Rethink Your Life! Finance, health, lifestyle, environment, philosophy |
The Work of Art and The Art of Work Kiko Denzer on Art |
|
|
Cob: breadbox water heater plans, thermosiphoning slabs, and mass walls in cold climates,Mark Piepkorn duckchow at potkettleblack.comWed Jan 22 10:03:29 CST 2003
Free online plans for simple one- and two-tank batch solar water heaters http://www.networkearth.org/naturalbuilding/heater.html A few years ago I visited a (stick-frame) house in Minneapolis that had a smaller version of this kind of batch heater - about ten gallons - mounted onto the side of their house. As long as they didn't use more hot water than that at one time, they didn't need their water heater in the summertime. In the winter it preheated the incoming water - with or without sun, as it turned out, because heat leaking from inside the house kept the "breadbox" warmer than the incoming water (and provided the additional bonus of preventing freeze-ups, which - depending on how they had things plumbed - could have had some significantly negative repercussions...) A good article from Backwoods home about the 'goods' as well as the 'watch-outs' of solar thermosiphoning hydronic slabs. The number-one rule it cites: Use thermosiphon only in areas where freezing temperatures are rare. http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hackleman64.html Regarding uninsulated mass walls in cold climates, Chuck Learned's comments were on the money. Here's a well-written synopsis followed by an article about rammed earth in Australia, from which much can be inferred with regard to cob: http://www.repp.org/discussion/greenbuilding/200101/msg00037.html
|