On 31 Jan 00, at 6:59, john van hazinga wrote:
> Sandra, I am having trouble envisioning a dwelling in this climate that does
> not require heat. All I can imagine is the cliff dwellers of the American
> SW with the addition of glass.
There are many people here who are much more knowledgeable of
design to take advantage of passive solar heating and cooling. We
had a fairly lengthy discussion awhile ago.
However, information on the building I am currently living in can be
found at http://www.conscoop.ottawa.on.ca/
Not everyone in this building will be using no heat at all, but after my
experience this winter I believe that with the exception of health
conditions requiring very warm living spaces, noone on the south
west side of the building should need to heat their apartment.
Possibly the first floor might be an exception in the coldest weather.
The north and east sides of the building would not experience
enough solar gain through the sunny days to go unheated. I can see
this design being adapted to mostly eliminate the north and east
side problems.
The building is super insulated. Once it gets hot it takes along time
to cool down. It is situated to take advantage of maximum solar
gain through sunny days. On sunny days it is too hot for us during
the late afternoon, no matter how cold it is outside. On cloudy very
cold days we need to wear sweaters during the day. We bake
bread most mornings, cook supper for a family of four in the
evenings, and we run three computers. Because the apartment
holds heat well these activities make a significant contribution to
the heating of the apartment.
When the air temperature was around -40C with a windchill of -50C
the temperature reading on the thermostat in the apartment went
down to 21C. It is generally staying steady at 23C.
The previous two townhouses we lived in also taught me alot about
the potential for passive solar heating. Both units were south facing.
Both were getting some benefit from the heating of neighbouring
units. The better of the two would take 3 days at subzero centigrade
temperatures without sun before we needed to turn on the heat. The
third day would probably drop below many people's comfort zone,
but we would be comfortable enough with sweaters on. It had no
special design features, no super insulation or anything like that.
The other townhouse was older, draftier, and had smaller south
facing windows. We could only make one and a half to two days
without sun there before turning on the heat. It also had the
unfortunate feature of uneven heating. To keep one part of the unit
warm enough we often had a window open in another part of the
house, that would get too hot.
These last three living places have made me quite convinced that if
attention is paid to design to maximize passive solar heating that it
would be possible in this climate to have a house that needed
minimal to no heating. Same with rows of townhouses and
apartment buildings. Proper attention would be needed to ensure
summer shading as well. One of the townhouses had a tree
shading the windows in the summer that kept the place cool enough
for our tolerance levels.
> Where we end up living is also a factor of our psycological make up. I
> have lived in cities of all sizes, subburbs, small towns, farm towns, back
> woods, resort towns, planned corporate communities, and others and during my
> sojourns in them tried to enjoy them and adapt. But am most comfortable
> living in a cottage on a populated road on the edge of the big woods. I
> seldom do but need the feeling I can take off into the woods and by picking
> my route walk for hours without crossing a road. I have known people grown
> up in NYC who have beautiful remote land but are never comfortable and
> just scurry back and forth to hustle and bustle.
>
I grew up in a village and a small town. I would never willingly go
back to either. I've lived in small to medium sized cities. I wouldn't
go back to the smallest of these, and visited Toronto enough to
know that I would not want to live there. I have to keep reminding
myself that what I understand as a city is probably different to what
most US based people think of city. I've driven through Detroit, and
visited Ann Arbour, but that is really the limit of my experience with
US cities. Ottawa, as a city, is quite a bit more humane than what I
understand of most US cities, although not without city specific
problems.
I have never lived on a farm or in the wilderness. I think I would do
well in either. Whether the rest of my family would is another
question altogether. But I get tired of talking as if I had a choice of
living wherever I wanted. I don't. An awful lot of people don't. The
absolute worst thing I have done is to spend the last ten years living
in a dream of where I want to be rather than making do with what I
have and can realistically get.
sph
Sandra P. Hoffman
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.flora.org/sandra/
