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[RC] Alternative to heated tanks - Diane Trefethen

Since I have only two horses, freezing water troughs are just a minor nuisance. However, were I to have multiple pastures and/or lots of ponies, the issue would no doubt be of much greater concern. Reading about the frequent replacement of water heaters, stray voltage in the water and then the post from the person suggesting a pump to keep the water circulating got me to thinking (always dangerous).

Install a large underground water tank or cistern, in a location central to your various watering troughs (or wherever your current pipes split to feed the troughs), complete with filtration and above-ground pump. For depth, you would follow local building codes. The tank might need replacing once every 20 years or so, the pump 10-15 years and probably more frequent replacement of the filters though those might just need regular cleaning.

The setup would use the same pipes that bring water to your troughs now except that instead of coming straight from your main water supply, the pipes would pull water from the storage tank, using the main system's water pressure, just as you do now. An additional set of pipes, to which the pump would be attached, would loop from the tank to the troughs and back out, through the filtering device, to the tank. During winter, the pump could be set to kick on every 15 minutes or 6 hours or whatever you need given your external temperatures. There would be no need for a heater of any sort as the temperature of the soil would keep the water in the tank warm enough to avoid freezing while the pump would pull cold water out from the bottom of the troughs and return warmer water to the top of the troughs.

Underground water storage is commonplace in Alaska where wells often supply insufficient water. These tanks are buried "a minimum of 4 feet below the surface. However this can be lessened by insulating the tank from above with 2 inches of styrofoam rigid board insulation or some other foam insulation. Every inch of this insulation is equivalent to 3.7 feet of soil in insulating value..."* One would think that a water tank would not need to be set as deep in the lower 48 as in Alaska :)

An additional bonus would be that the underground tank would also serve as a reservoir for your horses in the event that your regular water supply became compromised by say a well failure, or pipes breaking, or as happened this year in a California community, the contamination of the ENTIRE water supply for the area.

Here is a link with info on using natural ground heat:
http://www.attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/freeze.html
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* http://www.uaf.edu/coop-ext/publications/freepubs/HCM-04950.pdf


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[RC] heated tanks/ground strap/etc, Ridecamp Guest