The Deep Freeze Continues - Jan 2018

coalnewbie · Post by **coalnewbie** » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 11:49 am

Hmm, I am getting cheap ideas for modifying the South face of the house. As you say FF no mechanicals period.

k-2 · Post by **k-2** » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 12:04 pm

coalnewbie wrote: ↑
Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 11:49 am
Hmm, I am getting cheap ideas for modifying the South face of the house. As you say FF no mechanicals period.

If your fortunate to have the long side of your house facing south you could do more. In my case it was the short side
24ft . If i were to do it at another location again id like to do a south facing long side. Doing the long side would probably take care of at least half your BTU req. IMO

Homesteader · Post by **Homesteader** » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 2:42 pm

k-2 wrote: ↑
Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 12:04 pm
If your fortunate to have the long side of your house facing south you could do more. In my case it was the short side
24ft . If i were to do it at another location again id like to do a south facing long side. Doing the long side would probably take care of at least half your BTU req. IMO

That's what I did when I built my house back in 84.

.JPG | 249.6KB | House SS.jpg

Of course nothing is free and without maintenance or occasional hard work for that free solar.

.JPG | 98.1KB | House SS Winter.jpg

k-2 · Post by **k-2** » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 4:25 pm

Homesteader wrote: ↑
Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 2:42 pm
That's what I did when I built my house back in 84.
Of course nothing is free and without maintenance or occasional hard work for that free solar.

So how did that work out heat wise .I have a friend who has a passive solar house but uses a wood stove to fill in the dead times ,overnight and sunless days. Mine is setup so i dont have to give any heat back at night ,being a separate enclosed porch. I simply close the door from the sunroom to the rest of the house to retain the heat in the house. Its get cold in there fast when the sun goes down .

Post by **Rob R.** » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 4:29 pm

One time I read a book that listed the optimum angle and overhang for your house to optimize solar gain in the.winter, and avoid overheating in the summer. Wish I could remember that I did with it.

k-2 · Post by **k-2** » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 4:38 pm

Rob R. wrote: ↑
Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 4:29 pm
One time I read a book that listed the optimum angle and overhang for your house to optimize solar gain in the.winter, and avoid overheating in the summer. Wish I could remember that I did with it.

I got close, on the longest day only 6inches of my tile floor gets hit with sun. shortest day it covers the whole floor and is halfway up the wall. It does get hot in spring and fall on warm days ,i either open side windows or cover the floor with light colored carpet to keep the sun off those black tiles. And i can keep the door to the house closed so it dont affect the house temp. We grow tropical lime trees there and its a great place to start seeds for garden in the spring.

coalnewbie · Post by **coalnewbie** » Mon. Jan. 15, 2018 4:55 pm

https://greenpassivesolar.com/passive-solar/build ... r-control/

https://www.builditsolar.com/SiteSurvey/site_survey.htm

Put in the zip code ..

I looked at the NY tables and got a headache.

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/pubs/redbook/PDFs/NY.PDF

I thought long and hard on this all afternoon. Then I decided to put a shovel of coal on sunny and looked to see what is on the telly.

Homesteader · Post by **Homesteader** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 7:52 am

So how did that work out heat wise .I have a friend who has a passive solar house but uses a wood stove to fill in the dead times ,overnight and sunless days. Mine is setup so i dont have to give any heat back at night ,being a separate enclosed porch. I simply close the door from the sunroom to the rest of the house to retain the heat in the house. Its get cold in there fast when the sun goes down .

In my case the sunroom windows have insulated shades that I can pull down during the hot weather or prolonged cold sunless days. Also there is a bit of overhang so I do not get the direct sun during the summer. The coal stove takes care of the heat loss so it's not that much of an issue. I use it as a mini greenhouse. If I had one thing that I could do over again I wouldn't have put the skylights in the roof. To much heat then to much heat loss. Your enclosed porch sounds like a good idea although.

Sunny Boy · Post by **Sunny Boy** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 8:58 am

Our solar is too passive to do much.

Here in CNY, winter is known as the "gray months". Too many cloudy days.

Paul

k-2 · Post by **k-2** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 11:33 am

Homesteader wrote: ↑
Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 7:52 am
If I had one thing that I could do over again I wouldn't have put the skylights in the roof. To much heat then to much heat loss. Your enclosed porch sounds like a good idea although.

If i had a nickel for everyone sorry they put skylights in....................... Id think you get just about nothing as far as solar gain through them when the sun is low in the sky and you need it most and 24 /7 all winter they are leaking heat. I even took my stove vent out for a similar reason,cold air pouring in all winter.

coalnewbie · Post by **coalnewbie** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 11:57 am

veryone sorry they put skylights in

There are two types in skylights, those that leak and those that have not leaked yet. I put sun tunnels that are really great for light only.

freetown fred · Post by **freetown fred** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 12:02 pm

I personally would have to spend half the winter shoveling snow off the panels for them to do much good. BUT, in a new development in Fl. --300,000 panels for a bunch of old farts to buy houses from $100K--$800,000K--what a deal huh?????? LOL Of course on cloudy days they would have to use FPL like everyone else. Don't make a lick of sense to this old farmer.

coalnewbie · Post by **coalnewbie** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 12:36 pm

Useless in Florida as well. Nobody can run A/C on solar 9 months of the year you don't get the total sun time and it needs to much power. Every afternoon comes the thunder (and clouds) and FPL comes into play.

titleist1 · Post by **titleist1** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 3:05 pm

k-2 wrote: ↑
Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 11:33 am
If i had a nickel for everyone sorry they put skylights in....................... Id think you get just about nothing as far as solar gain through them when the sun is low in the sky and you need it most and 24 /7 all winter they are leaking heat. I even took my stove vent out for a similar reason,cold air pouring in all winter.

I like our two skylights in the cathedral ceiling of the kitchen which have been there since 1993. They are there to add light to the room, not heat via solar gain. But they did collect the warm air in the "window well" of the ceiling and drip condensation. I made some interior storm windows using lexan and pvc 'board', placed them level with the drywall and have never had an issue since. I will have to take the thermal camera out on the roof and see how bad they are leaking heat.

Post by **coaledsweat** » Tue. Jan. 16, 2018 3:08 pm

I put two in a cathedral ceiling in '93 also. Only issue is the cats knocking the screeens out when they got on the roof. No leaks, no condensation.