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Exeric · 11-06-12, 11:51 PM

I had a thought after running into problems with air contamination using attic heat and diminishing attic heating problems if one installs solar panels on the roof. It isn't all thought out yet but it is similar to Xringer's idea of using attic heat to heat his basement.
Basically this idea wouldn't work unless you have a crawl space that you have converted to a heated and sealed crawlspace.

Generally, to insulate a house it is advised that one also insulate the bottom floor. It depends on the structure of the house but in my case i have a crawl space over the main floor. There are two ways of doing it - either directly, or indirectly by sealing the crawl
space and making it part of the conditioned structure. You would have to leave the floor uninsulated in that case.

I decided for my case, others may feel differently, that it is better to not use an open system for the air heating. But there are closed solar collectors that you can build for air just like for water and supposedly they are about 40% efficient. The only drawback of air versus water is that it usually takes a lot of engineering to build a heat reservoir for warm
air. A sealed crawl system seems like the perfect thing to use as a heat reservoir in winter that that doesn't cost gobs of money and engineering.

I learned a lot about this from reading an older book: "Solar Air Heating Systems", by Kornher and Zaugg. This seems like a really good approach to me. I know what you are thinking: doesn't that just reintroduce air contamination problems from the crawl space?Not really. At least not if you don't use fiberglass AND you seal down a fresh layer of plastic on the ground after you get rid of any rodents or bugs. You'd go this route anyway if you opted to bring the crawl space into the conditioned area so it really shouldn't be that expensive to go this route over just insulating the floor.

Anyway, the beauty of this is you could just open up some registers at night to get more heat from below if natural conduction and radiation of heat from below wasn't enough. I'm just thinking out loud about this right now and would appreciate any constructive criticisms, even if it would end up convincing me to not work on the idea. Obviously this most likely wouldn't work with a basement as a substitute because you'd probably end up overheating it. You don't actually live in a crawlspace, at least I hope you don't.

11-06-12, 11:51 PM	#166
Exeric Apprentice EcoRenovator Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: California Posts: 274 Thanks: 19 Thanked 37 Times in 28 Posts	I had a thought after running into problems with air contamination using attic heat and diminishing attic heating problems if one installs solar panels on the roof. It isn't all thought out yet but it is similar to Xringer's idea of using attic heat to heat his basement. Basically this idea wouldn't work unless you have a crawl space that you have converted to a heated and sealed crawlspace. Generally, to insulate a house it is advised that one also insulate the bottom floor. It depends on the structure of the house but in my case i have a crawl space over the main floor. There are two ways of doing it - either directly, or indirectly by sealing the crawl space and making it part of the conditioned structure. You would have to leave the floor uninsulated in that case. I decided for my case, others may feel differently, that it is better to not use an open system for the air heating. But there are closed solar collectors that you can build for air just like for water and supposedly they are about 40% efficient. The only drawback of air versus water is that it usually takes a lot of engineering to build a heat reservoir for warm air. A sealed crawl system seems like the perfect thing to use as a heat reservoir in winter that that doesn't cost gobs of money and engineering. I learned a lot about this from reading an older book: "Solar Air Heating Systems", by Kornher and Zaugg. This seems like a really good approach to me. I know what you are thinking: doesn't that just reintroduce air contamination problems from the crawl space?Not really. At least not if you don't use fiberglass AND you seal down a fresh layer of plastic on the ground after you get rid of any rodents or bugs. You'd go this route anyway if you opted to bring the crawl space into the conditioned area so it really shouldn't be that expensive to go this route over just insulating the floor. Anyway, the beauty of this is you could just open up some registers at night to get more heat from below if natural conduction and radiation of heat from below wasn't enough. I'm just thinking out loud about this right now and would appreciate any constructive criticisms, even if it would end up convincing me to not work on the idea. Obviously this most likely wouldn't work with a basement as a substitute because you'd probably end up overheating it. You don't actually live in a crawlspace, at least I hope you don't.