| Heat from your garden |
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The earth stores an enormous amount of solar energy from both solar radiation and rainfall. To extract this energy, ground collectors consisting of flexible poly ethylene pipes are buried in the earth vertically. A mixture of water and anti-freeze is then circulated through the pipe loops, attracting the heat energy and transferring it to the heat pump.
If a large enough land area is available, horizontal ground collectors provide an effective method of extracting heat from the ground. The pipework is buried at a depth of approximately 1.25m and spaced 0.75m apart. The land area required is dependant on both the capacity of the heat pump and heat conductance of the soil type in which the pipes are buried.
As a space saving alternative to horizontal collectors, slinkies - consisting of coiled pipes buried in a trench - can be used. |
