Hello this will be my first post! I've been trying to find this for over a week now and if someone know of a posting for it I'd love a link.

I'm interested in building a house in the Tampa area using 2 thermal masses (2ft X 8ft X 24ft with a 4ft X 7ft door) to heat and cool the home. Cooling is a much larger concern to me given that I live in Florida. The house is going to be roughly 2500sq ft. I intend to us 2X6 outside walls and passive solar designs for heating/cooling optimazation. I've also been thinking about setting up some kind of canopy/canvas as a second roof so I won't have as much radiant heat hitting the house during the cooling periods. The 2 thermal masses I intend to use will be simaliar to Build it for Solar walls, but I intend to put tubing inside the walls so I can both heat and cool the thermal masses with liquid. For heating the masses and water I'm going to use solar water panels. For cooling I'm going to use a Horzontal closed ground loop. I intend to have roughly 1500ft of pipe buried at 9 - 11ft depth. Ground Tempatures and Ground temp variations made me decide to go a bit deeper than 3 - 6ft with the pipes. That being said I really like DIY ground loop cooling system idea this guy has. I've been thinking about installing it in such a way as to be able to convert it over to a heat pump system if it doens't work. Just make it so I have access to everything in the basement so I can change over if I want to.

I'm very handy but in the end I may break down and use a contractor if I can find one who'll work with what I want for a low price in Tampa area. (ya good luck right? hehe)

Anyway I'd love to hear what you think of my idea,
Mark

Summer dewpoints in Tampa continually run in the low-mid 70s for several months. This presents a condensation / dehumidification / mold issue for any cooling scheme. Basically water must be removed from the indoor air, collected, and dumped somewhere. Any system not designed to do all three won't work.

Umm,
Not sure what data you are using to size your system. Perhaps it's in one of your 4 links. Many DIY schemes have merit. Many will waste your time and money.
There's no secret to any of this, it's all about how many btu's you need, how fast you can renew them and how big a foot print your heat exchanger must be. That takes calculations not guess work or rules of thumb.
There are of course codes and varied enforcement that may or may not permit everything on your list. Zoning may even prohibit your tent fly (canopy) if neighbors object. So make sure you communicate your wishes to the local authorities before you spend the money.
As far as somebody doing what you design for the price you dictate, that's a handyman, not a contractor. A heating pro is on the hook for code and performance and therefore not likely to play it your way.
Good Luck,
Joe