SB: Re: SB appropriate thermal mass-heat storage

["Chuck & Linda" <clearned@bminet.com>]

Greetings again,

I recently just mentioned the deep heat storage system we are putting in
place. I am building this in the next few days and I have a burning question
that I am hoping some of you engineer types could sound off on.

The solar designer has always used sand inside the heat box/floor. Well to
fill this two feet deep will cost about $1800 in sand or rock. Meanwhile I
am sitting with huge mounds of loam and wondering about incorporating the
loam. Again the idea is to use part of Aug and Sept and October to charge up
the floor and then slowly release the heat over the cold season. I am
wondering about the thermal performance issues of loam versus sand. The
solar designer has never done anything but.... I thought about using the
loam in the first foot at the bottom where the tubes are buried and sand or
rock up top. I don't want to do it if the performance would drop, but I am
wondering if there would be any drop in performance?

Chuck Learned

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