Using attic heat to warm up basement

[ecomodded]

Originally Posted by Xringer

If I'm going to spent more money on more insulation, it's going into the attic..
Since I can now log attic temps and outdoor temps, I can see there is a lot of waste up there..
I'm getting a new thermal leak detector as my Ecorenovator prize..
It's first task will be up in the attic..

That will be a effective tool, you can find the cold spots from the inside or hot spots from the outside.

Is it a thermal Imagery or IR technology ?

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

That will be a effective tool, you can find the cold spots from the inside or hot spots from the outside.

Is it a thermal Imagery or IR technology ?

It's the prize I won.. I was randomly lucky again..

Black & Decker Tools | Thermal Leak Detector TLD100

It's got some good reviews on Amazon Amazon.com: Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector: Camera & Photo

It looks like an IR pistol with some extra 'leak detector' functionality..
This should make it a lot easier to survey the hot spots up in the attic..
I know where some are already.. Just by watching the snow melt..

[jeff5may]

here it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpifuiVpv2w

[Xringer]

Looks pretty neat. I've got some new 9V batteries waiting for it..

[Exeric]

HA, HA. I've got one! It works well. You just point it when you turn it on at something who's temperature your interested in. The first thing you point it at calibrates it as a reference temperature and also gives you a readout in F or C.

If you point it somewhere else with a different temperature the light showing the target changes from green to either red or blue, depending on if the new temp is below or above the reference temp from where you first pointed it. It also gives the numerical temperature just like a regular IR detector.

There is a handy switch that allows you to alter the trigger point from the reference temperature at either 1, 5, or 10 degrees to turn on the blue or red light. When I bought the thing I was just looking for a regular IR detector but this is better and very intuitive. (Also no more expensive.)

[Xringer]

Sounds pretty good!

What I don't like about using my regular IR detector up in the attic,
is the concentration needed to walk around up there (only a small area has flooring)
and try to take readings, by watching the temperature display bounce up and down..

With the TLD100, my foot sticking out of a hole in the living-room ceiling will be a lot less likely..


I guess it's funny when you're standing down stairs..

Foot Through Ceiling | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

http://i.imgur.com/AhPR6pS.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3649/...55b07a34_o.jpg

[Xringer]

It was 38F in the attic..
The two fans came on, when the heat should have come on. (Both fans use the same device code, 7)

In binary, the fan device is 0111 and the heat device is 0101 ..

Seems like a burst of RF noise or AC line noise in the middle of the byte, could confuse the receiver.. A single bad bit..

I would change the house code on the fans, but that would make them too hard to control them using the handheld RF remote control.

Maybe I just need to make the device bytes more dissimilar.
My three device codes in use now, are 5, 6 & 7. 0101, 0110 & 0111.
I'll change them to 0001, 1000 & 1111 and see if that makes them noise proof..

If those device codes still get errors, I'll try using three different house codes too.

FAN_ON:
X10 2 7 1
RET

HEAT_ON:
X10 2 5 1
RET

etc.

~~~~ From PLC manual~~~~
X10 RF function is supported in the PLC programming also.
In PLC programming, PLC command is in the format:
X10 H U C
Where H is house code from 0-F, U is unit code, also from 0-F; C is one of following
four commands:
0 – Off
1 – On
2 – Bright
3 – Dim
If the X10 function enabled, TTL7 and TTL8 should not be used for controlling other
devices. Please note PLC logic uses 0-15 or 0-0xF for code, web GUI only use 0-F

[Xringer]

Lately, Solar PV has been doing around 80% of our winter hot water heating..



Saturday was pretty mild, and it was sunny. But, even on some really cold
days, the fans are coming on and driving some warm dry air into the basement.

Even today(Sunday), with a lot of clouds around,(some rain in the afternoon)
the attic still got warmer than the living room.

We keep the LR at 21C (69.8F) and the Den at 20C nowadays.
Those settings seem to balance out the kWh used by the two Sanyo units.
Today, the Den used 7.2 and the LR (main house) used 8.0 kWh. (~$2.75)

[Daox]

That is pretty cool that its working for you even in the middle of winter. I looked at my attic temp the other day when it was sunny out, it only got up to about 40F.

[Xringer]

We get great solar PV, but our attic stays too cold..
For days after it snows, the air up there is too cold to use.

Right now, it's 40.4F in the peak of the attic, so it's melting, very slowly..



Maybe I should put about 100' of melt-wire up there.?.
To save power, I could rig it so I could switch in the 800W PV array.
The 800w PV array is almost self-cleaning. 1/2" of overnight snow melted fast in the morning sun.

If I could get 50 to 100 sq feet of clear roof in the middle, that would help a lot.