Hi Eric,
Great post! ... Especially your ideas on what you would do today.
That's food for lots of discussion. At the Solstice site there's a whole
bunch of discussion in the archives between Amory Lovins, a dsigner and an
Engineer about designing a system in Massachusetts that needs no additional
heat input.
The engineer says it can't be done...Amory says it's possible, and even if it
fails it will get close.
Both seem to agree that high R, high mass, and high efficiency windows ( R
11?) are major parts of solution. However to get the high R windows you had
to do some special sealing of windows around the frame(seemed cludgy and a
pain to do).
They did say that Hurd had a window with an R8.0....I was not aware of this.
Does anybody on the list have such? What do they cost? Recommendations
please.
Like you I am not too on parts buried in concrete...but I'm told it can be
designed so that no connections are buried. Further you need some method of
distributing the solar gain and it seems that a radiant floor system allows
you to do that .
It does not matter where the heat comes from for such a system...but does
seem to require a lot of mechanical devices like heat exchangers, storage
tanks, manifolds, zone controls etc. to work well.
Everyone likes concept of masonry stoves...but have you seen the prices.GRR!
and it seems to require a good deal of skill and expertise to build properly.
I saw one fellow that estimated a cost for a chimney to be $10,000.
I'm leaning towards high efficiency dual fuel wood-gas boiler to heat water
for RF, and for household use. Then use a small woodstove as a last ditch
backup.
Some good stuff at the NCSU Solar site: http:///www.ncsc.ncsu.edu/sh.htm
For high mass, high insulation I'm leaning towards insulated concrete forms
or possibly structurally engineered panels. I had originally planned to
include a 256 sq ft passive solar room withing the buildings envelope , but
I'm told so much glass could mitigate some of the benefits of the high mass
walls around it. So now I'm thinking of simply attaching the solar room to
the walls to minimize loss of mass.
Lord there are so many considerations to weigh. Just wish there were
DEFINITIVE well proven DESIGNS!
BTW the angles for the sun for the roof overhangs was given as Latitude plus
or minus 18.5 degrees depending on season by the folks at the NCSU Solar
House. That's the number I was looking for.
I'd alsolike to make the house smaller, but am having a hard time balancing
comfort, design, feeling of spaciousness that we like. I hate the cramped
feeling you get in many small homes, the sacrifices/inconveniences you must
make every day for lack of well planned space.
OTH I'm also uncomfortable with many of the monstrosities on the market today
where bathrooms are over 400 sq ft, ceilings 12' high, and much space
"wasted" on huge master bedrooms...how much space do we need to sleep. I know
I prefer a cozier, smaller bedroom with lots of natural light and lots of
closet space.
Look forward to the lists comments. Frank
