25 yrs of no heating bills on NJ homestead

[BeckyW]

Here's the story on yahoo. It's all solar. No being familiar with solar, are specifications easy to come by for this type of subfloor? (I've already got the greenhouse engineering specifications).
Enjoy.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/200604...billfor25years

BW

[diamondtim]

Neat Story!

Goes to show how a little ingenuity can put one above the "crowd".

Diamondtim

[jnap31]

Awesome Similar to the ideas I was (dreaming of) planning on incorporating into what ever house I build in the future.

[flaswampratt]

Ditto to what jnap31 said.

We're still in the planning stages for a home in CO. Our primary heat source will be passive solar, backed up by a solar heated hydronic floor system, followed by a masonry heater in the central living areas and a wood cookstove in the kitchen.

I like reduntantcy.

I have toyed with the idea of attaching a greenhouse to the walk-out basement and pumping the daytime heat gain to the upper bedrooms via a solar operated fan and duct work. Albeit I'm not a solar engineer, I don't think this will be neccessary to keep the house warm, but perhaps I'll allow for the duct work while building the home "just in case".

Best Regards.....

<///><

[WisJim]

But the story says they heat with a woodstove in the winter. Wood costs money, even from your own land.

Around here I know some people that have an active solar heating system, with pumps powered by PVs, that circulates hot water into an insulated bed of sand under the floor of the house, in one house I think it is 6 to 8 feet deep sand. Heat is stored all summer and used all fall and winter. Any extra heat is provided by a masonry mass stove which uses very little wood. Much of the heat is also provided by passive solar through south facing glass.

[farmerscotty]

been using an outdoor wood furnace for 17 years only cost I have is a little elect. and some gas for saw.

sure beats high old propane

[stanb999]

So he used a wood stove to heat the house. Their is nothing new about that. The green house windows probably lost as much heat at night as they gained during the day.
This is a feel good story with no substance.

[wvpeach1963]

You can follow the links in the story to some very interesting ideas
for building solar, and super insulated homes.

Good story , good links thanks Becky.

[SolarGary]

Hi,

There is an 11 page paper that David wrote on my site -- it describes the house in somewhat more detail, and provides some test data -- its here:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Experime...perimental.htm
Its down near the bottom of the page -- search for "Mears".

I asked David if he would do it the same way today if he was starting over today, and he indicated he would look at whether just a concrete floor with without the flooding underneath would be enough storage with todays better insulation levels etc. -- he was not sure how that would come out.



Gary
www.BuildItSolar.com

[jnap31]

Originally Posted by stanb999

So he used a wood stove to heat the house. Their is nothing new about that. The green house windows probably lost as much heat at night as they gained during the day.
This is a feel good story with no substance.

The water under the floors holds the heat in at night. Guess you did not read the story?

[stanb999]

Originally Posted by jnap31

The water under the floors holds the heat in at night. Guess you did not read the story?

No I read the story. I suspect that it heats the house in spring the fall months. But winter in jersey is over cast or cold. The state has alot of it's weather due to the ocean. So you don't get the extream cold like ohio but you don't get those clear cold days eather. They didn't talk at all about the AC bills he must have to cool it in the summer. I wonder why?

[jnap31]

Good question Stanb999. Maybe he planted shade trees out side the southern side of the house?

[DenverGirlie]

I posted this story in Alternative Energy forum last week. Some others have responded there as well.