Cob: heating air and water

[Amanda Peck]

Doug's had this system in place for years now.  Occasionally worries that 
the water is getting too hot.  He does have a backup heater as an inside 
tank--electric, for better or worse.  But it's usually switched off.  The 
drill (I house sat for them a couple of years ago) is to turn the water 
heater on half/three quarters of an hour before you want your bath, if the 
thermometer doesn't read hot enough for you.  And remember to turn it off.  
I rarely had to do that (turn it on, that is), during the November and 
December that I was there.

http://www.countrysidemag.com/issues/1_2001.htm#water

I've no experience with hydronics for a floor.  But you'd probably want to 
have that set up so that it would heat the floor during two weeks of very 
cold and NO SUN, even if you started with solar hot water.   The ads for 
those systems suggest  that you don't NEED any other heat.  After I 
weathered ice storms and furnace failures in Nashville, I'm glad for 
duplicate systems on board.

Small ventless gas heaters parked on the wall are pretty normal around here. 
  Those and/or woodstoves.  Since you're doing cob, you could put one of 
those fancy benches with a firebox at one end, the chimney at the other?  I 
want one.


Any suggestions for the heater type for the room air and the water? What 
about the heater for the hydro tubes in the floor?


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