DIY Greenhouse Heat Recovery System

[mamos]

As my dome seems to actually becoming reality I am looking for a way to regulate the temperature both day and night.

I am going to have some vents as a back up just in case the dome overheats but this would be a worst-case scenario. I do not want to loose the heat generated during the day. I would rather store it to be released over night.

I'm sure there are countless commercially available systems out there but my system needs to be cheap and DIY.

I'm thinking, a solar powered ducted fan taking the hot air down to a loop in an insulated IBC full of water and back out again.

This should take hot air from the top of the dome, cool it and return it to the dome during the day. Come night time the heat will slowly leak back out from the water into the dome maintaining the temperature over night.

Would this work?

Paul

[Green Aura]

We have a heat sink a la Dick Strawbridge in our polytunnel. A solar panel, powers a small fan near the roof which sucks the warm air down to an old polystyrene meat box filled with gravel. A small vent, fetchingly covered with my old tights lets the air out at floor level.

What we still haven't got is an old battery to store some of the solar power to regulate the fan etc. It's somewhere on a very long to-do list!

This picture http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... el#p284416 shows the downpipe going from the fan, which sits in the crop bar to the box, which is buried so it's top is at floor level.

I don't know if any of that makes sense - I've not had my morning coffee yet.