Hello from Spain

[Espain]

Looks like I've found a great forum here, I have been reading threads about fooling a GTI to work off grid, something I had wanted to try for a while.

But the problem I need advise on is underfloor heating. I have moved into a house which isn't quite finished one of the things being the underfloor heating, unfortunately it is electric rather than water and basically it is just 2 heavy duty cables coming out of the floor in each room at the moment. I have been told that the whole system is 12kw range is from 800w to 1500w per room so I certainly have no intention of connecting it to the grid, it does have a seperate circut board to everything else and each room has a termastat. The location is both sunny and windy, so I want to make use of both. Can I connect 24v staight to them or would I need to go through an inverter? If I feed 500w into a 800w room would it still heat but only be warm as opposed to hot? Any advise or ideas would be greatly appeciated.

Many thanks
Nick

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Espain

The location is both sunny and windy, so I want to make use of both.

If you are buying power from an electric company, 'wasted energy' is energy you use but don't really need... like leaving the lights on in an unoccupied room.

If you are setting up systems to harness wind and solar, 'wasted energy' is energy you have available, but don't use.

Trying to build a wind or solar system for the purpose of powering resistance heat will be very expensive, much more expensive than using power from the grid.

However, building a solar or wind system to power lights and other low-load appliances can be pretty reasonable... and during times when you have excess power, you can dump it into your electric resistance heated floors, as a modest assist to your primary heating system.

And yes, if you have a floor that draws 800 watts and you put in a lower wattage (like maybe 100 or 200 watts), it will be less warm than if you used 800 watts... in fact it may never actually get warm but would surely become less cold.

As you look through this site you will see a big emphasis on insulating and air leak sealing. Many of us have become convinced that in most cases, money is better spent on improving sealing and insulation than on improving heating.

-AC_Hacker