Knowledgebase
Welcome to the BTL Knowledgebase. Ever since we started lining ponds, creating covers, and helping people with their projects, we've gotten asked a lot of questions. Many of these questions are repeatedly asked, so we put together the BTL knowledgebase to help answer any questions you had about a particular subject. We are adding new questions every month, so continue to check back often!
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Where do greenhouses lose the most heat?
Greenhouses are sometimes built with small openings in the roof to allow air to vent, which is critical if you're using supplemental heat from an oil heater or wood fired stove, for example. For geothermal greenhouses, that kind of venting is unnecessary
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How do you heat a greenhouse with a heat sink?
You can think of a heat sink as a kind of a collector and storage for thermal energy.
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How do you add thermal mass to a greenhouse?
An easy way to increase thermal mass is to add barrels of water, painted flat black, along a wall where it will receive sunlight. Besides adding more “batteries” to the equation, these water barrels can also be used for plant irrigation, eliminating plant
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How does a greenhouse store thermal energy?
Thermal energy is stored within mass, either in a heat sink of rubble or gravel, or by installation of thermal batteries, like dark barrels of water.
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Does a geothermal greenhouse work in the Winter?
Yes! A few feet below the surface, the soil is warmed by geothermal energy and maintains a constant temperature year round.
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What is a thermal mass?
Thermal mass' describes a material's capacity to absorb, store and release heat. Dense materials like water and concrete have a high capacity to store heat and are referred to as 'high thermal mass' materials.
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Can you heat a greenhouse with geothermal energy?
Geothermal energy is free, easily accessible, and well suited to use in greenhouses.
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How deep is a geothermal greenhouse?
Geothermal greenhouses vary in depth, with a comfortable average for horizontal loop designs being 6-12 feet deep, depending on your climate.
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Where does geothermal energy come from?
Geothermal energy is natural heat from within the Earth itself.
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How deep is a geothermal well?
A geothermal well can vary significantly in depth and may even require multiple drilling sites before a suitable site is located.
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Is geothermal energy sustainable?
Geothermal energy comes from the natural heat of the planet emanating from magma layers thousands of feet thick.
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What is a greenhouse's heat sink?
A heat sink is a dense material that naturally absorbs heat during the daytime and gradually releases it in the cool evening.
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What's a geothermal heat pump?
A geothermal heat pump is a specialized piece of equipment that typically uses warm water from underground aquifers to absorb heat and transfer it to a space like a greenhouse or a residence.
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Can you heat a greenhouse from the ground?
Yes! Geothermal greenhouses harness the natural warmth of the earth to supply heat directly to the greenhouse.
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How do you heat a greenhouse without electricity?
Passive geothermal greenhouses can take advantage of physical principals like the thermal flywheel to transfer heat from underground.
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What's the best soil for geothermal?
Moderaly dense, moist soils easily transfer heat and therefore make the best soil type for geothermal greenhouses.
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How do you heat a geothermal greenhouse?
There are several ways to heat a greenhouse using passive geothermal principles, and greenhouse operators typically aren't shy to supplement with no-tech, passive thermal batteries charged by exposure to the sun.
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How do you size a geothermal system?
Typically, an engineer will help you calculate an average heat load for your particular home or structure. This heat load will determine how much heat, on average, needs to be supplied to your home to keep it within the desired range.
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How does a geothermal greenhouse work?
Geothermal greenhouses work by transferring naturally occurring underground warmth into the greenhouse using circulating air.
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What are the advantages of geothermal energy?
Geothermal energy is cost effective, completely sustainable, and emits virtually no pollution.
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What are the disadvantages of geothermal energy?
Geothermal energy is available pretty much all over the globe, is free and is completely sustainable.
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How do you build a geothermal greenhouse?
Most geothermal greenhouses are built using a passive system, which may be augmented with fans or even a heat pump if necessary.
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Can you heat a house with geothermal?
Houses can be heated geothermally by pumping cold air above-ground through pipes to soil several feet underground, where the temperature is constant year-round. This heats the air before pumping it back into the house.
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