Re: keeping troughs from freezing

["Michelle Rowe" <michrowe@frontier.net>]

Weeelll, we researched a lot of solar design when we thought we were going
to build a house, and I would guess that you might do ok by:

- orienting your tank so the long side faces south
- putting it in the most direct, long lasting winter sunlight possible
- build a mass wall on the south side of the tank (a block and Kwik-Crete
wall painted black) that will absorb heat and radiate it through the block
at night.  a metal tank should be cool enough to draw the heat through the
properly.  a plastic tank may not do as well - I dunno - you need something
cool enough against the mass wall that you don't get a reverse effect where
the mass wall doesn't pull heat away from the tank at night.(!)  gotta keep
that heat moving toward the tank.
- put some insulation on the north side of the tank - maybe styroform board
duct taped to the tank would do it.  insulate other sides of tank if
possible.  you could build a simple frame around the east, west, and north
sides of the tank and insulate it a bit.
- you could cover part of the tank if it's really big to help hold in heat.
if you build a frame, you could build a partial cover that you flip closed
at night feeding and flip open during the day.
- build a hole in the ground down to frost line, and fill with it rocks to
store and radiate some of the earth's 'heat' - use backhoe where needed

If you could set your tank into the ground at all, it will probably help.
I'm not sure I'd try that because it would be hard to drain and clean the
tank.

Guess I'll be the guinea pig and try my suggestions myself!  I'll post pics
on my website when I finish the project.  Y'all have got me interested in
trying it, and it's safer sounding to me that electricity.

FWIW, my horses would have a ball stealing, tromping, and chomping a block
of styro AND then the potential vet bills for colic and removal of styro
from intestine of horse would make that an unwise option for us.  :-)

Michelle Rowe - http://www.redwrench.com - Colorado


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=