State of the Art in Heating at High Altitudes

If one were going to build a home today in an exclusive (multi-million $) housing area between 6,500 and 7,000 foot altitude, what would be considered state-of-the-art in heating systems? This area gets heavy snow in the winter. Also, considering that the house is pretty high-end, would it be common to forget about air conditioning even though there would be some pretty warm days in the summer?

Reply to
Dick
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Geothermal heat pump.

Reply to
Bob

quiet wind with permits and approvals in advance. you'll want air conditioning to handle heat and/or humidity.

Reply to
buffalobill

Have they gotten more cost effective? After geothermal, a good solar system but that depends on how much sun you get too. In any case, the system should have backup if power lines are down or it would not be so state of the art.

In addition to a good heating system, I'd want state of the art construction for maximum thermal efficiency using something like ICFs (insulating concrete forms)

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Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Hmmm, Wind power generation. Who live in the house better have good pair of lungs, LOL. Tony

Reply to
Tony Hwang

Solar heat from a sunspace :-) Higher altitudes have more sun, and thinner air makes insulation work better: each 1000' reduces the heat loss by 5%.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

Over a long period of time, they can be cost effective. Even if you have to change out the equipment after 15 years, you can still use the existing ground loop. In any case, the OP simply asked for a state of the art heating system in exclusive (multi-million $) housing area. He didn't ask about price or cost effectiveness. If done right, the air temps coming out a geothermal are much warmer than an air-to-air heat pump and he'd have built-in air conditioning. If he were to build that type of house with no duct work, you'd have a hard time re-selling, especially if they get "some pretty warm days in the summer".

Reply to
Bob

State of the art would be quality passive solar design, Sips construction with R 80 ceiling, Insulated foundation and under basement floor. Tri pane glass LowEargon, high solar heat gain glass SHG, with proper sun in summer permanent awnings, even an insulating foam core auto exterior closing shutter panel system. Insulated curtains with cellular shadees in tracks. Window R value closed could be R 40. A combination of heat sources depending on what you could afford , Solar- wind powered, Geothermal heat pump radiant floor heat with AC and Ng or propane backup Heating costs could on a pay basis be 1/20 th of normal houses, a key point in keeping expensive costing heat and energy options down. AC you would have forced air so Ac additional is cheap, A VS DC blower would run on humidistat for days when humidity removal is only important. Its all standard equipment, just pick it right.

Reply to
m Ransley

Dont forget wood stoves and an outside air recovery set up.

Reply to
m Ransley

Another thought assuming people start using geothermal. How long before environmentalist whackos start complaining we are taking all the heat our of the earth and causing a new ice age? :)

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I've actually already heard that argument. I they can argue it out with the global warming people.

Reply to
Bob

m Ransley errs again:

Less could work, esp since insulation works 5% better per 1000' of elevation.

Maybe not, since warm air rises.

That's 20-year-old "mass and glass," vs the state of the art! :-)

Expensive and hard to seal at the edges. Better to circulate warm air between the living space and a low-thermal-mass sunspace with lots of south glazing during the day and let the sunspace get cold at night.

Cooling and dehumidification are unlikely needs at that altitude.

NREL says 660 Btu/ft^2 falls on the ground and 1240 falls on a south wall on an average 20.6 F December day with a 34.9 high in Eagle, CO at 6513'. The average temp in July is 66.6, with an 86.0 daily high and a 47.2 low and humidity ratio w = 0.0079 (very dry.)

A 40'x60'x8' tall house with 192 ft^2 of R4 windows and R48 (12" SIP) walls and ceiling and 0.2 ACH would have 192/4 = 48 Btu/h-F of window conductance + 1408/4829 = 29 for walls + 2400/48 = 50 for the ceiling plus about 0.2x40x60x8/60 = 64 for 64 cfm of air leakage, totaling 191. With 600 kWh/mo (2843 Btu/h) of indoor electrical use, it would only need (65-20.6)191-2843 = 5637 Btu/h of heat, ie 135K Btu/day or 676K for 5 cloudy days in a row. Solar gain through the windows is gravy.

A $1 square foot of R1 polycarbonate solar siding or sunspace glazing with 90% solar transmission might gain 0.9x1240 = 1116 Btu/day and lose

6h(120-27)1ft^2/R1 = 558, for a net gain of 558 Btu/day, so we could heat the house with 135K/558 = 242 ft^2 of glazing, eg an 8'x30' wall.

We could store heat for 5 cloudy days in a row in P pounds of water cooling from 120 to 80 F, where 676K = (120-80)P, so P = 16900 lb, eg 263 ft^3 in a 2' deep x 13' diameter welded-wire fence tank with a plastic film liner, which might also contain a $60 1"x300' PE pipe coil to make hot water for showers.

Nick

Reply to
nicksanspam

Exclusive multi-million $ housing and you want to know if you should forget about air conditioning in an area that can use it? Do you know how damn stupid that sounds? Bubba

Reply to
Bubba

Well, it seems stupid to me, but I am not the one building the house. I would say that 95% of the houses in this area don't have A/C. Claim it isn't necessary. This is high mountain country in the middle of ski resorts.

Reply to
Dick

passive solar for sure.. smart design (southfacing windows) and proper insulation will cover most of your daytime/sunlight heating. a properly designed house at that altitute may not need airconditioning, either, with cooling fans, porches, etc.

take a look at ideas here:

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EmilyS

Reply to
emily47

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