On Jan 10, 2015, at 9:21 AM, tomw via EV <[email protected]> wrote:

> His book, Solar Hot
> Water Heating, describes (among other systems) using solar hot water
> collectors to heat a 2 ft thick layer of sand which is insulated inside the
> house foundation with a concrete slab floor on top of it, giving over one
> hundred of metric tons of thermal mass for radiant floor heating.  Water is
> circulated through the sand with PEX tubing, starting around mid August to
> heat it up for the winter.

Similarly, the most effective method of cooling for locations such as Arizona 
where I am also uses the Earth as an heat sink...and, of course, also similarly 
only really make sense for new construction. But, yes -- done right, and you 
can live in arctic frigidity in the middle of August for pennies per day. If 
whoever built the building had the foresight to do things right....

But the good news is that there's insane amounts of energy available from the 
Sun such that simply covering a suitable fraction (and generally a minority) of 
your roof space with generic PV panels results in a net surplus. And, if the 
grid is available to use as the equivalent of a battery, you can make an 
handsome profit that way if you've got available capital to invest. Most can 
still make a profit, though nowhere near so handsome and with much more 
capital, going off the grid entirely.

b&
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