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Due to its bipolar molecular nature, water
has a high specific heat. In the summer it
is generally cooler than the air around it,
and the opposite is true in winter. As I
understand it, a number of homes and
buildings are heated geothermally using
water as a heat-transfer medium by
burying
water pipes deep beneath the
surface where the temperature doesn't
drop precipitously due to seasonal
atmospheric variations.
Why not run an extra warm-water loop up
at the surface, open to the air? If it was
geothermally heated via deeply buried
pipes then the moat wouldn't ever freeze
over, which would help the survival rate of
the gi-normous crocodiles and/or quasi-
mythical sea monsters that would be used
to make it a truly inhospitable place for
home invaders and British secret agents to
repose.
Ultra-wealthy megalomaniacal
misanthropes in Canada's vast tundra
know that the permafrost is only able to
penetrate to a relatively shallow depth,
because even in Arctic (and Antarctic)
regions the earth is still basically warmed
from within. Superman's Fortress of
Solitude couldn't have used this (because
it was built over water), but Alaskan
would-be power-mongers could utilize
the concept readily.
This would of course be a cornerstone
feature of the new "21st Century 'Green'
Castle Building" guidelines for
environmentally savvy evil geniuses.
[link]
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//Ultra-wealthy megalomaniacal misanthropes in Canada's vast tundra // Unfortunantly, I'm not Canadian, or American (well, minus the unfortunantly for the American bit), so I'll have to stick to squatting on some tiny Indonesian island, so that those meddlesome secret agents don't mess with my plans. The ocean is one big moat! Why not boil the sea? |
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//This would of course be a cornerstone feature of the new "21st Century 'Green' Castle Building" guidelines for environmentally savvy evil geniuses.// Is this in reference to me and my bf Cam? |
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could you get the water hot enough to fill the sucker up with the tropical pirhana fish....? there very usefull in defensive, home security type situations... |
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Geothermal heating systems for pools are very baked so a moat shouldn’t be too hard. It takes electricity to run geothermal heating equipment and a large cost is involved in the installation of these systems. I could swear that I read about a closed loop system years ago that used ammonia which would go from liquid to gas brining heat with it and then re-condense as it cooled, but I've been looking for some mention of it off and on since I first anno-ed about it and I can't find anything.
Maybe I dreamt it. |
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I was expecting a lava moat. Or maybe a fusion plasma moat. But...tepid water? |
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Croissant for finding a practical update to moat technology, and just being generally all-around entertaining in writing style. |
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>>a large tank of water under the floor
of your house as a heatsink will allow
you to control the internal climate of
your home, all year around<< |
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My PHSY218 Prof. suggested much the
same thing for Indianapolis, though he
mentioned some detail about
differentiating between open vs. closed
systems. :-) |
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>>It takes electricity to run...<< |
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Drat. Hadn't thought that part
through... I'll have to keep baking. |
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>>maybe a fusion plasma moat<< |
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That'd be nice, because it would
generate its own electricity... |
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>>could you get the water hot enough
to fill the sucker up with the tropical
pirhana fish<< |
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The problem with pirrhanas is that they
are essentially keystone-esque
predators in the waters they inhabit.
While not being true keystone types,
they essentially fill the same function
ecologically in many ways, and
therefore any sizable number of them
would require a large amount of
territory. If you artificially sustained
them instead with, say, a herd of
captive sheep - then the pirrhanas
would either not be sufficiently hungry
to aggressively attack invasive humans
or they would consume one another in
underwater orgies of cannibalistic gore.
To summarize: they are not nice fish,
and sadly unsuited to "moat duty",
more's the pity. |
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I believe that neurologically enhanced
crocodiles or super-smart marine
dinosaurs (like Nessie) would be much
better guardians of one's "Borders
Aquatic". |
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