Omelet wrote:
>
> In article >,
> "Pete C." > wrote:
>
> > > > Geothermal (ground source) heat pumps are quite efficient. The ground
> > > > down 6' or so is a nice stable temperature and is a great thermal mass
> > > > to extract heat from or dump heat to.
> > >
> > > It's an interesting concept I've only skimmed the surface of.
> > > More study is needed.
> >
> > It's the same basic idea as the earlier air source heat pumps, moving
> > heat from indoors to out for cooling and from outdoors to indoors for
> > heating. The difference is instead of trying to move that heat to/from
> > outdoor air which wildly varies in temperature, the heat is moved
> > to/from coils that are buried in the ground where the temperatures are
> > stable and the thermal mass is so great that the heat you add or remove
> > has little effect on the soil temp. Just makes for a more efficient
> > system.
>
> I've got to check out the local cave maps. "Wonder World" cave is only
> about 4 or 5 blocks down the street and they have a map of the local
> system. Not sure of the depth... but I think they are shallower than
> many.

A lot of caves around, many not open to the general public.

>
> But if a large room runs under my property, I'll have to seriously check
> it out when I pay the morgage off in 4 more years and I can free up some
> income. :-) Worth a looksee for more than one reason.

Drill a shaft down from your living room eh?

>
> > > Solar is free. ;-) Therein lies the beauty except for cloudy days and
> > > hot nights? Would you use storage batteries? (I may have missed that
> > > part if you mentioned it).
> >
> > That was the idea, charge a battery bank for the evening hours. If the
> > absorption chiller is big enough, you can "ice bank" and use excess
> > capacity to freeze a tank of water during the day while you have the
> > solar energy, to provide cooling at night. Some big buildings also use
> > ice banking, just doing the ice generation at night when electric rates
> > are lower.
> >
> > Not cave diving. Air space varies from about 6" to 10' and water depth
> > from about 0" to about 20'.
>
> I'm mildly claustrophobic.
> NO underground (or ice) diving for me.
> I just know I'd die.

Caving certainly isn't for the claustrophobic, it isn't for the
inflexible either as you sometimes have to do some interesting
contortions to get through an area.

>
> Panic is generally what kills divers. I'd rather not put myself in a
> position for that to happen.

"Stop, think, act" as they say.

>
> "Know thyself" and all that.
> Know thy limitations.

Yep.

>
> >
> > >
> > > Gods. I've not used my stuff in years. For safety's sake, I'd be best
> > > off doing a couple of pool dives to re-familiarize myself with my
> > > equipment.
> >
> > Yep, good idea to take a refresher class.
>
> Indeed. :-)
> Even if it's just at Canyon Lake.
>
> But, the local dive shop has a pool for classes.
> I'm sure I could afford a refresher course, plus I'd need to get my
> regulators checked out.

Yep, refresher courses are cheap. My dive shop has classes at a pool
just about every weekend, and their customers are invited to show up
whenever and get some pool time in. Good to just go puddle diving there
once in a while to stay in shape.

>
> Scuba is not for the careless.

Nope. Plenty of ways to kill yourself if you're careless.

>
> > > So many crafts, so little time.
> >
> > So many tools I don't have yet, need projects to justify them
>
> That's not generally difficult. <G>

Sadly for my budget, it isn't.

> --
> Peace, Om
>
> Remove _ to validate e-mails.
>
> "My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson