Comment on Would it be better to just have a lot of society be underground?
RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
Easier to build the house and cover it with soil and vegetation instead of digging down. The front door and windows can face south to take advantage of passive solar heating in the winter.
I think one of the best uses of “underground” is to run piping in a large circuit around the property. I read in a passive solar book that 4 feet underground it’s about 4C on average world-wide.
Summer: Warm air goes in from the living space, travels along a couple hundred feet of pipe, cool air comes back into the house. I’m not sure if the air would be 4C but should save a lot of electricity.
Winter: Same system but the air pumped into the house should be much warmer than what’s above ground. Usually, the coldest days are sunny so passive solar designs can warm a house to a comfortable level.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Better option is to run a heat pump into that underground loop. You really don’t want underground air getting into your house, and a heat pump will let you cool or warm the air using that same underground loop.
RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 10 hours ago
I was thinking of a closed loop system not pumping moldy humid air into a house.
Your idea isn’t bad but does need a space big enough for a technician to service the external unit. Also, the external part of a heat pump isn’t supposed to be enclosed. Not sure if a tunnel counts as enclosed or not.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Ground loop heat pumps are already a thing.
As for maintain the unit, you just have a service panel you can remove to access it.
RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works 6 hours ago
Always good to learn something new, thanks.