Steven A Smith

ONE guy seems to have done his heatpump minisplit system up perfectly though.  Key, is he does his own maintenance. And…
He placed his heatpump into the middle of his south-faced solar array, encased in its own greenhouse…
…in winter, a fan draws warmed air to ventilate it, from the house crawlspace.  That prevents it icing-up, so, it runs more efficiently.  
…during summer, he uses the fan to blow the hot heatpump air outside via a vent, & can also shade its greenhouse, again, helping it run more efficiently.  
The heatpump runs off his solar array (big array, maybe about 10’x20’).  

Heat pumps emit cold air outside in winter, & hot air outside, in summer—you don’t want them placed near an entry door or a commonly opened window.  
It also makes me wonder, how much the heatpumps contribute, directly & indirectly, to yet more warming the area they are in?…cities already are warmer than rural areas around them, just from so many tempered bldgs., hard-scapes, & hot roofs.  
Heat emitted from using A/C, adds to warming.  

I really appreciate the anecdote about the passive context added to the active heat-pump driven by solar.   In heat-pump discussions, such ideas are usually dismissed  out of hand because in fact the amount of air that they must process to extract very low-grade heat or "coolth" does mean that it takes a lot more than just placing the outdoor unit in the shade or in the sun to make a difference.  This example sounds like a significantly credible attempt making those ideas work in the real world.

Regarding the "waste heat" heat-pumps add, since they are *moving* the heat from inside the home to outside, the only *added* heat is from the electricity "consumed" by the compressor.   Your point is very well taken, that this is "yet another" source for the heat-bubbles that our urban environments have become.   One can imagine an extreme example where each home on a street is sucking in the warmer exhaust air from their neighbor's A/C unit and working *that much harder* to dump the heat from their home into that...  

The tongue-in-cheek mantra of waste management professionals is :  "The solution to pollution is dilution".   In this case, heat.   Experience tells us that this always turns out badly... first for those "downstream" but eventually when we saturate the whole environment which we thought was an infinite waste sink.

On that theme, I have become re-enamored of studies of the emmisivity of surfaces (buildings) which in fact is "yet another" *dilution* ideation...  but (many orders of magnitude) a larger sink (the universe) than the home/city heat bubble.  

I found this very interesting collection of very good technical reference material presented in a fairly layman-accessible format:  Emissivity of buildings and sky temperature

Creighton Samuels wrote:

Steven A Smith wrote:I scanned through most of this (12 year old, very long) thread and didn't see much reference to the use of literal *heat lamps*.

Actually, many before you have mentioned using incandescent (heat) lamps to both directly heat & illuminate a space or a person. I can understand if you overlooked those posts, since this thread is, indeed, 12 years in the running. What you seem to be describing in the rest of your post is commonly referred to as a "heat bubble" here, after the research & resulting article/video by Paul Wheaton that started this thread.  True incandescent bulbs have become hard to find in the US these days, unless they are of the red light kind, due to regulatory reasons.

Yes, I did see the ubiquitous references to incandescent bulbs,  and I have taken advantage of those bits of "free" heat as well, but my point about *heat* lamps is that they are much higher wattage and designed to direct heat (reflective backs).    My flagship use is in my bathroom (as described in my long ramble) where the radiative heat is significant and immediate... and *yes* these are roughly the only type of incandescent bulb that can be purchased, but they are not *only* red-light... there are white light versions which are the ones I use.

And yes, the rest of my ramble was various anecdotal affirmations of "heat bubbles"

@robert - I agree with not driving down the road shedding chunks of mud plaster.   Where I live, unfortunately (true of many rural locations) there are lots of road-hazards falling off of vehicles... mostly people headed to the landfill without proper tarping, but also gravel trucks and of course mudbogging offroaders throwing chunks of mud (wet and/or dry) as they return to "civilization"...

I do think if I had a (low-speed on-property) moveable structure covered in mud plaster I'd agree to the principle of wrapping it before taking it on the highway (if ever). I'd probably give it a tight wrap with a tarp, though the wind-whipping such yields might aggravate plaster breakdown... maybe bird-netting or chicken wire  would be better,  nothing bigger than a pebble getting loose?

@amy: Yes to probably allowing for straw-only.  This all started with a semi-portable shed building that I wanted to insulate with no significant internal shear-sheathing... the clay-straw would provide it's own support and could clay-plaster right over.  I don't know how much work has been done in reducing clay-content to the minimum, just enough to prevent settling in the straw?

It is not clear to me that Athena puts this structure on the road the way some "tiny home on wheels" folks would.   They may have only expected to use it's "on wheels" aspect to resituate "on property"...  

This is a totally reasonable use-case.

Regarding the OP seeking sheer strength from this... my own experience with clay plaster suggests that it would be hard to get much if any shear strength that way.   Perhaps using expanded metal lath (as for plaster) secured to framing would provide good shear strength in itself, but anything less (chicken wire, hemp fabric, etc) would probably not provide much, and very likely not enough to prevent mechanical damage to the plaster embedded in it.

I have ideated on natural building materials for mobile structures and have accepted that A) I'd need to use something more positive for shear (criss-cross strap/wire in every wall) and I'd plan to re-surface any earthen plasters after a significant move.   I have considered staggered 2x4 wall-joists with clay-straw infill and clay plaster finish internal and externally.  But as pointed out above I think I'd probably go for expanded lath over the straw-clay infill to give the plaster as much rigid support as possible.

I'd love to hear anyone else's experiences/experiments here!  

I scanned through most of this (12 year old, very long) thread and didn't see much reference to the use of literal *heat lamps*.

In the "good ole days",  heat lamps (screw into socket) seemed to often be 500W and deliberately filtered to put out only red light.   These days they are more often (almost exclusively?) 250W and can be had in unfiltered versions where the light is white-ish and therefore can replace an incandescent bulb in contexts where heat buildup in the fixture is not a problem.

My most effective use of these is to simply replace the (down-pointing) single-bulb ceiling fixture in my toilet/sink area with a 250W "white light" heatlamp bulb.  

I verified that there is no significant overheating at the fixture and the bulk of the radiant heat hits any occupant whether simply walking into the room (feel the heat instantly when you flip on the light) or standing at the sink or using the toilet.  

This room is the coldest in the house otherwise, being on the northwest corner of a solar-heated home...   I do run an oil-filled heater in the room on "low" to keep the chill off, but this lamp both increases the comfort level and allows me to lower the ambient temperature significantly.

While leaving the ceiling light on would be wasteful, most of the radiant energy would naturally just heat up the mass in the room, in particular the dark colored brick floor, probably almost exactly offsetting the heat that would otherwise be drawn from the electric-oil heater.

I have, in the past, used the same idea over my bed as a pre-warmer and/or reading light... an industrial clamp-light fixture (firmly for safety) clamped at an angle to direct the radiant energy directly onto the bed occupants for warmth and reading light.   A timer might also be good, but just having the switch for the light handy to turn it off when you are ready to sleep or done reading is good enough.  

Similarly, I have a couple of pendant fixtures in my living area which I use the same bulbs in.   By turning them on at-will, the chair/couch underneath that spot is suddenly a cone of warmth.   Placing the pendant well is key, so that the light doesn't blind you in the chair, as does selecting a good (heat-proof) shade to protect others in the room from the glare.   For people without good discipline of turning lights off, a timer might be good.  

I rigged an array of 4 of these in the top of shower/tub room so that they shine directly on clawfoot tub.   This room is equally cold (NW corner) as the sink/toilet room but turning these on even a few minutes before going in to shower can make a huge difference in comfort, and turning them on (1 hour max timer inline) while soaking in a hot tub is exquisite.   Of course, leaving the tub-water in until it cools and the doors open recovers some of the heat otherwise "wasted"... though a good hot soak on a cold day (or evening) can really prepare the body for comfort in an otherwise cold house.

Aside from physical damage, I've not had any of these bulbs burn out on me over the years, though I am careful to not jar them while hot.   I also use them somewhat sparingly... the sink/toilet room getting the most cycling (on/off several times a day for a few to many minutes at one time).  

Being solar/wood heated otherwise justifies (to me) using electricity this way.  I don't use the seat-lamp setup much because when I get cold I just get up and restoke the fire...  the extra comfort is mostly for when someone is feeling ill or the house has been allowed to cool below a certain comfort level.  

The perimeter of the house (by IR thermometer gun) can run as low as 50F in the winter, though depending on time of day and stoking level of woodstove(s) it is more likely to be close to 60F.  The core areas of the house are likely to be between 60F and 70F most of the time with significant direct-heat radiating out from the near-central located woodstove.   Warming up when cold usually just means moving closer to the woodstove (and/or stoking it a little).

Until a few years ago I let the main house area run between 50-60F most of the time... the additional warmth we've achieved has not increased the electric bill, but mostly comes coincidental with removing a large tree shading the passive and active solar and being more pro-active about managing the different woodburning heat sources.  

The spot heat provided (mostly) by various heatlamps mostly adds comfort but likely contributes to our otherwise low heating expense.  I usually buy one cord of cedar (for smell and hot-start/burning) each year and burn another cord of prunings and other collected wood from the property.   That used to be $250/winter, now it is closer to $500 (I tip generously for delivery and help stacking during/after COVID).  My electric bill varies from $60/$120 through the year with the bulk of summertime electricity being for my well, and at least half of the difference (I've metered it) being the fan that runs my active solar (rooftop collectors directed into the main space or the rockbed under the floor).  Current rate here is $.11/kWh <1000/month and $.13 for additional kWh over 1000.  This includes charging up to 10kWh/day into my electric car...  we have no air-conditioning but do use several small fans and ceiling fans intermittently as-needed.

The central woodstove is really two stoves, an airtightish large chambered one with a window facing the living area, and a large classic cookstove.  Together they probably mass over 500lbs of iron/steel.  The big stove sits on top of a stack of (painted black for aesthetics) concrete blocks on top of dark red brick (thermally coupled to an underground solar rock-bed).   On cold nights/weeks with the big stove going constantly, there is a "pool of heat" in the floor as warm as 80F and extending out as far as 8ft diameter.   The cookstove (rarely fired) tends to sit at 100F gently re-radiating what it's getting from the big stove.  A kettle sits on top at all times with a thermo-electric fan pushing the steam coming out the top into the room gently... as well as the hot air convecting off the top. I also use the fan as a visual/aural indicator for how hot the stove is...  a good reminder to either stoke it or damp it down, depending...

Stacy Witscher wrote:To my mind, the overuse of the word addiction has diminished actual addiction issues.

Divorce is not bad. Staying in abusive or unfulfilling relationships is bad.

Children don't need a mother and father, they need people who love and respect them as people regardless of relationships.

Brainwashing your children with your religious or political beliefs is child abuse.

I agree that children need a loving "village" if you will, that can be any combination of healthy relationships, not only with the children but with one another, whatever form that might take.  I was raised in the most nuclear of families as my parents had left their birthplace to settle in the West after WWII and we moved around just enough that they never established lifelong bonds with new people.   Most of my friends growing up came from large extended families that had long-term "neighbor" relationships.  Those children *were* raised by a "village" and while those villages were far from perfect I came to respect the power of those richer relationship networks after I was grown and was trying to raise my own children with the same kind of "independence" my parents had opted for.

I agree that many words are over-used and mis-applied, but I don't think it is good to except "sex addiction" in it's many forms from the label entirely.   I also don't think we can exclude "media" and "food/retail/hoarding consumption" as forms of *addictive behaviour* as they all seem to stem back to collateral unfulfilled needs, often stemming back to vacant/empty/abusive childhood experiences caused by parents/"villages" who were suffering their own losses and abuses.   And often "best intentions" as well.

I think Dr. Gabor Mate' (for one) does a very good job of outlining the many ways this happens and how it carries on through a whole lifetime (and cascades into the next generations) if we don't understand where our various compulsions and needs come from.

We have undergone a *lot* of societal changes, and many of the consequences of those changes take a generation or more to observe.   We still need to dedicate ourselves to raising our children well and being good members of whatever "village" we are part of, large or small.  

Jim Morrison wrote:
 

A friend of mine that is a shrink, she told me a few years ago she has as many women addicted to porn as men.  

Anecdotally I doubt that there are as many women addicted to pornography as there are men, but it would not surprise me if there were as many women who are addicted to porn seeking professional help with it as there are men.  My first wife had an "addiction to romance novels" which lead her to seek an "alpha male by day, sensitive lover by night" to replace me.  She found him, though he turned out to be a controlling sex addict.

I spent a weekend intensive retreat with a mens group a number of years ago and I was mildly surprised at how pervasive the acknowledgement of at least *mild* addiction to pornography was in a session held on the topic of sexual dysfunctions.    The general tenor was that pornography was not implicitly problematic, but that it was generally believed to be  a "risky" topic, on the same level as recreational drugs and alcohol, and critical to have a balanced understanding with any partner.

I definitely would not want to be a woman today who might feel pressure to meet the image and performance standards implied by commercial pornography.  

I built my first (only permanent) RMH in a self-built sunroom about 5 years ago, and despite having significant scientific, engineering, and DIY experience, struggled a little bit with the resources at hand.   This includes (can't put my hand on them now) books describing classic european "twig stoves" and "masonry stoves" and  "bell stoves" and so forth which were essentially precursors to the "modern" RMH.  I also have books on vernacular architecture, etc. from the "golden age" of DIY (60s, 70s) homesteading that describe various ancient hypocaust implementations.

Nevertheless I had to build several backyard prototypes before I really was convinced that I had the principles and proportions down.  Had I just followed any of the resources as provided I think I would have ended up with one of three results: 1) A near-perfect reproduction of one of the Weisner's examples; 2) an ugly variation on 1 following very closely to all of it's features but uglier; 3) a really awesomely designed piece for my space that didn't work at all!

As it is, I achieved 3) with the exception that it barely/sorta/almost works despite a couple of rebuilds.   It basically starts and fires modestly well and then after some unspecified burn time (20-60 mins) it can start to back-draft slightly.  

I beat that 3 ways.  1) I have a direct-draft route to shift to when it starts to act up. 2) I have a solar-recharged recycled Honda Insight battery pack to drive a 12v  inline fan at the exit from the mass; 3) I can just shut it down with a loose cap on the burn-chamber... and it burns on out with enough positive draft to turn remaining bits of fuel to ash.    

So far I mostly just use option 2/3 together because it is easier... I turn it on when I light to get an uber-draft, then off while I run a batch or two of fuel through and then turn the fan back on if/when it might back up assuming I want to run more batches through... otherwise I just run the fan for a few minutes as I cap to make sure it's burning hot and not backing up when I cap it.  I believe the main problem I have is that my exhaust is a 30' tall conventional woodstove stack (what I put in when I first built the sunroom) and that a side-exhaust (the hottest part of my exhaust rarely goes about 72f) would possibly keep me from going into back draft mode.


I have a lot of DIY and earth-friendly friends, and without exception I would say they are *all* afraid of building their own heating (wood or other combustable) systems... they are afraid of *fire* and they are afraid of smoking out their house and of Carbon Monoxide poisoning.    They are also afraid of code inspectors and insurance companies.   I have heated with wood one way or another 90% of my life (including as a child) and have even had a few chimney fires along the way and smoked up a few houses, but *never* had a house fire nor ever felt at risk of poisoning myself.   But that is a *lot* of famliarity and experience, and the bad experiences I had were in somewhat controlled circumstances so I *learned* from them.

I will almost surely never build another home from scratch, but if I *did* I would definitely build in more than one RMH *and* probably floor/wall hypocausts rather than just bench-heat masses.  

I *do* think that the Liberator may well make some headway and that educating/familiarizing more home design-build professionals will *eventually* help.  I live in an epicenter (near Santa Fe, NM) of Adobe building, but most people building with Adobe are filthy rich (it is so labor intensive to do it to code) and put in central heat systems for comfort and kiva-style (highly drafty/inefficient) fireplaces for charm.

I chose to build this RMH because I already heat entirely by solar and wood, and I wanted to reduce the amount of wood I bring in from offsite while eliminating the woody material I haul away.   I'm nearly down to 0 on both fluxes, especially if I *overheat* the sunroom and let it heat the main house... my traditional use was to just keep the sunroom (well) above freezing in the dead of winter and to extend the growing season (early/late) with extra warmth.   It already provides sunny-day net gain, but I have rarely fired the RMH if/when the sunroom is already at/above desired house temperature (70f)...

Long way of saying I think the world of RMHs but think there are *many* social and *some* practical barriers to wide (and rapid) adoption.    I think the work going on here helps immensely, as does commercial efforts such as the Liberator.

I am in principle a potential OTIS, but in practice will almost assuredly NOT be one.   Not because I don't deeply appreciate the SKIP/OTIS and even PEP/BB ideations here, I do.

Even if virtually nobody actually achieves a PEP4 (or 3 or 2), the formalization that has gone into concisely describing what these skills *might* look like when deliberately approached and fashioned after one individual's perspective (Paul Wheaton) is, is significantly valuable (if not the only or even best way or approach all this, still great).

Even if no SKIPper ever finds an OTIS or any OTIS ever actually follows through and bequeaths their "project" to a SKIPper, the elaboration of the idea and the possibilities is worthwhile.

I am a potential OTIS *because* I care about the tiny bit of land I live on, and on it's role in the area it sits.   I am also an OTIS because both of my children (daughters in their 40s) have established their own lives in contexts that do not suggest they would ever want or need to take over *responsibility* for this property unless it was as perhaps an "early retirement" strategy, but they would probably not be prepared to accept the "responsibility" implied, unless (again maybe) they moved onto my property to become my caretaker if I needed such.   I'm not planning for that and currently that would be a major disruption to their life/career arcs.

I am NOT as likely an OTIS because the land I am on was acquired from a Native American Pueblo (San Ildefonso) tribe in the 60s via a series of mostly unintentional, random happenings and developed by non-tribal members into a rural commuter-neighborhood of 4 middle/professional class homes.   This means that finding a way to return the property to the tribe (or individual members of, or a broader affiliation with) is highest on my list.

I am also NOT as likely an OTIS because if I want to continue a relatively comfortable lifestyle (not professional-class where I come from, but not poverty either) into a ripe old age, I may need to recover some of the value of the property (including significant improvements) made.   While my home is not my only asset, it is on the order of 1/2 of it and I may need to realize some of that value to continue my journey to the end.    I suspect I am one of many who *would* like to give a SKIPper some *consideration* in acquiring their property but probably NOT a full inheritance of it.   Discussions of the need to pay *tax* on such an inheritance raises the question of why *must* a SKIPper look to inherit something "free and clear"?  

On that topic, I have a friend who re-developed a piece of an old farm into a near-organic modern truck-farm over about 10 years of hard labor in her 50s.  She was already a well practiced/trained organic farmer who had most recently done the same (for nearly 10 years) on someone else's farm (older retired farm couple) but who did/would not pass/sell it to her.    She knew the deal going in, so wasn't resentful and she took the experience as her "training/dues" so that when she did buy her own plot (with a friend) she was fully ready to take the project on.  She did it on a series of shoestrings and the kindness of others, including selling CSAs to raise capital in the spring most years and working part-time jobs during the off-season.    Some of her CSA patrons were *patrons* in the sense that they bought larger shares than they could use and passed the extra on.   I did the same myself, though she regularly insisted on gifting me partial CSAs and extras (because of other generosities I proffered)

When she was finally ready to "let go" she went through a lengthy series of interviews with young aspiring Organic Farmers to hand her place over to... not as an inheritance, but as an aggressively subsidized sharecrop/rental.    They had the first year while she remained on the property (In a small casita she built near the one-room strawbale farmhouse she had built early on) and provided advice, direction, and some labor.  Most of her labor at that point went into maintaining/developing the property more rather than into the fields that were producing for market.  

The young couple she took on were already experienced (multiple seasons) organic farmers from the upper midwest and they had to learn the local challenges of low humidity and high altitude and unique geopolitical markets.     They are now on their 4th year and my friend has removed herself entirely to New England, visiting only once a year to check on things, give a hand, etc.  

I don't know if this couple will eventually buy her out of the property, but if they do I am sure it will be on good terms of the same nature as their current rental/share-crop.   The *farm* is paying for itself, including paying off the "mortgage" implied by their "rent" and someday literally paying down the mortgage in the form of a owner-finance.   This is her (only) retirement plan and she lives incredibly frugally (in her VW Van in her sister's and other friends driveways) to make it possible.  I am hoping that they (who are very focused/hardworking/motivated) actually outperform their own aspirations and are able to *voluntarily* up their support of her "retirement".    

She set a high standard on every front when she developed the farm and in how she has "shared the bounty" with them and they seem to be stepping up to it.  They are producing/selling a lot more mainly because A) they represent more labor, and they are trying to *build* an income, not just meet living expenses/upgrades as she did....    Win/Win/Win...

I support *both* wherever I can (I donated my antique-but-working Kubota tractor and a similar vintage-but-working chainsaw to he farm, and have upgraded *her* digital gear with my own hand-me-downs, and buy produce from them whenever I can make it to market, even if I end up gifting some of it to friends/neighbors).

To re-iterate, I think the OTIS-SKIP-PEP stuff here is too much one-size-fits-all to fit *anyone* and yet the aspirations and the collateral materials produced (including SKIP/PEP aspirants anecdotes) is invaluable...  

Keep up the good work!
- Steve