Don't they use heat from the sun in really eco-friendly home - having a bank of conservatories along the south side and opening doors to - in theory - pull in the heat to other bits of the house?
The boiler is in the garage. There is only one radiator in the kitchen and that is behind a chair and table in the corner.
MM
Huh, I bet it does if the central heating is permanently off! (I don't like central heating and rarely switch it on.)
MM
|On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 10:27:15 +0000, Dave Fawthrop | wrote: | |>On Wed, 08 Feb 2006 14:49:02 +0000, MM wrote: |>
|>|At last the sun is now out and warming the kitchen side of the house |>|beautifully. The temperature in the kitchen (without any cooking on |>|the go) is 70?. |>
|>Put TRVs on all your radiators, so that as soon as solar heating kicks in |>the radiators in that room shut down. |>
|>Open all doors to allow air to circulate. |>
|>|But on the other side of the house, where my computer room is, the |>|temperature is only just above 55?. |>
|>Improve the insulation of the house, particularly the walls, so that the |>internal skin of the walls acts as a storage heater. No part of my house |>falls to 55 deg F at night. | |Huh, I bet it does if the central heating is permanently off! (I don't |like central heating and rarely switch it on.)
Great if you have top notch insulation.
For walls with insulated cavities, the internal skin gets to get to slightly less than the average internal temperature of the house, and any internal walls get to roughly the average temperature of the house. These walls then conduct/convect heat to the air, when the temperature is less than the average. So you store the average solar gain which the house achieves, plus the average gain from people, cooking, fridges, computers and the like.
There's a lengthy article in today's Architects Journal that says that adding insulation to ground floors (other than a bit of perimeter insulation) is actually counterproductive in that it reduces the capacity of the slab and the ground under it to soak up heat and release it later. This would, I presume, be particularly relevant in the spring and autumn when you can have bright sunny days turning cold after dark.
Ah! THOSE kinds of degrees!
MM
Well, the effect of sunlight, even this weak winter sun we're now getting, is huge. The temperature in the kitchen (that gets all the sun) may be 55 degrees or less at dawn, but up to 70 by noon - all for free! Okay, maybe sometimes with the cooker on for ten minutes to cook my breakfast. Meanwhile, the other side of the house barely changes at all.
As a general principle, I don't think this country, probably the world, is paying enough attention to the free heat from the sun.
Mind you, in summer the kitchen side of the house can be unbearable on really hot days, but then the cool side is a very tempting cool!
MM
A Mate of mine used to sell a fan system for factories to save money on heating bills. The principle was that heat rises.
They had ceiling mounted fans and two temperature sensors, one up in the roof area & one down at ground level. When the temperature difference between high & low levels exceeded a certain value the fan(s) switched on, blowing the hotter air back down again.
The important bit was that the fan(s) only switched on when the temperature difference was great enough to make a difference.
All you need is a fan, some ducting, two sensors and a program to make it run.
Time to look again at my Maplin catalogue! Thanks.
MM
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