Geo thermal cooling sorta

[Jr-dist]

The wife is running me out of the kitchen and my lease on the porch is running out to lol. Making my own malt I think was the final straw. She has come around to the idea of a shed for me to play in so I can quit making her house smell like drying malted grain and a distillery. This idea I had was on the cooling water for my condenser. We have all had the problem of cooling our condenser. What if I had a barrel for a reservoir then put pex tubing in the floor of the new shed and poured it into the concrete. My research on in floor heating says that you should insulate the slab if your heating due to ground sucking up the heat. Since I want cooling I would not need to insulate the slab. Only problem i could see would be in the winter with freezing temperatures. Would either need a blow out method with air for those times or run some type of anti freeze in the water. Shed size would be 10×12. What are your thoughts on it?

[Deplorable]

A blow out would be needed for sure, but no more difficult than an inground sprinkler system. 10×12 might be cramped as both a malt house and distillery. Are you putting in 240v power for an oven and your still, or planning to malt and distill with propane? I reckon a propane smoker could be used to dry/roast the malt.

Ive given thought to a 10×12 shed as well, but only to ferment and distill. So, I only need a 110V power source for lights and a heater, ventilation, and a recirculation system for cooling water. I'd capture rain water off the roof into a rain barrel, and recirculate through lines under the floor back to the barrel via a pump.

[Jr-dist]

Have a 70 liter still so propane burner works for cooking off and mashing. Wanting 110 for sure on electric thou 240 would be nice. So far if i dont tie up the whole kitchen i can use the stove. Shed size I would prefer a 16×16 with a gambrel loft but not sure budget would allow that lol. For drying malt still working on that. Thinking about building a 3×3 hut with dark metal. Put a fan in bottom of hut blowing up and vents at the top. Screaned trays for the malt. Could even smoke malts in the hut my putting a small charcoal grill in bottom instead of the fan. Catching rain would be nice but in my area if you dont store it underground you will have algae problems. Right now working on a rye wiskey recipe and need 120 lbs of malts to do it. That will give me 5 stripping runs which will then give me one spirit run.Doing malt in batches, currently rye, then corn, and then oats. The scale of this project is why wife and I realizing i need a shed.

[Sulaiman]

You will spend many hours in the shed, make it a nice place to be.
Budget for good thermal insulation for your shed,
have good natural ventilation available when needed,
preferably use fireproof building materials,
make provision for firefighting equipment.

Blinds (or similar) for windows keep out cold and/or hot weather - and guard from prying eyes.

Consider local regulations for water and electricity.
I used a garden hose and a long power extension cable to comply.

An old wardrobe (with a little added protection from the elements) takes years to rot outdoors,
Drying/smoking/storing stuff cheaply.

Storage containers can take lots of space if not well organised.

I'm too inexperienced to suggest anything directly related to the purpose of your shed,
Others here are more able to advise, I just thought to suggest for overall pre-planning
................
I suspect that pex tubing would not transfer heat well enough unless VERY long.
Chech underfloor heating websites, there are probably online calculators,
I guess that you would have to size the underfloor piping for at least your boiler power...
your shed will be a hothouse unless you use forced ventilation. (a Big fan)

[Zeotropic]

The wife is running me out of the kitchen and my lease on the porch is running out to lol. Making my own malt I think was the final straw. She has come around to the idea of a shed for me to play in so I can quit making her house smell like drying malted grain and a distillery. This idea I had was on the cooling water for my condenser. We have all had the problem of cooling our condenser. What if I had a barrel for a reservoir then put pex tubing in the floor of the new shed and poured it into the concrete. My research on in floor heating says that you should insulate the slab if your heating due to ground sucking up the heat. Since I want cooling I would not need to insulate the slab. Only problem i could see would be in the winter with freezing temperatures. Would either need a blow out method with air for those times or run some type of anti freeze in the water. Shed size would be 10×12. What are your thoughts on it?

If you do use a heated slab for condenser cooling make sure to put the pex towards the bottom of the slab to maximize heat loss to the ground also close spacing f the tubes would be good.
I did some calculations using online calculators on the uponor website and if you use 300 ft of pex that is just over 4 inch spacing which should be plenty close enough to get good heat dissipation. What I can't figure out is how much heat you can dissipate with 120 sq ft. I do think it would be plenty though as long as you are not running 24-7. [emoji16]

[Jr-dist]

I can get 2 stripping runs or one spirit run done in a day. Would only being run on the weekends. Only run once or twice a month so far. No mater what I will have to have a reservoir tank and dissipating the heat in the floor will be quieter then a fan and radiator. That and would give me a place to distil in winter when heat is appreciated more then in summer.

[NineInchNails]

If you heat the shed then you wouldn't have to worry about the water lines from freeing beneath the slab as long as you don't run the lines too close or beyond the shed walls.

I'd lean towards 240V baseboard heat (and thermostat) for efficiency or perhaps just a space heater with temp controller. I'd definitely insulate the living hell out of that shed. You can get a local spray foam guy to give you a quote and you can't get better insulation than that. That's what I'd do. You can run AC in the summer too.

Be sure to have plenty of circuits in the breaker box so you can have at least two 240V circuits for elements and plenty of 120V circuits for lights & outlets and empty slots for future improvement. You'll appreciate it later. LED daylight bulbs are my favorite lights. The only thing I use propane for anymore is to inverting sugar, a keg kettle to make simple syrup. Other than that, I use electric elements for everything else.

You'll obviously need water in the shed as well as a drain. I use an RO unit for everything I distill. I found one online for $112. I built a 49" tall stand to put a 55 gal drum on top with a mini float valve and 1-1/2" bulkhead & ball valve as a drain/spigot. I connect the RO unit to it and it always stays full of pure water. I built a base for each of my fermenters with swiveling casters so I can easily roll them around and they all fit beneath my RO water reservoir. This reservoir is so convenient, I want two side by side now.

Geo thermal cooling would be awesome! I'm on well water and I just send the water down the drain.