Water jugs for thermal mass/heat sink?
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2014 10:36 am
Hello all. I built this little hoop house at the start of the fall, and it managed to keep my lettuce alive until the minus 5 degree F night we had a couple weeks ago.
Anyway, the thing works very well in terms of heating up during the day. It routinely would get up in the 70s and 80s even when it was in the 20s and 30s outside. My only beef is that it cools down very quickly once the sun goes down.
The house is 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and about 3.5 feet high in the middle. I was thinking of lining the house with a couple dozen gallon jugs of water to store up heat during the day and keep the house a little warmer during the overnight hours. Would that amount of water do much of anything? (In other words, would it even be worth trying it?) If it's worth doing, would it help if I spray painted the jugs black?
Thoughts? Thanks!
Anyway, the thing works very well in terms of heating up during the day. It routinely would get up in the 70s and 80s even when it was in the 20s and 30s outside. My only beef is that it cools down very quickly once the sun goes down.
The house is 10 feet long, 5 feet wide and about 3.5 feet high in the middle. I was thinking of lining the house with a couple dozen gallon jugs of water to store up heat during the day and keep the house a little warmer during the overnight hours. Would that amount of water do much of anything? (In other words, would it even be worth trying it?) If it's worth doing, would it help if I spray painted the jugs black?
Thoughts? Thanks!