On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, eric + michiko wrote:
Keep in mind this is a four story apartment building with around 80
apartments. Compromises were made to accomodate the size, costs, zoning
and levels of acceptance.
>
> Before I get into that I'd also like to support passive solar design.
The building is very well designed from a passive solar point of view. The
apartments on the south and southwest side of the building could probably
go without any supplemental heat at all, the North and north east sides
would need some heating in the winter. A house built on the same
orientation with the same care given to passive solar would probably not
need any, or only minimal supplemental heat in the coldest winter.
I
> think it is possible to design a house for most, if not any, climate that
> can be completely heated with solar heat, especially if the occupants are
> wiling to deal with some temperature fluctuation. If supplemental heat was
> desird or necessary, Id lookinto some form of radiant heating (wood stove,
> solar heated mass, etc.)
>
> The big difference between our systems is that your building heats the air
> with the heat in the water and then moves (?) the air into and around the
> room.
That was probably a compromise made to build an apartment building within
a reasonable cost and with resonable ongoing simplicity of maintenance.
Interestingly, the heating vents are at ceiling level, as heat rises we
are contributing to warming the floor of the unit above us. I've heard
both that it works wonderfully well and that it doesn't. I suspect how
well it works depends on where in the building you are. Ground floor,
north side being the coldest I would imagine.
We are heating the building (floor) directly with the water. We
> aren't heating the air which is one of the best insulators. The air
> temperature is about 65 with the comfort more like 69 or 70. The unheated
> upstairs stays a couple degrees cooler than the down stairs, unlike most
> houses where the hot air rises to the ceiling or upstairs.
Upstairs here is another apartment. Given that each apartment has it's own
thermostat and heating system, and pays it's own gas bill I would imagine
the higher you go in the building the less supplemental heating is done.
The thermostats are programmable on a one week cycle, but I suspect that
more education is needed to get people to use this feature for maximum
energy saving.
snip
>
> I feel like I'm throwing out a lot of words but not really saying what I
> want. So, let me just say that in general radiant heating is more efficent
> (and more comfortable) than convective heating - for reasons that you may
> know if you are interested about how heating systems work, and don't need
> to hear from me if you aren't interested : )
I am both interested and lacking in knowledge, so if you like to talk
about it, I'll listen.
And also, that solar energy
> (passive and active) can be put to great use for radiant heating. I would
> do it differently next time, but I'd stick to passive solar design and
> solar (assisted) radiant back up heat.
The building itself is quite a large passive collector.
More information on the design can be found at links off of
http://www.conscoop.ottawa.on.ca/
I know most people here are interested in design of individual homes but
adapting some of the sustainable ideas to apartments is probably going to
be necessary at least in the short term as well.
>
> More tired than I should be to be writing this ; )
Thanks anyway. I am interested in learning more about how all this works.
sph
Sandra P. Hoffman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.flora.org/sandra/
