Last time we built a house, I had the radical thought that maybe we
could heat the building using the sun. My idea involved using flat panel
or tube connectors to heat a volume of water, and then using a heat pump
to amplify that water's temperature. This heated water could be
subsequently circulated through a radiant array in the floor and we'd
stay warm inside when it was cold outside.
Those of you who live in Europe probably look at an idea of this kind
with a shrug. After all, systems like this have been used in the cold
parts of that continent for quite awhile. Here in North America,
however, the concept is radical. During the last house build, our credit
union refused to fund any "non conventional" construction, so my heat
pump idea was out . . .
This time around, things are a little different. The idea still sounds
novel over here, but now, there are companies who build solar heat pumps
like this routinely. Last March, I found a company called Sun Pump right
here in British Columbia. Their system uses flat panel collectors on the
roof, but instead of circulating water, they circulate refrigerant
through them and transfer that energy into the domestic hydronic heating
array. One nice thing about this particular system, is that it can also
cool the house down during the summer. Our winters are getting milder
while our summers are getting hotter. From my perspective, having one
system to handle both heating and cooling makes good sense.
But I've been bumping up against "conventional thinking" with the
contractors who design HVAC systems. The first person I tried to work
with kept insisting that the heat pump idea wouldn't work with hydronic
arrays and pushed hard for an air-to-air heat exchange system. After
living in a home with warm floors for better than 12 years, we don't
want hot air blowing around in our new house. The other problem I've
been facing is that many contractors INSIST that the only way to heat a
building during the winter involves burning something, preferably
natural gas.
Now, if I had my way, I'd not burn anything AT ALL, but the local
municipality won't issue a building permit without a "secondary heat
source" in the home. This kind of "conventional" thinking perpetuates
the status quo as far as burning fossil carbon is concerned. Thus, we
have what amounts to a natural gas mandate encoded within municipal laws
all across the continent. The laws don't actually SAY that, but with
bylaws preventing the installation of wood burners in new homes, what
other options do homeowners have, aside from fuel oil (which is really
expense), propane (which is neither convenient nor cheap) and natural gas?
With brute determination, I've managed to find someone who was willing
to design the hydronic array for my new home's heating system. The
software he used insists that we have a shortfall in the total amount of
energy required to heat the upper floor, totally ignoring the fact that
heat rises, and the lower floor (for which our system is "over powered")
will take the brunt of the heating load. In fact the difference in
energy load between the two floors is rather significant, since much of
the lower floor will be under ground, and there are fewer windows below
than above.
A lot of the trouble we've been facing stems from our need to build in
town, using conventional credit union financing. There SHOULD be a
better way to do this, but even taking little steps (like building a
house that's half the size of the "average" home in BC) meets with
significant resistance. I feel like I'm straining against the current.
However, with our heating system approved and construction finally
underway, at least we're doing SOMETHING to reduce our carbon footprint.
Additionally, other folk who are more risk averse than I am are watching
our project carefully to see if the Sun Pump system actually works for us.
Robert Luis Rabello
Adventure for Your Mind
http://www.newadventure.ca
Ceremonies and Celebrations video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV3k-s_sg1Q
Meet the People video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txsCdh1hZ6c
Crisis video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZedNEXhTn4
The Long Journey video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy4muxaksgk
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