Burning Less These days? Solar Gain, Bring it!!

[Rick Stanley]

Our house faces SW, is out in the open, has the typical amount of glass that cape cod style homes have and it is brick(seems to hold the heat??). At least the main cape is brick. I think, that even with nights going down near zero and days in low 20's, I'm burning a third less wood, if the days are sunny, because of the 1 Hr and 20 Minutes longer days and the higher February sun angle. You guys with lotsa glass must be really soakin' it up?

 

[NYEDGE]

With the recent 30-34 deg. temps, I have used much less wood, and Monday morning's burn was pushed back to 4PM.
The solar gain we get from the South facing windows really helps also.

 

[WhitePine]

Our house is a passive solar design, intended to be heated solely by the sun. On a sunny day, we need no other source of heat. Our orientation is due south. Because of the orientation and carefully designed overhangs, we get no direct sun at all through the south facing windows during the summer, which really cuts down on the AC bills.

 

[Rick Stanley]

Edge,
I look at your sig and see all the equipment listed. Mine could look similar, probably should update it. Anyway, we have cool boilers and plumbing and controls and skidders and saws and trucks and.................

and WhitePine,
There you are sitting there with no sig. What's he got? what's he burning? his system? Sun. That's it. Just sun. Hard to beat that. Way to go!!

 

[NYEDGE]

Edge,
I look at your sig and see all the equipment listed. Mine could look similar, probably should update it. Anyway, we have cool boilers and plumbing and controls and skidders and saws and trucks and.................

and WhitePine,
There you are sitting there with no sig. What's he got? what's he burning? his system? Sun. That's it. Just sun. Hard to beat that. Way to go!!

Your right, I'm jealous!
If I could build from the ground up I definitely would go passive solar, solar PV panels, wind power, ........
Only problem; too expensive. But it's o.k. to dream right? :cheese:

 

[WhitePine]

Edge,
I look at your sig and see all the equipment listed. Mine could look similar, probably should update it. Anyway, we have cool boilers and plumbing and controls and skidders and saws and trucks and.................

and WhitePine,
There you are sitting there with no sig. What's he got? what's he burning? his system? Sun. That's it. Just sun. Hard to beat that. Way to go!!

Your right, I'm jealous!
If I could build from the ground up I definitely would go passive solar, solar PV panels, wind power, ........
Only problem; too expensive. But it's o.k. to dream right? :cheese:

Passive solar isn't all that expensive. There are just a few requirements:

Building site with true south orientation, within +/- 5 degrees.

No trees or structures blocking the low angle winter sun.

Lot's of south facing windows with a high solar heat gain and decent insulation value (for a window).

A large amount of interior thermal mass (stone, concrete, tile, etc., preferably exposed to the sun via the windows).

Properly designed overhangs for your latitude to keep the house from being heated in the summer.

Good insulation and tight construction.

Greatly assisting are an open design and minimal north, east, and especially west facing windows.

Lots of sunny winter days are the real bonus. Wish we had more here.

 

[Rick Stanley]

WhitePine,
That's great info. Thanks!!
I'd be interested in knowing how many sq.ft. you're heating? and how much oil or wood or whatever you need to supplement the solar each year?

Rick

 

[willworkforwood]

Shutting down the boiler on a sunny day is one of my favorite things about Winter ;-). Yesterday it was off for over 5 hours at 15* and windy outside, and today will be around the same or longer. We have lots of South-facing glass, which of course also causes extra heat loss at night. But, I've become convinced that with BB emitters and running without storage, the boiler is far more efficient if the house temp is kept up at 73. I had been doing setback at night (carryover from the oil days), but the boiler runs far better with a nightime load if I don't reduce the heating load - much less early-burn idling. And the bonus is no need for a big fire in the morning to come back up to temp. So, I believe that (without storage), having lots of South glass is a net plus for us. BTW Rick, very nice post on your Garn trial-by-overfire. I followed it with interest, but didn't have anything meaningful to add. I (and I'm sure many others) learned a great deal from your detailed writeup of the problem and resolution, and all of the information that followed.

 

[WhitePine]

We are heating 2,000 SF up and 1,000 down in a daylight basement. The house is new. I don't have enough seasoned wood to heat on all the cloudy days with wood, so right now the wood stove is for emergency heat and the occasional bit of ambiance. In the future, I plan to heat with wood on cloudy days.

Other than the wood stove, the house is all electric with a four ton heat pump. I just paid our electric bill which covered mid Dec to mid Jan. We used 2,500 KWH, which is the highest consumption we have ever had. There were a lot of cloudy days here during that period, and some really cold temperatures, at least for this area. We heated with wood three or four days during the period. We do have a couple of amenities that run our electric bill up higher than it would be otherwise, a heated tile floor in the master bath and recirculating hot water.

The power bill also includes my unheated workshop with a welder and compressor. We have a 400 amp service.

Today has been mostly sunny. The heat pump is not running, and neither is the wood stove. The outside temperature is 32. Inside, it's 70 and climbing. If it keeps up, I may have to open a window or two.

Edited to correct the dates and add info.

 

[steam man]

We are heating 2,000 SF up and 1,000 down in a daylight basement. The house is new. I don't have enough seasoned wood to heat on all the cloudy days with wood, so right now the wood stove is for emergency heat and the occasional bit of ambiance. In the future, I plan to heat with wood on cloudy days.

Other than the wood stove, the house is all electric with a four ton heat pump. I just paid our electric bill which covered mid Jan to mid Feb. We used 2,500 KWH, which is the highest consumption we have ever had. There were a lot of cloudy days here during that period, and some really cold temperatures, at least for this area. We do have a couple of amenities that run our electric bill up higher than it would be otherwise, a heated tile floor in the master bath and recirculating hot water.

The power bill also includes my unheated workshop with a welder and compressor. We have a 400 amp service.

Today has been mostly sunny. The heat pump is not running, and neither is the wood stove. The outside temperature is 32. Inside, it's 70 and climbing. If it keeps up, I may have to open a window or two.

I have to ask your what your going electrcial rate is. It just seems to me that with all your heating/electrical needs met with just 2500KWH you have a good thing going. Sounds like burning wood isn't worth the effort.

Mike

 

[WhitePine]

I have to ask your what your going electrcial rate is. It just seems to me that with all your heating/electrical needs met with just 2500KWH you have a good thing going. Sounds like burning wood isn't worth the effort.

Mike

A hair under 10 cent/KWH, which is about the highest rate in E. Tenn. We were used to paying 6 cent/KWH at the old place.

I like to burn wood, and we are sitting on tons of it. I just haven't had the time to cut, split, and season any since we moved in. That will change.

 

[Tennman]

Rick, Nothing to do with solar gain but wanted to comment on your beautiful home. On my one and only visit to Maine I saw for the first time barns attached to the homes. For someone from the Alabama/Tennessee it was quite a shock because we put them as far as reasonable from the house for obvious reasons. But up there it makes perfect sense when you needed to tend your livelihood every day. Beautiful place. Must have read in one of your other posts you're in Maine or maybe I'm just wrong. Regardless great pic.

 

[woodsmaster]

Despite the slightly longer days I've not yet seen a decrease in wood consumption. It was -9 F this morning without wind chill and a high of 10. Not sure it made it to 10. It's been the coldest, snowiest winter here that I can remember in at least 8 years. Dam global warming! On the bright side the forecast has a few 30 degree days in it. I hope there right and it warms up some soon. Low of -3 for tonight.