milwaukee battery to run the fans and it would run the fans for two days before needing to be recharged. Granted I'm not in the Chihuahuan desert but where I am is high desert experiencing temperatures from minus 16 degrees in winter to over 105 degrees in the summer. My home is built using ICF construction for the walls with about R-40 insulation on the outside of the walls and about R-60 in the roof. This puts the tremendous thermal mass of the ICF's on the inside of the structure. This makes for incredible interior temperature stability requiring minimal thermal input to heat and cool...
I would think those pipes would break under all that dirt. Looking forward to seeing this work.
Regarding the masks and conversing, I think you'd have reasonably good success using two way radios or a megaphone of some type so you neither need to shout nor doff, although you'd have darth vadery mask valve breathing noises on the mic. For me, for my own risk level, for what I do (which is basically just consuming, occasional roadside bike rides, which are super dusty, especially on River Road here which has pulp mills, and gardening in a sub-boreal zone: 4°C average annual temp, 55cm average annual precip, 110 day warm-season growing season) and for my values, I see that as worth it, if I have to wear a respirator I'm willing to accept darth vadering at anyone I've to talk to on a two way. I understand well if you don't.
Great build. Unbelievable ingenuity.
Cool POV shots of digging the trench!
I feel like those flimsy black plastic pipes are going to just flatten once the weight of the dirt/rock is on top of them and starts to settle. I really hope that doesn't happen, because it would be such a waste of effort, time, and money.
Indeed, but I can play telephone through them. I seriously doubt they collapsed
True, but they need to be thin so they can transfer the colder temperature on to the air that travels through, an ideal solutuon could be to put larger rocks around the pipes (not on top) and then to cover them with dirt
With 30 years irrigation experience, yes the ground moves once disturbed, must support pipes place them apart fill with soft sand first underneath and on top of the pipes about a foot, lightly compact then fill trench, the compaction over time, of the fine sand, will naturally support the pipes like concrete. Avoid at all costs right angles use slow bends, as compaction occurs over time right angles can leak/ tear as well as restricting flow.
Love what you doing . Thank you for sharing
Hopefully your engineer checked the allowable burial depth on those black corrugated pipes, considering your soil properties. They look pretty flimsy, but that's really difficult to tell from just watching a RUclips video. Also, I would have used some long radius ells on the vertical pipes. Avoid any possibility of crimping the black pipe at the transition to horizontal.
@@dustupstexas Yeah, but will they still be that way in a year is the question.
At 13:58 the engineer says "pour cement on top of the pipes for a good thermal connection to the ground" - How come you decided to ignore that and just go with the crushed rock?
This is so close to my dream home. Almost everything is the same, but I want to use the same concept that the Earth ships do here in NM and use a built in greenhouse in addition with geothermal to help heat and cool, but all the ideas are the exact same.
That's what I want.... tip for you. I'm thinking clay pipes wrapped with fiberglass mesh in epoxy for strength. Because when used as sewer pipes, roots grow into them.
Shaun, you should check out the EarthShips in Taos, NM. They are designed to handle a hot, dry environment. Passive heating and cooling.
I've always been a believer in geothermal... advances are being made everyday... I believe there is a way to install fans in the geothermal duct work... if you can get a 2 degree energy split.. you should be able to turn a fan.. if you can turn a fan ... you should be able to generate electric.
You could film hours worth of building stuff or just planting etc. I would still watch it. Did you think about an second channel with "uncut" episodes where you do not need to put in all the highlights but just put the filmed material in a Video?
I'm thinking about making that a theme in a membership level
One thing you should be aware of is that during the wet part of the year, you have to do something to keep the pipes dry on the inside to prevent bacteria growth... (Legionnaires' disease)
Guy in Nebraska grows some of the best oranges with geothermal setup. Young kids should be learning things like this in schools. Too bad they don't want a self sufficient public.
You can get an EG4 minisplit and connect it to like 600 watts of Solar Panels and run it directly off the panels during the daytime. Pair it with a charge controller and appropriately sized battery and it can run over night no problem. Even just an evaporative cooler in the dry months would use a fraction of the power (but you need water, hence why it's vital you sort out some gutters and water catchment for your shacks).
Probably far less cost or effort to install a mini-split and you will be needing solar anyways. These cooling tubes seems like a way over-engineered solution for a problem that could probably be solved by 1/3 of the cost.
One of the best videos!!
Excellent stuff bro