Frozen Barn Water

[Rob30]

I need ideas on what to do with my barn water.
Every day I go out and have to unthaw the water pump and pipes. I boxed in the pump, put a small heat lamp on it, wrapped in heat tape. it still freezes. Any part that does not have the heat tape touching it within 1/2 an inch is frozen. The tap is always frozen.
The dairy barn next door has an old piston pump sitting against a wall and automaic waterers that never freeze. But 40 cows throw alot of heat.
Any ideas on how to stop the freezing.

[okgoatgal2]

insulate it? around the heat tape to hold in the heat?

[SolarGary]

Originally Posted by Rob30

I need ideas on what to do with my barn water.
Every day I go out and have to unthaw the water pump and pipes. I boxed in the pump, put a small heat lamp on it, wrapped in heat tape. it still freezes. Any part that does not have the heat tape touching it within 1/2 an inch is frozen. The tap is always frozen.
The dairy barn next door has an old piston pump sitting against a wall and automaic waterers that never freeze. But 40 cows throw alot of heat.
Any ideas on how to stop the freezing.

Hi,
The common thing around here (very cold winters) is to use a freeze proof hydrant -- the actual guts of the faucet are down below freezing level, and the handle comes up above the surface. I think that the water thats in the top part actually drains down when you turn it off -- not sure where it goes.
We have one in the yard next to the well, and it works all year round -- no freezing.

Looks like this:
http://www.deanbennett.com/well-accessories-page30.pdf


Being a solar junkie I have to also suggest you might want to insulate the barn and turn the south side into a solar collector like this one I use:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...rn_project.htm
It never gets below freezing with it, and its very comfortable on sunny days.
I'm sure the cows would love it :-)

Gary
www.BuildItSolar.com

[Rob30]

I have seen pictures of the solar heaters before. But I am not sure how well they would work in my area. I am in Central Ontario. It can get down to -25-
-30C here. I don't know if we would gain much from the sun at these temperatures.

[SolarGary]

Originally Posted by Rob30

I have seen pictures of the solar heaters before. But I am not sure how well they would work in my area. I am in Central Ontario. It can get down to -25-
-30C here. I don't know if we would gain much from the sun at these temperatures.

Hi,
For mine, it really depends more on the sun than on the temperature. We had a -25 F (-32C)night last week -- the next day, the barn/workshop was in the 50F (10C) area by noon -- pretty comfortable for working.

On a sunny day, mine gets to about 35F (20C) above the HIGH temperature for the day. The air will typically come out of the outlet vents at around 120F (49C) more or less. On a sunny day it produces about 130,000 BTU/day -- this is the equivalent of 2 gallons of propane burned in a 70% efficient heater -- about $3.80 US at current prices here. For something that only cost $350 to build that's not too bad?

The best things you can do are to make the collector area large, and insulate well (wish I had taken the time to do a better job of insulating).

On really cloudy days, you get almost no heat. With thin clouds or broken clouds you get some useful heat. But, if you are going to use the building every day, you need something to back up the solar heat.

Gary
www.BuildItSolar.com