Has anyone buried 55 gallon plastic barrels 2 feet below frost line and and looped them together to be their horizontal ground loop to have like a mass storage heat transfer system? Im in Connecticut and considering if someone has done this they are cheap and last forever and its 55 gallons absorbing ground temperature. thinking maybe 60 barrels for a 2.5 ton geothermal heat pump????? any suggestions? It would mean each barrel would have to displace about 145 watts of energy??

If you want a heat exchanger, best to stick with typical geothermal loops. If you want thermal storage, use a single tank (plastic or concrete), preferably in conditioned space. And expect ~1 day of storage from it (depends on size and temperatures).

Hi Brian,

I think you might tear up less of your lawn with a more typical loop system. If you want a hand in system design, start with heat loss/gain and we'll go from there.

Its a 2.5 ton unit i have my own backhoe and a wooded area near my house so not a real issue digging up area I have put in loops before not a problem just wanted to find a use for these free barrels and thought I could incorporate it as a massive thermal pile.

"It's a 2.5 ton unit"......so we are designing the system based on a unit you already have? Do you know what the load is for the home?

yes heat loss already was done and we have some additional gas heating units for cold winter nights.