EcoRenovator  

Go Back   EcoRenovator > Improvements > Geothermal & Heat Pumps
Advanced Search
 


Blog 60+ Home Energy Saving Tips Recent Posts Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-02-11, 04:28 AM   #1
officialpa
Lurking Renovator
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Eze
Posts: 2
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Default geothermal and solar heating for a house

Hi,
I have a house in South of France and I am planing to rebuild it totally. The house is about 600 square meters (6 460 sq feet), on a south facing hill, on the hight of 555 meters (1 820 feet). The structural work is concrete and the front elevation will be all glass. There is little flat surface around the house, most of the land is on slope of the hill. I am considering geothermal heating and/or solar panels. Do you think this is a good idea for such a house or should I go with traditional heating/cooling systems? What would you advise? All advise and ideas are much appreciated!

officialpa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-02-11, 06:10 AM   #2
Piwoslaw
Super Moderator
 
Piwoslaw's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Posts: 964
Thanks: 189
Thanked 111 Times in 87 Posts
Default

Hi, welcome to ER

A south facing hill in Southern France is about as good as it gets! Your solar and heat pump setup could be relatively cheap have a quick payback. I say DO IT!
__________________
Ecorenovation - the bottomless piggy bank that tries to tame the energy hog.
Piwoslaw is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-02-11, 09:24 PM   #3
AC_Hacker
Supreme EcoRenovator
 
AC_Hacker's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 4,004
Thanks: 303
Thanked 724 Times in 534 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by officialpa View Post
I am considering geothermal heating and/or solar panels.
Are you going to Do It Yourself?


I'd say a good solar exposure combined with a small mini-split would be a great combination.

What do you know about the composition of the earth around and under your house?

If you're planning on a concrete structure, I'd say insulate under the floor and foundation and around the outside of the house, and rely on the concrete as thermal storage. You should put at least twice as much insulation in the roof as is normal for your area.

I assume that you know about window overhangs, and that if they are properly designed, the sun will shine in on winter days and shade your house in the summer.

If you really did your house right, your need for auxillary heat would be very small.

-AC_Hacker
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	PAHS.jpg
Views:	6448
Size:	46.1 KB
ID:	1263  
__________________
I'm not an HVAC technician. In fact, I'm barely even a hacker...
AC_Hacker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-03-11, 05:29 AM   #4
officialpa
Lurking Renovator
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Eze
Posts: 2
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Default

As to the windows I have them all figured out

As to the ground around the house, most is rock, however I have not done any probing yet.

I would really want to use as much heat in the summer as possible. I am quite convinced about solar heating to get hot water in the house, maybe also store heat and get hot air in the winter but what I would really love to do is to use the heat produced by air conditioning the house in the summer and use it to heat up the water in the swimming pool. Do you know how to get round this?

And of course I would be using professional engineers to set up the systems.
officialpa is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-03-11, 09:27 AM   #5
Ryland
Master EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Western Wisconsin.
Posts: 913
Thanks: 127
Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts
Default

If you insulate the house well enough, have some high quality south facing windows and have thermal mass then your solar hot water system should only need to heat your domestic hot water and like others have said, a mini split air source heat pump should take care of your heating needs on a cloudy winter day and you can use it as air conditioning if you need it, but with good insulation, proper roof over hangs and your house being built in to a hill side you should never need to cool your house in the summer, so you will end up with very little waste heat to heat your pool so more solar hot water panels would be the answer, at that point using the solar hot water panels to add heat to the house in the winter, to the concrete floor would be a good idea, allowing you to have fewer or smaller south facing windows.
Ryland is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-11, 04:13 PM   #6
mohsinkhalid
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Yes I also think a good solar exposure combined with a small mini-split would be a great combination.
  Reply With Quote
Reply


Tags
cooling, geothermal, heating, solar power

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 10:05 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Ad Management by RedTyger
Inactive Reminders By Icora Web Design