Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Welcom here on thursday if you want

Burying the tank out here is good chappo, ground temp is usually warmer than the air temp in winter, and a lot cooler in summer.

The cooler in Summer bit is a great advantage even here in Sydney ,, I recon I can keep a trout tank under 20C for 8 months maybe 9.
I just can't get my head aroiund the heat bit, but last time we discussed this I said I'd set up a pair of test buckets ,, so RDO on Friday best I get my ass down to Bunnings.

The soil around my tanks is at 18 deg c, first thing in the morning when air temp is at 4 deg c.

The tanks being buried maintaines a lot more stable temp.

18 C ,, wow I thought it would be a lot colder than that in KAL,, soil temps here now are down around 17.

Completely different environment and conditions. What soil temps do you have in late winter when you are over-nighting around 2C.

15 ish - these temps are at 1m depth. Its like having a capacitor in an electrical circuit, smooths out the major temps swings.

I got the level out swings bit , that's sure. I just can't see a large container of warm water staying warmer buried rather than insulated and above ground.
DAMN , chappo get those buckets
If the air temp gets to 5C I put on a jumper ,, I'm reasonably warm ,, if I lay on the ground I'm bloody cold.
<<< pig-headed chappo ....., best I just TEST.

Ah but if you dug a hole in the ground chappo, you would find that you would be much warmer than if you lay on top of it, especially out in the desert like us boys.

AND never leave your vehicle ( sorry It just struck me as funny)

he he yeah, this could turn into outback survival not AP survival

Are your hot water systems ( I mean for showers etc NOT AP), buried?

If not ( as I suspect ) why not?

But would I be warmer than standing up ?? That is the real question.

Humans by nature , as with most animals , seek warmth ,, how many hobbo's have you seen sleeping on the ground rather than on the bench seat wrapped in News paper ( a quite good insulator ) ,, I'll admit a park bench IN a cave would be better ,, no wind-chill factor and the benefit of not having the heat sucking ground attached to you.

The hot water systems aren't burried but are usually well insulated, yeah it would probably be a good idea to have them even better insulated, of course a lot of us have Solar HWS due to the huge amount of sun that we get out here. I know that in some places north of Kal, they often dont need to turn the hot water tap on during the summer because the pipes aren't buried deep enough in the ground and they pick up a lot of ambient temperature.
The newspaper wrapping brings up another of my intrests in the form of insulation for housing, have a look at the papercrete notion (a google search away). Paper works very well as an insulator and therefore can be used in an adobe mix to build houses with which keeps them very well insulated against extreems in temp.
On the hobbo idea, I think there are many factors that can be at play here, maybe the limited park benches (would have to talk to the council about this he he) but yes the fact that the slats are not a solid object may mean that heat is lost to the air as well. Not real knowlegdeable on hobbothermodynamics so please correct me if i am wrong

I also lack knowledge of hobbothermodynamics ,, I tried to extract information from the persons but they spoke some strange WA language ,, LOL.... kidding around.

So , the HWS are not buried ,, so there must be a definate advantage to being above ground?
Insulating against cold air is much easier than against cold soil?
All things are relative ,, so lets set an optimum temp of 23C , I propose that a body of water ,, or whatever , can more easily be insulated against air at 0 C than against ground at 10 C.

now let's look at extremes ,, IGLOO;'s are bulit above the ice?

This is exactly why I cannot see the heating benefit of burying a container of water that you wish to keep warm>>> like I said I'm a stubourn SOB.

The converse would be true if you wanted to keep your container of water at or near 10C ,, yep use the 10C ground.

Nahhh Chappo.... just that it would cost sooo much more for people/plumbers to dig a hole to bury it and plumb it...

Undoubtably the manufacturers either don't care about the inefficiencies or just don't think the losses are great enough to warrant the actually cost....

Mate, rather than just keeping continuing this arguement in every single thread....

Post into your own thread, or one specifically dedicated to your hypothesis... and do it.... we're all interested in heating/cooling solutions of one sort or another...

If you think that you've got a workable and cost efficient solution.... do it...measure it... and post it up mate... we're all ears

Rupe ,, I have a very hard time accepting BAD information. No information I can accept , bad guess work ,, well that's a normal part of life . Bad information that directs people in the opposite direction that is needed , is like a curable disease not being cured.

I leave you with this link ..... http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=6909
it's the Aussie base in ANTARCTICA , ,, oh dear ,, above ground .....,,
some of the worlds BEST scientists , engineers and brains have it all wrong ???

I could be wrong , those Aussie Scientists and Engineers could be wrong ,,

I see , with interest, that you direct the word "hypothesis" toward me only . Why would that be?
( it's NOT personal so ,, my FACTS , rather than other's FACTS)

By the way Rupe I am not writing these things in EVERY thread ,, I realise it is disturbing when you find things that you have accepted as fact are simply not true,, live ,earn, moove on.
Cheers.