"Sixty feet under"

[yared22311]

Sixty feet under at

[s]

I hate people that post links without explaining what they are about. Oh well, ***PLONK***

[SteveB]

Yeah. About as dumb as someone who would click into an unknown link ...............

Steve

[Travis Jordan]

"What happens is through cooking and the opening and closing of windows, the interior adjusts to a temperature that is comfortable to you,"

Yeah, sure. Uh huh.

[m Ransley]

The only smart ones were the local banks that refused financing. He will have a 150$ a year heat bill and keep it at 55-60, not if he has a family he wont. Im zone 5 and my temp at 4 ft goes to 35f , they are dreaming.

[nicksanspam]

Why not, with enough insulation? The deep ground temp in Seattle is 52 F and an average house uses 800 kWh/mo (3800 Btu/h) of electricity, so a 2300 ft^2 house with 6000 ft^2 of exterior surface could stay 70 F if

3800Btu/h = (70F-52F)6000ft^2/Rv, with Rv = 28 ft^2-F-h/Btu walls.

The yearly average sun on the ground is 1050 Btu/ft^2 per day, and 820 falls on a south wall, so a house with lots of insulation and thermal mass could stay 70 F with no indoor electrical usage with A ft^2 of R2 skylights with

80% solar transmission if 24h(70-52)((6000-A)/Rv+A/2) = 0.8x1050A, ie A = 6000/(1+1.44Rv) = 201 ft^2 with R20 walls or 100 ft^2 with R40 walls.

With a long time constant, the indoor temp changes slowly, so there's no need for a thermostat :-) My neighbor raised the temp of his PA underground solar house from 70 to 72 F every year by closing windows over 2 weeks in November.

Why are the homeowners only shooting for 55-60 F and how can the house be "sixty feet under" 50 tons of soil?

John Hait's 1983 "Passive Annual Heat Storage" and Mike Oehler's "$50 and Up Underground House" books are related...

Nick

[yared22311]

[chickenwing]

Yeah, the nerve, they must think so much of themselves they don't have to explain themselves and we are priveledged that they would stoop to share a f****ng link with us.

[Travis Jordan]

Because they aren't building in Seattle, they are building in Clinton, MA, where the frost line is probably about 20" or so.

[Travis Jordan]

And they'll need a dehumidifier most of the year which will cost more than $150 to run just by itself.

[Commodore Joe Redcloud©]

Groundwater heating and cooling works just as well in North Dakota as it does in Dallas Texas. This sort of thing is no longer "news"

You can keep your house at a comfy 72 degrees in the winter using 52 degree ground water.

Commodore Joe Redcloud©

[Harry K]

I'm not a contractor but have done work for others. I also don't go to links with no clue as to what they are. I still haven't read it and don't intend to. Instead of what you posted, you could have just explained what it was about. Next time, do so in the header.

Harry K

[nicksanspam]

So, The Washington Times is not from WA, but MA, where the deep ground temp in Worcester is 46.7 F, so a 2300 ft^2 house with 6000 ft^2 of surface could stay 70 F if 3800Btu/h = (70F-46.7F)6000ft^2/Rv, with R37 walls.

The yearly average sun on the ground is 1220 Btu/ft^2 per day, it could stay

70 F with no indoor electrical usage with A ft^2 of R2 skylights with 80% solar transmission if 24h(70-46.7)((6000-A)/Rv+A/2) = 0.8x1220A, ie A = 6000/(1+1.24Rv) = 232 ft^2 with R20 walls or 118 ft^2 with R40 walls.

It shouldn't need any dehumidification, if it's fairly airtight. The worst-case month is July, with w = 0.0112.

Nick

[SteveB]

[SteveB]

As a matter of fact, I WAS a steel erection contractor for nine years. Can you stop being so vague by sending people all over the Internet and put your position into words we can understand?

It would sure help.

STeve

[SteveB]

I clicked a link one time someone had put in here. It was a girl in a bathtub s*****ng up in the air and catching it in her mouth.

That will cure you from linking into things with blind trust and NO descriptions.

Were you born stupid, or did you just practice a lot?

Steve

[Travis Jordan]

Um, if it is fairly airtight, where does the moisture from cooking, bathrooms, etc. go?

[Travis Jordan]

How can you warm your house to 72 degrees with an outdoor ambient of 30 degrees and a ground water temperature of 52 degrees?

[Commodore Joe Redcloud©]

By extracting the heat from the 52 degree water. Sounds counter-intuitive, but it works, and it's done all the time.

This is nothing new. BTW, the worlds largest shooping mall, The Mall of America" in Minnesota has no heating plant at all.

Commodore Joe Redcloud©

[Travis Jordan]

Sure, but that requires energy to exchange the heat just as an air-source heat pump requires energy to extract heat from ambient air. The OP&#39;s reference article stated that the homeowners of the subterrainain house planned their energy costs to be < $150. I just don&#39;t see how they are going to get there.