Home Heating without power

[MaineShark]

At the Illinois Regional Energy Association's fair this year a German firm came in and showed us pictures (graphs, flow charts, etc.) of houses they had super-insulated and could be comfortably heated with a hair dryer. The WHOLE house. They were of course based in Europe. Could happen here. Don't let the cold in, keep the heat in. Why not?

Personally, I enjoy breathing...

Many of the super-insulated houses achieve their efficiency by limiting air exchange to dangerous levels.

Joe

[Lloyd Danforth]

I see these heat exchangers from time to time that move air in and out at a controlled rate and scavage heat ( and cold, I guess) from the outgoing air. I can even visulize myself building one after learning a couple of more things about them. How effecient are the ones on the market?

[MaineShark]

I see these heat exchangers from time to time that move air in and out at a controlled rate and scavage heat ( and cold, I guess) from the outgoing air. I can even visulize myself building one after learning a couple of more things about them. How effecient are the ones on the market?

Not very.  The rate of heat exchange across any barrier is proportional to the difference in temperature across it.  If it's 70 inside and -10 outside, you'll get some exchange, but when it's 70 inside 50 outside, exchange will be minimal.

And even when you have 80 degrees of difference, that's not really much.  I mean, look at a boiler trying to transfer heat from a 2500-degree oil flame to 180-degree water, and even that requires a good bit of work.

Of course, speaking of heating appliances, one way to reduce the need for air exchange is to stop burning your conditioned room air.  You paid to heat that, so why burn it and send it up the chimney?  Sealed combustion (air from outside ducted right to the burner) eliminates that problem.

Similarly, I expect one could adapt a clothes dryer similarly, although maybe using an unfinished basement as an air source instead of outside air might work better; outside air might be too cold for the dryer to heat easily.

Joe

[MaineShark]

Probably somewhat efficient.  Even heat pumps which run off of electricity are efficient.  In the '80's in TN I had one.  People claim that they are not well advised in NE.  ALthough I have not used one personally, claim is probably unsubstantiated.

Heat pumps simply cannot keep up with our winters.  Any house with a heat pump up here would require a secondary heat source to make up the difference on the cold days.  Plus, most people enjoy having hot water, and a heat pump generally can't provide that.

In large commercial applications, a ground-source heat pump (ie, geothermal) can be made to pay off.  In residential applications, it would be almost unheard-of for a heat pump system to pay for itself in fuel savings, by the time it failed and had to be replaced.  The systems are extremely expensive (remember, you have a standard heating system, plus the heat pump), and the savings are not much, given the cost of electricity.

Joe

[aworldnervelink]

My house in New Brunswick had a geothermal system. In the cold of winter it would frequently fall back to electric heat to make up the difference. I seem to recall paying around $300 CD for electricity in the winter, which is pretty steep.

[mvpel]

At the Illinois Regional Energy Association's fair this year a German firm came in and showed us pictures (graphs, flow charts, etc.) of houses they had super-insulated and could be comfortably heated with a hair dryer. The WHOLE house. They were of course based in Europe. Could happen here. Don't let the cold in, keep the heat in. Why not?

I hope they included heat-recovery ventilators in the mix.  The air inside could get pretty stale after a while.

[lordmetroid]

I heard that making use of the sun can heat up a house quite well. Placing big windows on the right side of the house and so on. But I haven't looked much into it.

[Pat McCotter]

I heard that making use of the sun can heat up a house quite well. Placing big windows on the right side of the house and so on. But I haven't looked much into it.

"On the right side of the house." That's if you are looking east, correct?

[Lloyd Danforth]

I heard that making use of the sun can heat up a house quite well. Placing big windows on the right side of the house and so on. But I haven't looked much into it.

Crazy Talk!  Before you know it you know it, there will be talk of the use of mass in front of those windows to absorb heat and insulated curtain to keep it in the house at night!
Don't fall down that slippery slope!

[SpeedPhreak]

New construction is the best way to make this work... but some ideas can be used on existing homes.

1st - put lots of windows on the south facing wall & minimal windows on the rest of the home.  Build the overhang so that the sun shines in the windows in the winter but the windows are shaded in the summer (helping to keep things cool).

2nd - use a floor with a high thermal mass... these are your heat batteries... absorbing heat during the day & releasing at night.  stone, concrete, adobe are good examples.

3rd - there is a wall you can build (it has a name... i just don't remember it) that goes in front of the window (on the inside) & it is build of brick or stone, adobe, etc...  That acts as your thermal mass... this way you can have carpet or hardwood.  Personally I don't like it but from what I have read is very effective.  These 3 choices are known as part of passive solar.

4th - use a passive solar water heater - these can circulate water/solution directly or through a heat exchanger... regardless... they use the sun to heat water that is used for radiant heating.  The collector is usually on the roof & a solar pump can be used to circulate the heat.

5th - Building material - if you use cob (mud & straw)... your walls become thermal mass.  If you use Strawbale you have super insulation... if you use natural wall treatments the house actually breathes... which is better for interior air quality than even keeping windows open.

There are other things you can do... I am not an expert yet but These are all well accepted in the sustainable community as far as I have read so far.

[coffeeseven]

Tree Hugger TV has some great videos. I watched some on Google and Youtube. I just watched one (not THTV) about a 20 unit apartment that used passive solar and lots on neat toys.