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Tis the season for wood heat
Community Building 2.0: ask me about drL, the rotational-mob-grazing format for human interactions.
from www.archnews.com"Also consider that R-410A’s global-warming potential (GWP) is 2,088, and the refrigerant management program of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) defines any refrigerant with a GWP greater than or equal to 150 as a high-GWP refrigerant."
Community Building 2.0: ask me about drL, the rotational-mob-grazing format for human interactions.
Mark Rose wrote:One idea is to use infrared heat instead of heating the whole space.
But even more clever is to have the infrared heat follow you.
Works at a residential alternative high school in the Himalayas SECMOL.org . "Back home" is Cape Cod, E Coast USA.
Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:Another update--now I have moved, and am looking for help with a whole new set of questions.
The building where I live is a 12-unit, brick building. We don't "pay" for heat, the landlord does. But it is resistance base-board heating, our old friend from chapter 1 of this thread.
The Town or maybe the State has a program that subsidizes air-source heat pumps, and the apartments' air conditioner units go right through the wall already, so it would be an easy matter to switch those out for hte air-source heat pumps.
Here are the questions in my mind:
1 --are air source heat pumps actually not going to leak yet another greenhouse or ozone-layer-depleting gas into the atmosphere that will once again be a big problem? is it a net improvement to switch? First it was CFC's, then HCFC's were found to be problematic if I have the right labels, and now it's...is there a really solid reason to trust the current coolant substance?
1 a. --what's the energy- and toxin-footprint of creating the new coolant substance?? (links to threads or websites please).
If there is considerable doubt about air pumps (as there is in my mind at the moment since I haven't found a relevant info source yet), I would like to try to switch to radiant heat.
What about electric floor mats? You can get long ones for hallways, and more squarish ones for special spots such as the floor in front of your couch. They are pretty low wattage, and can be left on for hours.
I am willing to do what I did last winter, and my plants also survived, heat Joshua and not the air. However, my partner is probably not so happy doing the leave-the-air-cold, heat-the-person thing. I can try to get her more radiant heat sources (incandescent bulbs in places she likes to frequent), but I think I'm going to need more than that. Like maybe conductive heated slippers? (In her culture they say to keep your head cool and feet warm.)
Next, I don't have the extra money to pay much for these things myself. I would like to sell the landlord on paying for them--since they (the landlord is really a management company here, I don't have a name or a face to reference) will be saving significant money with us not having our heat on. But I don't know how much. Under the rental agreement, the landlord must provide heat, but we don't see that bill...only the regular electric bill. And I imagine it's probably a collective heat bill that the landlord sees rather than unit-by-unit...
--How would you go about talking to/seizing control of a landlord about this? what are the holes in my case I'm not seeing? what fears will they have (safety, cost, etc.) might I have allay?
(My tactic of last resort is going to be hardball--threaten to crank the resistance baseboard heating up to the maximum setting the thermostat will allow, open the window, and wait till they're interested in having a conversation about homesteading and permaculture...but I doubt I'll sleep better being combative than I would going with the herd-approved solution of doing the violence to the Earth and atmosphere...so I really don't want to get to this point.)
And then there's the rest of the building. I have made some connection with the neighbors, though I wouldn't say we're on close terms yet. I would like to get them on board with this. . .but they are all from much warmer climates than here, and my imagination is that a bunch of people from much warmer climates are going to be skeptical of a person from here telling them things about how to heat their homes...at least I would come across as insensitive. And they are all very busy, working multiple jobs some of them to pay their rent.
3--what could make a really iron-clad request/proposal of the fellow tenants?
Do you think I could negotiate with the landlord to lower the rent if we manage to give them cooperation on the heat?
Creighton Samuels wrote:
Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:Another update--now I have moved, and am looking for help with a whole new set of questions.
The building where I live is a 12-unit, brick building. We don't "pay" for heat, the landlord does. But it is resistance base-board heating, our old friend from chapter 1 of this thread.
The Town or maybe the State has a program that subsidizes air-source heat pumps, and the apartments' air conditioner units go right through the wall already, so it would be an easy matter to switch those out for hte air-source heat pumps.
Here are the questions in my mind:
1 --are air source heat pumps actually not going to leak yet another greenhouse or ozone-layer-depleting gas into the atmosphere that will once again be a big problem? is it a net improvement to switch? First it was CFC's, then HCFC's were found to be problematic if I have the right labels, and now it's...is there a really solid reason to trust the current coolant substance?
1 a. --what's the energy- and toxin-footprint of creating the new coolant substance?? (links to threads or websites please).
The standard refrigerant is identical in both a modern AC unit and a heat pump unit. The only difference is that the heat pump has valves and controls that allow the heat to be pumped in either direction. But you don't own the building, so this isn't even an option for you.
If there is considerable doubt about air pumps (as there is in my mind at the moment since I haven't found a relevant info source yet), I would like to try to switch to radiant heat.
Good idea. If baseboard electric heat is paid for in the rent, is all electric?What about electric floor mats? You can get long ones for hallways, and more squarish ones for special spots such as the floor in front of your couch. They are pretty low wattage, and can be left on for hours.
I am willing to do what I did last winter, and my plants also survived, heat Joshua and not the air. However, my partner is probably not so happy doing the leave-the-air-cold, heat-the-person thing. I can try to get her more radiant heat sources (incandescent bulbs in places she likes to frequent), but I think I'm going to need more than that. Like maybe conductive heated slippers? (In her culture they say to keep your head cool and feet warm.)
Next, I don't have the extra money to pay much for these things myself. I would like to sell the landlord on paying for them--since they (the landlord is really a management company here, I don't have a name or a face to reference) will be saving significant money with us not having our heat on. But I don't know how much. Under the rental agreement, the landlord must provide heat, but we don't see that bill...only the regular electric bill. And I imagine it's probably a collective heat bill that the landlord sees rather than unit-by-unit...
--How would you go about talking to/seizing control of a landlord about this? what are the holes in my case I'm not seeing? what fears will they have (safety, cost, etc.) might I have allay?
(My tactic of last resort is going to be hardball--threaten to crank the resistance baseboard heating up to the maximum setting the thermostat will allow, open the window, and wait till they're interested in having a conversation about homesteading and permaculture...but I doubt I'll sleep better being combative than I would going with the herd-approved solution of doing the violence to the Earth and atmosphere...so I really don't want to get to this point.)
Excessive utilities use is grounds for eviction. Don't try this.
And then there's the rest of the building. I have made some connection with the neighbors, though I wouldn't say we're on close terms yet. I would like to get them on board with this. . .but they are all from much warmer climates than here, and my imagination is that a bunch of people from much warmer climates are going to be skeptical of a person from here telling them things about how to heat their homes...at least I would come across as insensitive. And they are all very busy, working multiple jobs some of them to pay their rent.
3--what could make a really iron-clad request/proposal of the fellow tenants?
Do you think I could negotiate with the landlord to lower the rent if we manage to give them cooperation on the heat?
No, I don't. The regulations regarding shared utilities are so rigid, I don't think you have any chance at all of moving the landlord. Probably best to work on your own comfort, while conditioning your other to the value of radiant heat. When I first got married, my wife had never used a gas stovetop, never lived in a home heated with wood, never had a heated bed, never owned a quality wool throw. I introduced each of these luxuries to her one at a time, and she'd have a fit if I took them away now. Now she asks me to start a fire in the woodstove when she's chilled, because the feel of radiant heat coming from the woodstove in winter cannot be compared. The heated mattress pad alone let me drop the overnight setting on the programmable thermostat by 4 degrees; for the cost of less than one KWH per night.
Community Building 2.0: ask me about drL, the rotational-mob-grazing format for human interactions.
Community Building 2.0: ask me about drL, the rotational-mob-grazing format for human interactions.
Community Building 2.0: ask me about drL, the rotational-mob-grazing format for human interactions.
Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:Another question--I've rather come to depend on my computer chargers for heat.
1 they're warmer than an electric blanket. Even after a half hour I can barely feel the electric blanket, on top setting. Maybe it's partly broken? with all those 100 watts going in, I'm getting very little out, compared to (it says) six watts on the mac charger and nice hand-warming potential out.
2 they're placeable and localized
But--once i move into my shiny old homesteady type situation, then the electricity will be limited and these will be not an option--unless i wnat to run our battery at night to charge the computer.
My question--isn't the charger really an inverter?
so its only function is to go from AC to DC and lose a lot of energy as heat as its doing so?
In that case, if I'm on DC for all my appliances anyway (which is cell phone and computer and a few fans and lights only, maybe a few battery-powered power tools for occasional use, electric chainsaw etc.) then I don't need to invert. So I'd just plug the 12 volt cell phone into the 12v battery, same with the computer.
What if I want to arrange a targeted heat source like the computer charger?
I'm going to assume there's no good electrical solution to this, but I'd love to hear if there is something I don't know about--for example, a place where there's already a lot of heat lost in the system of photovoltaic-battery-appliance. The mac itself can heat up occasionally, but only in the summer. (the dinosaur PC heats up pretty good, but that's a huge energy hog).
Best I can come up with, plug in the energy hog into the PV panel during the day, charge its battery full while the sun shines. Then at night let that warm me up for a few minutes by sticking it under the blankets for the five minutes or so while I'm brushing my teeth and stuff. It'll probably not last much longer than that, but it'll take the edge off.
Community Building 2.0: ask me about drL, the rotational-mob-grazing format for human interactions.
Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:Thanks, this is awesome Creighton!
I guess the charger is not an inverter, but an anti-inverter (Ac-to DC), is its main function. My experience is it clearly heats up only when the computer battery is drawing power (charging), and it's cold when the battery is full or not connected.
I do have a solution which is kind of risky, a metal lamp...with (sorry Paul) a CFL bulb. It's protected from crunching by the lamp "shade" thing (metal), and it's worked for me. Problem was it was actually a bit too hot--I forget how many watts but it was the lowest wattage we had lying around, I used this mainly just as a night light. But even that was too hot. I want to say 12 watts. I looked for a smaller, lower-watt incandescent but for some reason I couldn't find what I was looking for.
So, the DC-DC voltage adjuster thing won't be a heat source, I take it. How does something change voltage in DC? i thought that was the whole point of AC, you can change voltages with a transformer...and I thought my computer and phone both ran on 12 volts. I guess not. Glad that there are heat blankets available to run on 12 volts already.
The soap stone trick I know, I heard of it with a brick, they teach that to kids in Vietnam that Ho Chi Minh used to take home a brick from his baking job for the night. I look forward to getting to feel it with my own hands and put a physical experience with theory. Thanks for the reminder.
Visit Redhawk's soil series: https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil
How permies.com works: https://permies.com/wiki/34193/permies-works-links-threads
Vulturul Ilie wrote:Heat pumps are 400 % more efficient than any induction or resistance heating .This efficiency drops if outdoor its minus 5 C but there are somme high efficient air conditioner units like Daikin wich defrost the the outdoor unit pipes periodically and these work until minus 20-25C.
One Kw of gas power( natural piped gas) its 10 times cheaper than electric where i live and even if the heat pumps( air conditioners working on heating) are soo much more efficient than electric heating,it cant still not beat the gas.
.Anonymous wrote:Re: #184, replacing air with lots of solid goods. I don't know that would make any difference in the heating (or cooling) bill? The extra "stuff" would still have to have its temperature maintained, by absorbing or emitting heat from/into the air. What more solid stuff would do though is moderate the temperature swings by providing thermal mass.
Having lights for summer (CFL) and lights for winter (incandescent) would make sense in an all electric home. Better stock up on the incandescents while you can.
There is no beard big enough to make me comfortable enough with my masculinity to wear pink. Tiny ad:
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