Thursday, May 17, 2012

Another visit to Huckleberry Ridge Farm

road to Huckleberry Ridge Farm
Judy, you're very gracious!  Thank you!
hedgerow of Hemlock trees on the Northside of the vegetable garden
"gorgeous garlic"
baby geese
spotted Mama
what an enjoyable morning!
"so sweet and all scrunched up"
old Moravian house on the Farm
Judy and Emilie are at the Black Mountain Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings from 8-12 with farm fresh produce, eggs and delicious meats (rabbit, duck, and geese) which you can also buy directly from the Farm.  She'll be using our savENRG PCM packs in her coolers to keep her frozen meats frozen and her produce, cold at the market during the hot summer months!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Installation of phase change materials at AB-Tech greenhouse


A 72 degree Fahrenheit phase change material was filled into 5 ft. long, 1.25" PVC pipes and sealed.  


Wooden supports were drilled into the cinder block wall and the PCM pipes were horizontally bound.  Three rows with 72 and one row with 58; totaling 274 pipes.  Each pipe holds approximately 5 lbs. of PCM 22P; amounting to 1370 pounds.  This system provides 30 kWh of heat storage capacity.  During the day (heat gain cycle), the PCM pipes absorb 30 kWh of heat, reducing it's cooling load by 30 kWh.  Reversely, at night, during the heat loss cycle, the system will release the absorbed heat by the PCM, and reduce the heating load by 30 kWh.  This provides 60 kWh of free energy within a 24 hour day.



The rows of pipe were framed with wood and attic fans (1300 CFM) attached beneath for thorough air circulation.


Finally, the pipes are covered in 1/2 inch, extruded, polystyrene, insulation board, R-value-3.  The fans pull the air from the upper levels of the gh, passes over the PCM pipes and releases at the bottom, circulating the air and stabilizing the temperature inside the greenhouse.  More to come...


A very big THANK YOU to Harshul and Andy for their hard work!  Great job!

PCM 22P is made from hydrated salts and have large amounts of heat energy.  This energy is stored in the form of latent heat which is absorbed or released when changing from a solid to a liquid or a liquid to a solid.  Phase change materials retain their latent heat without change in physical or chemical properties for over thousands of cycles.  Best of all, PCM 22P is non-toxic and non-flammable.  

If you'd like to learn more about PCM pipes in greenhouses, please contact us at:
info@rgees.com
harshul@rgees.com
nina@rgees.com
elena@rgees.com