Roselea

Category: Energy Modules

Buried Hot Water Tanks to Collect any spare energy from the Sun via eletric or water thermal.

  • Day 4 of the Great Module Number 5 – All Dug, Levelled and Smoothed!

     Today, under the glorious hot sun, we finished digging out the hole, for Energy Module Number 5. We then started on the smoothing and leveling process, with the insertion of the guide rails down each side, doing section by section.

    When we reached the middle section, we discovered that the wall just didn’t want to stop “pouring” into our hole, the sand was a very large grain size mixed in with small gravel and it just simply kept falling down into our hole, no matter how much of it we removed!! This was the spot where the mini-digger was also struggling to make it way along the top to do the digging task and it kept slipping slightly sideways towards to the hole – very scary! So We had to shore up the side with a sheet of OSB and posts and it seems to be holding

    Module-5-Flat-bottomed-hole-1

    Module-5-Flat-bottomed-hole-1

    Anyway, we have finally finished removing all the excess sandy soil by hand and it is now all flat and level and ready for the next step of the insulation boards for underneath the bottom of the module.

    Module-5-Flat-bottomed-hole-2

    Module-5-Flat-bottomed-hole-2

    Module-5-Flat-bottomed-hole-3

    Module-5-Flat-bottomed-hole-3


    Tomorrow, it is sorting out the pile of the insulation panels to gather up about 60 to 70 pieces of 120mm thick boards plus an extra strip to fill down the middle. More will be revealed tomorrow – grin!

  • Day 3 of the Great Module Number 5 – The Big Dig!

     Today, we started the major task of digging out the hole to receive our largest Energy Module we are assembling underneath our house. But first, we tidied up various bits and pieces like old concrete post with their  concrete footing still attached and moved them away. We need all the room we can get to store the sandy soil being excavated.

    The hole we need, measures 10 metres long by 3.5 metres wide and the usual 1.2 metres deep, this amounts to over 40 cubic metres or well over 80 tons of the sandy stuff to move!

    It was tricky to position the mini-digger in the various places and angles to do the job, firstly, cutting one long side to make it neat and tidy. We discovered that this patch of our ground, is rather made up of course sand particles and it was a fluffy nature and didn’t hold together too well, so we had some slippage in some spots around the edges.

    Module-5-Mid-way-through-digging-hole

    Module-5-Mid-way-through-digging-hole

    We loaded as much as we could against the wooden wall of the mountain of dirt we placed there last year, and we still had loads more to shift. We had to use our dumper truck to ferry a large amount away and dumped near our holly tree!!

    By the end of the day, we managed to dig out pretty much all the material at last.

    Module-5-End-of-Day-1-Hole-mostly-dug-1

    Module-5-End-of-Day-1-Hole-mostly-dug-1

    Module-5-End-of-Day-1-Hole-mostly-dug-2

    Module-5-End-of-Day-1-Hole-mostly-dug-2


    Tomorrow, we will do the more accurate scraping of the bottom of the hole and start assembling a rather large number of insulation boards to form the bottom layer for the tank to sit on.

  • The Great Aquacell Cleanup for Module Number 5 – Day 2!

     It is day 2 (and last day!) of our cleanup operation of the remaining Aquacell crates we have had in storage ever since we bought them several years ago! The location is now one bare patch of ground!

    Empty-Storage-Area-1

    Empty-Storage-Area-1

    We discovered that we had only 89 crates left in the pile and not the full 90 we needed! It was pure chance that it turned out like this anyway, as we had used about 10 of these Aquacell crates a couple of years ago to improve drainage in front of our temporary living quarters! Fortunately, we had 1 odd unit lying around, a heavier duty version so we are going to use that one instead of doing the tedious task of digging up one of the buried ones and swap it!

    So We now have a pile of 90 plastic crates sitting near the final resting place, to form the body of our Energy Module Number 5 under the Great Room.

    Module-5-All-of-the-Aquacells-waiting-for-the-hole

    Module-5-All-of-the-Aquacells-waiting-for-the-hole

    Tomorrow, we will firstly tidy up at the top end of the plot, to allow somewhere for the huge quantity of the sandy soil to be placed and stored semi-permanently, mostly up against Mount Sod and its wooden wall barrier. It is a large amount in the order of 25 cubic meters, weighing about 50 tons!!

  • The Great Aquacell Cleanup for Module Number 5 – Day 1!

     We started the huge task of cleaning all the remaining 90 Aquacell crates to get them ready for our biggest underground Energy Module, Number 5. It measures nine metres  long by two and half metres wide, containing two layers of forty five of these plastic crates.

    Today, we managed to do half of them – a layer!

    Module-5-Half-the-Aquacells-waiting-for-the-hole

    Module-5-Half-the-Aquacells-waiting-for-the-hole

    Tomorrow, we continue with the chore, and we should have the second half all cleaned and ready – we hope!

  • Module Number 3 Is Filling Up!

     Today, we carried on with the filling operation for our Energy Module Number 3. We had pulled most of the water out of the swimming lane and the meter reported that we got about 1900 liters from that source. We then switched over to ordinary mains water and did another 2500 litres before stopping for the night. Tomorrow, we will finish off the fill with another 2500 litres more to bring the total amount to about 8400 litres!

  • Module Number 3 Repair – Day 3

     Today, we finished off the job of resetting and re-establishing Energy Module Number 3 back into working order again. we dug out behind one of the ends to allow us to gain that extra 10mm we lost so we can and did get the final Aquacell crates back into the module. Oh yes, we had about an inch of water floating around the bottom of the tank from all the rain we had these last couple of days!

    Then, we sorted out the last pieces of the insulation boards on the long sides of the module and then pulled all the sandy soil back in around to compact it all back together. All the original pipes, conduits and inspection tube are now back into place, with the insulation lid back on too.

    Module-3-Repairs-Nearly-Finished

    Module-3-Repairs-Nearly-Finished

    Finally, we started immediately filling the module up with water to weigh it down this time! We will need about 8500 liters and it will take well over 12 hours of running our hose pipe. In fact, we noticed that we had about 100 mm of rainwater in our swimming lane so we thought we would nick that instead of using fresh water. We think we can get about 2500 liters from there, we will find out tomorrow, as we are measuring the amount of water being drawn and put into the module.

    Module-3-Repairs-Finished

    Module-3-Repairs-Finished

     

  • Module Number 3 Repair – Day 2

     We continued with our repair of the Energy Module Number 3. We have managed to rescue the remaining crates, the rubber membrane and the geotextile fabric

    Module-3-Repairs-Crates-and-Rubber-removed

    Module-3-Repairs-Crates-and-Rubber-removed

    The we lifted the insulation panels to reveal the extent of the silt build up underneath the whole module

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-3

    Module-3-Repairs-Inflows-of-Silt-and-Sand-3


    We put down our guide rails and put in some fresh sand to mix with the dark silt material and scrape it flat and level again.

    Then we put back that half end of the bottom insulation layer, and uncovered the other end

    Again, we put our guide rails in and scraped that end flat and level

    Module-3-Repairs-Bottom-of-hole-releveled

    Module-3-Repairs-Bottom-of-hole-releveled

    Then put back all the insulation boards, plus also put back the side insulation panels too.

    Then we put back the geotextile fabric and carefully got the rubber membrane back down too. Working at one end first, we put back some of the Aquacell crates, joined them back together again, making sure we got the right ones positioned so that our conduits for the temperature and water filling pipes can be fitted back in again. Then, we did the same at the other end and finally started putting the final 3 plastic crates along one edge to see if it all fitted again.

    But Oh No! It doesn’t! There is a shortfall of about 10mm, yes just 1cm or a finger width, where we cannot fit the final crate into place! Upon examining the two ends, it looks like that the end nearest the swimming lane has ever so slightly moved inwards a fraction which we guess must have occurred during the flood and when the whole module rose up!!

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-1

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-1

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-3

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-2-3


    Tomorrow, we will make adjustments down at that end and make the end insulation wall move outwards by that 10mm amount and then all will be well! We Hope!!

     

  • Module Number 3 Repair – Day 1

    Today, we started the chore of digging  out the Energy Module Number 3 to reset it back down into the ground at the correct flat level again (after the flood we had 10 days ago, that lifted it up 6inches!!).

    We scraped the dirt off the lid.

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-1

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-3

    Module-3-Repairs-Exposing-the-Tank-3


    The removed the insulation from the lid.

    Module-3-Repairs-The-top-of-the-Crates

    Module-3-Repairs-The-top-of-the-Crates

    Then Started dismantling the first layer of the Aquacell crates and then the second layer.

    Module-3-Repairs-Half-of-the-bottom-layer-removed

    Module-3-Repairs-Half-of-the-bottom-layer-removed

    Then the side walls slipped in!

    Module-3-Repairs-After-the-wall-collapsed

    Module-3-Repairs-After-the-wall-collapsed

    So we dug out the soil from around the outside perimeter of the remaining insulation panels using the mini-digger etc.

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-2

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-2

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-3

    Module-3-Repairs-End-of-Day-1-3


    Tomorrow, we will finish removing the last few plastic crates and rescue the rubber membrane. We can hope to keep the end walls standing up so we have the original distance already set but we will have to wait and see how they hold up.

  • Number 4 All Done!

     This morning, we connected the conduit pipes and inspection tube down into the Number 4 Energy Module. Then we pushed in the remaining sand / soil from around the hole and covered it all up.

    Module-4-Finished

    Module-4-Finished

    Finally, we pegged out the red and white warning tape to enclose the area, to prevent accidental “driving” over the module!

  • Filled with Water and Holding So Far!

    We carried on with the task of filling our Energy Modules with water. Today, we finished filling Number 2 and started on filling Number 4 modules.
    The water in Number 1 module seems to be holding in, no leaks, thanks goodness!

    The facts so far:

    1. Bedroom 3: 2 m x 2.5 m (3700 liters) – 3500 liters filled – 700 mm deep and holding
    2. Bedroom 2: 3 m x 2.5 m (5550 liters)  – 4900 litres filled – 705 mm deep and awaiting results
    3. Kitchen / Bedroom 1: 6 m x 2 m (8900 l) – empty – repair is needed.
    4. Entertainment: 2 m x 1.5 m (2220 liters) – 1100 liters filled – 340 mm deep and awaiting results.
    5. Great Room: 9 m x 2,5 m (16,670 liters) – not yet constructed.

    The Module number 3 will have to be repaired as it was raised up by the flood we had from the rain water that got underneath the tank, and disturbed something somewhere so we will have to take it all apart again and reset things. We should have put in the water as soon as we finished constructing it last Saturday before the rain came on the Monday!! Oh well!!!