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| Discussion on Non Electric Ways to Keep Tanks Ice Free | |
| Author | Message |
| Member: ajudson1 |
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| Member: scooter |
Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 2:15 pm: Bring them in the house?? One of my friends had a big tank, they built a plywood box around it and stuffed it full of insulation. Put insulated plywood over most of the top of it, out it in a sunny spot, left enough so 2 horses could drink comfortably open. It was easy to build, and for the most part stayed open, if it froze she could knock the thin layer of ice off easily. Seems to me, but I can't remember she had some kind of ball or something floating on the side the horses couldn't get at to help keep it open....worked well for her, was very easy to build and cheap!. I think you would be wise to have some kind of heat tank back up...just in case. BTW THEY say we are suppose to have a mild winter...hope so! According to my horses hair, I would disagree...the horses were right last year 
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| Member: ajudson1 |
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| Member: scooter |
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| Member: ajudson1 |
Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 4:32 pm: Ah huh. I thought;A) We'd put the tank & box up a bit off the ground. B) We used to have some really stiff wire that was like 3/8" squares. Now to find it. (After it cools down..gee but I hope this is the last day til next summer I feel this HOT late afternoon! Not complaining, it's better than mud/rain/snow/sleet  ) Tango, always Tango, likes to chew on the Rubbermaid tank. I think he's part beaver, so have to plan for that too. If wood gets in the tank, I don't see it being easy to take the tank out to clean it, but want to be able to remove it totally next summer. Does your friend take the tank out of the insulated box during the summer? Does it still freeze some times during the winter? How cold does it get where you are? You must also have months of below zero weather like we do. |
| Member: scooter |
Posted on Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 - 5:22 pm: Angie I think our weather is very similar to yours, you might get it a little longer. We stay below freezing for half of Dec. thru Feb usually and yes we get below 0 weather quite often.They never had problems with wood chips in the water, and they did leave it as is thru the summer. Tho if you go with the solar panels in front I don't think that would be a good idea, your water would get too warm for summer I would think. Otherwise the insulation helps keep the water cool in the summer also. If you can keep it out of the north wind and in the south sun, it should work, it did for my friend. I think the actually used the spray foam insulation for the lid part. I have also seen people around here completely spray the outside of the insulater box with that insulation, looks like crap but was very effective I see a lot of that around the countryside on my routes. OR you could really go green and use horse poop! Might be the thing to set your tub on  . I've always told hubby if we built out house out of horse poop in kept that hot cat of ours in there we wouldn't need heat...Horse poop does seem to have great insulating properties https://www.biblicalagrarianism.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1606 |
| Member: rtrotter |
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| Member: ajudson1 |
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| Member: scooter |
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| Member: rtrotter |
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| Member: leslie1 |
Posted on Sunday, Sep 13, 2009 - 1:52 pm: My hubby is actually working on a solar powered trough heater. we plan on making millions off it This winter I will be testing the prototype. Last winter I used electric heaters...but always worry about them and feel I need to replace them with new ones quite often, which gets expensive. |
| Member: scooter |
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