29 Features Off The Grid Homebuilders Should Consider
While I see absolutely no reason to limit these suggestions to off the grid home builders, it is a good list of ideas for conservation in any conditioned building.
29 Features Off The Grid Homebuilders Should Consider |
They say that all windows (incl south-facing windows) increase heating and cooling loads. What about double- or triple-glazed south-facing windows at 42°N?
>Plant or maintain deciduous trees on south side of home – evergreen trees on other sides. That's really clever. Overall, it's a very nice list, though I have to suspect that a fireplace is a really bad idea. |
I'm pretty sure that even triple glazed windows will have a very low R value compared to even a 2x4 wall insulated with fiberglass so they are good sometimes bad others.
Traditional fireplaces (open fire, straight up chimney) are usually a net heat loss but better ones can be great. My airtight insert does a wonderful job of heating the house as would a woodstove. If it had an outside air supply it would be even better but it's very very hard to add one since it wasn't planned for in the first place. |
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You'd lose about 60W/m² through conductive losses 24/7 (barring curtains), but the sun puts out 1000W/m² (perpendicular area, before losses to low-emissivity glass) on a sunny day. With intelligent curtain management, I'm pretty sure even we R-3 double-glazers benefit from the windows. Also, I never run lights when the sun is up, because I painted the interior of the house the second-lightest shade of each hue available at the Depot. |
I agree, south facing windows are a must and do add more heat than they release. Didn't the article say only to limit east/west/north windows though? BTW, seriouswindows have an R rating of up to R13 I think for a non-opening window and R11 for a casement window. I have no idea what price they command though.
The thing that puzzled me was this: Quote:
I do know you can get high efficiency fireplace inserts that are great for heating. However, like strider mentioned, traditional fireplaces can actually cool the house instead of heating it since they use the warm air from the house to burn the wood which pulls in cold air from outside. |
Apparently it's pretty much a toss up between using low-e and non low e glass on the south side as low-e glass blocks some of the solar gain but keeps more heat in and non low-e lets more heat in and is cheaper but allows for a greater loss, this is according to an engineer who's house I spent about 6 months working on.
And the fire place cooling off the house as much as it heats it... it really depends on the fire place, one of my other part time jobs is cleaning chimneys and I've seen alot of fire places that have an outside air source right in to the fire box, some people think it's a place to sweep ash and that the ash will to go to some far off magical place, but it's for bringing in combustion air, combine that with a good dampener on the chimney top and you'll keep all that warm air inside your house as the mass of the fire place and chimney should soak up the heat and the smoke should exit just barely warm. |
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I have a traditional open fireplace upstairs and the insert downstairs. I've never lit the upstairs as other then for mood lighting it would be pointless and the 50ish year old chimney has a few cracks in the liner. The first thing I did when I bought the house was install the insert downstairs and it's connected to a metal liner that runs right to the top of the chimney. I use it for the majority of my heating even though I have a reasonably efficient air source heat pump. I've always used the basement woodstoves/inserts for heating and upstairs fireplaces were rarely used other then a quick shot of direct heat. The chimney has 3 flues, up, down and originally the oil furnace. it's roughly 4' x 7' x 2 stories tall and pretty much centered in the house. It takes a long time to heat up but it does radiate heat out for a day or two after the fire goes out. If it backed onto the outside most of that stored heat would be transferred out. My old house I had a wood stove with outside air directly plumbed into the bottom of it. It was wonderful. I have no way to get outside air to this insert short of carving a hole through that chimney. I don't see it happening. |
Poor information is almost worse than none
Arrgghh! Articles like this drive me up a wall!
I think this piece should have been titled 29 Over-Simplified and Under-Explained Features That Off and On The Grid Homebuilders Might Consider Depending on their Latitude, Climate and dozens of other factors. I suppose that doesn't roll off the tongue though. Here are two examples: Quote:
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Any time I see an author put a PhD after their name but no explanation of WHAT their PhD is in I tend to read very carefully with my BS meter turned up. FWIW, Tim |
Haha, good points Tim.
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The window size and overhang ratio for passive solar heating in winter without too much heat gain in the summer should never be mentioned in an article like this without giving a clue as to what that may be. :mad:
I spent waaaaay too much time trying to find the formula and was really frustrated by people who wrote about it as if everyone would know what it should be. In my garage / workshop project thread, I listed all that out after I finally found the information. It's on page 10, post #91. This link will take you to it. http://ecorenovator.org/forum/new-co...roject-10.html Most of these articles are so generic / basic that they must be done to whet your appetite for information. If that's the case and you are willing to do some research, it's done its job. |
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