[bldg-sim] Fwd: FW: suggestions other than eQuest

[K Emerson]

I took the liberty of forwarding this thread to a
co-worker with a great deal of experience in energy
efficient homes.  He has requested that I post this
response.  You may contact Dick Bussing directly at
303-637-1210 or dbussing at unitedpower.com

Keith Emerson
 
From: Dick Bussing 
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 8:22 AM
To: Keith Emerson
Subject: RE: [bldg-sim] suggestions other than
eQuest
 
 
I have been a proponent of the Canadian way of
designing houses for several years.  I believe that
one can get excellent results by using their methods
and will get the best bang for the dollar.  

For example:  In 1983 I built a 2300 square foot house
in Montrose, Colorado (6200 HDD) and I heated it with
electric resistive heat.  Since I worked for the
electric utility and we wanted to get this technology
introduced we metered the electric heat separately. 
The house uses between 700 kWh to 900 kWh per YEAR for
heating. In 1984 the usage was 862 kWh's (no wood
stove).  At $.08 /kWh this is a $69 YEARLY heating
bill. 

With this non-solar technology it is easy to achieve
good results and doesn't require sofisticated
calculations as with passive solar where one needs to
get the glass/mass ratio correct or with other
technologies.

I have prescriptive standards that I designed based on
HDD but I prefer computer modeling.  I will share this
information with anybody that is interested.

Dick Bussing

 
From: JRR [mailto:energy.wwind at cox.net] 
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2005 4:50 PM
To: bldg-sim at gard.com
Cc: BLDG-SIM at GARD.COM; andy at ambient-e.com
Subject: [bldg-sim] suggestions other than eQuest
 
 
The "air fired" surge gravel ( 2" to 6" ) rock bed
storage is easily beaten by an  "over square Water
fired" active / passive combo. Ours has been running
since January '87.  After accounting for an 85%
reduction in DHW load from active solar  AND 50%
reduction in wall plug load via lighting and other
measures AND savings from a 2.5 / 4 ton 2 speed heat
pump ;  we still beat Energy 10 V1.6 estimates of our
energy use by 700+ kwhr /month. Our E-10 model has
been   defined over 28 iterations against weather
data.  This design won an ASME region V design contest
in 1980. General Tips

1) WALLS 2x6 stud 24" OC  1" blue styrofoam sheathing
on outside,   steel diagonal bracing. R-19 fiberglass.
Tan brick veneer all walls above  grade. 57s gravel 4
ft deep below basement slab; 1" styro Tbreak inside
basement walls to footings, 2" Styro outside basement
walls to footings. S side basement is 100% height walk
out. 

2) WINDOWS -- You have to use casement or awning
windows because they   seal air leakage better than
anything else. Patio door only 1 allowed, South side
only.    N/E/W sides LoE2 glazing, S side LoE2 or
double clear. All windows & patio   door have night
insulation. Prefer fewer larger windows over more
numerous  smaller windows for E/W/S.  ie  Andersen
CW-24s  a  4640 Double casement.    N side gets 
CW-14s a  2440? Single casement.    Patio Door gets
lightshelf daylight hours in heating season..

3) SKYLIGHT  -- ONE only above freezer openable .
Freezer precharges skylight shaft with warm air !! Now
you are ready for a quick blow off to shed heat at
sundown or to keep kitchen smoke contained ...........
we have 10 ft ceilings in  the Kitchen.

4) OVERHANG  2ft on E W N sides, 4 ft on S --two story
height. We are at 38-45-00 N.

5) Roof is 6/12 pitch  20 deg W of South, recommend
8/12 or 12/12   for new install.    Basement  slab w/
900 ft + HDPE pipe, would use  REHAU  PEX for new
install. 

6) You will find a fan does not provide the flow
pressure required to spread out the heat  in a really
large rock bed ( ~ 2" water gauge ). You need a
centrifugal blower ( ~ 10" WG)   it  will be louder
than a fan.   

John R Ross  P.E.
  
  
 
Renee J. Azerbegi wrote:
 
 
I live in a passive (and active) solar home with rock
bed storage in my sunroom in Golden, Colorado. We did
not design this house ourselves....

There is about 4 feet of rocks underneath wooden
boards with about 1/2" of space between the boards and
the rocks start about 1 foot below the boards.

There is also brick on both walls. It gets really hot
in this room in the winter (and in the summer since it
was not designed with proper overhangs so we need to
add some exterior overhangs as well). There used to be
a duct and fan to blow heat to the floor above, but it
was removed by the previous owners probably due to
aesthetics since it was right in the middle of the
sunroom. Due to the airspace, there are a lot of bugs
and dust that collect on the rock bed. Frankly, I
think the sunspace itself is quite sufficient with the
brick and glazing alone, and due to indoor air quality
concerns, we will likely take out the rock bed or seal
it up. So if you do this rock bed, make sure it is
well sealed so bugs and dust cannot collect on it,
especially if you are going to blow air through it. 

And if it is already going to be located in a sun
room, it may not be necessary if you have brick or
another high mass feature in the space. It sounds like
yours is going over tile. You'd have to design it to
make sure the rocks below the tile heat up.  
 
Renee Azerbegi


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