Share ideas of saving energy

Trash wood is best. That would include demolition debris and small branches that would otherwise go into a chipper. The fast burn should last about 1/2 to 1 hour depending on weather. When the blue flame has disappeared, the air intake and flue are closed completly.

My fireboxes are 8 feet long. Both stoves have vertical up and down serpentine flues that are more than 60ft long. My stoves are 25 and 30 years old. One in the house and one in the barn.

Google on "Russian Fireplaces" and you will find many articles with pictures. "Albie Barden" is another good search phrase.

Trash wood is best. That would include demolition debris and small branches that would otherwise go into a chipper. The fast burn should last about 1/2 to 1 hour depending on weather. When the blue flame has disappeared, the air intake and flue are closed.

My fireboxes are 8 feet long. Both stoves have vertical up and down serpentine flues that are more than 60ft long. My stoves are 25 and 30 years old.

Google on Russian Fireplaces and you will find many articles with pictures. Albie Barden is another good search phrase.

Heat and cooling issues are addressed with caulk, insulation, and plastic window coverings where possible. The window covering I use is primarily over a set of french doors (9 foot wide). These are 18 year old steel and have started to rust. As a result they are a little drafty so I get one of these 3M patio storm covers. It's clear plastic and good quality double-stick tape. For a $12.00 investment it's significantly warmer in our living room. Next year I will be replacing that unit with something a little more energy efficient. I also use a programmable thermostat, shut off rooms not in use, and have lights on timers where I can.

We have taken to using our fireplace more often. It has an exterior air intake so it won't draw the heat out of the house. We live on a heavily wooded area and I always have some hardwood from something that I cut or a deadfall. Wife didn't want to deal with the ashes and the mess of logs but she now likes the natural wood fires and I like the fact that they are free. I get some good excercise splitting them by hand.

One of the easiest ways to gain some free heat is by installing a solar mass. Dark colored tile over a concrete hearth, wall, or any other large mass of concrete, stone, etc. that is placed in direct sunlight during daylight hours will release heat back into the room after dark. There are countless ways to make such a system more efficient, elaborate, effective, expensive, etc. In its simplest form, however, a mass of material collecting the sun's heat through a south or west facing window is all it takes. Back when Jimmy Carter was President, you could even get a tax credit for doing that.

Not an energy saving idea, as such, but a fact worth knowing is that the incandescent light bulb is considered the most energy inefficient appliance in common usage. The shortcomings of compact florescent bulbs have been addressed on this forum. In addition to not being sufficiently durable relative to the price you pay for them, they use an amount of energy on startup that makes them less than ideal where they will be turned on and off frequently. I use compact florescent bulbs only where I expect them to be on for extended periods---my porch lights, and driveway light.

All the best, Stan

I hadn't actually considered the heat gain of the whole mass of a house from the winter sun, although that's as legitimate a description of solar gain as what I meant to describe. What I had in mind was heat gain from sunlight through a window into a mass. The gain is however much heat the mass absorbs and later releases as the house cools. The heat retaining capability of the house itself is actually an unrelated issue---a house that immediately loses whatever heat is put into it can still receive different amounts of heat.

Thanks for the specific information about CFL's. I will definitely rethink how I use them.

All the best, Stan

But one has to remember we have all kinds of people reading our threads, some very young and inexperieced, so when someone sees a potenical problem, then it needs discussed.

Were not picking on you, in fact I welcome all comments on my thoughts. It's hard to think of everything and we can not change the thread that contains errors once it's posted.

I personaly would like more critiquing of my thoughts. That old saying, use it or loose it, apply's very well as we age.

BTW, Great topic!

T_Bone

Slanted glass puddles water against the lower frame when it rains. Rots wooden frames.

Back abouto 1974 I built a sloping solar panel 8' x 24'. I'd have made more energy savings insulating the house properly, and the slope captured water and rotted the wood.

At 42 degrees north, a vertical solar panel gathers a high perceentage of the solar heat/light and if there's a reflector on the ground in front of it, the combination gathers more than the sloping panel without the structural problems and water problems of the sloping panel or window.

Gerald J.

My first thought is the glass strong enough to handle snow load or rain load weight?

You can also add a wooden insulated slider on the inside that would allow you to shut off the heat loss at night time.

Another idea would be to look at solar HW heat as a total heating system. I assume you have seen my links to my thoughts, pic included, of a simple solar system.

T_Bone

• Solar HW

My energy saving tip is INSULATION INSULATION INSULATION. As I added on over the years I used more and more insulation, ending up with double studded walls and about R 38 in ceilings. Each addition either reduced wood consumption or it stayed the same. I heat about 1500 sq. ft. on about 2 1/4 cords of mostly hardwood a year. If I was starting over, (if only) the whole place would be double studded total R 38 walls, and about R 40 ceilings, all with a good vapor barrier, and a heat exchanger on a fresh air vent that I would use as needed. Insulation is the best investment a person can make and the younger you are the more it will pay you in thelong run. It is also the most difficult to upgrade without ripping out the walls and making them thicker.

I clicked on your link and read your article about the solar water heater. There are several things I don't understand about the system.

1. Is this a closed system? If so, is an auto air vent the same thing as a pressure relief valve? I suspect it's not, but what is it?

2. You state, "With a 4ftX8ft panel using two 40" truck radiators, with 60 degrees ambient, full sun, would heat 80 gal of water from 65 degrees to 180 degrees in two hours." and later, "About 10 gal of HW is all you need on a solar system for HW use." This makes it sound as if the water in the solar water heater is separate from the domestic hot water, but is used to heat it. Is this correct? If so, how?

I can imagine plumbing a solar water heating system in line with a conventional domestic water heater, to act as a pre-heater. A mixing valve could be installed downstream of the water heater to deal with the 180 degree water, etc. It doesn't sound to me as if this is what you are describing, though.

Could you explain this in a bit more detail, or direct me to where you have already done so?

Thanks, Stan

Geez I just love thease types of threads as so many ideas get passed around.

1) Yes this is a closed loop system. When you heat water, gases are created and if not vented the gas will trap it's self thus stopping system flow.

A automatic vent and a pressure relief valve are two different animals.

A automatic vent is for venting those gases we were talking about. There located at the high point in the piping as this is where the gas will seperate from the water and collect. As the gas collects in the upper valve chamber, a float like valve opens and vents the gas to the atmoshere, and at the same time water is pushing up on the "float" replacing expelled air thus closes the vent automaticaly, hence the automatic air vent name. About $25 or so at a true plumbing supply house, not HD or Lowes.

A pressure relief valve is the systems safety in case the systems builds excessive temperature OR pressure. Here a small thermostatic bulb opens the vent valve at a pre-designed set point and then will close when the temperature drops.

After the safety valve vents a few times, the valve usually needs replaced as it will get small particles of calcium under the valve seat causing it to weep. They can NOT be cleaned!

Reading my Refrigeration Theroy thread, I talked about how temperature and pressure work side by side. As the temperature increases so does the pressure of most fluids.

At the same time as temperature is rising at or above the fluids boiling point, then we get gas seperating from the fluid and there in lies a extremely dangerous condition if the system was not designed for saturated vapor, ie; as in steam when the working fluid is water.

Saturated vapor is very small liquid droplets mixed with the off gas of the fluid used.

As the saturated vapor is boiled off then more "pure" gas is created. I can't remeber the correct name at this point, but there's a engineering term for this condition. At this point is where something will go boom if there's not saftey's designed into the system.

2) I was referring too how to supply cheap HW for a greenhouse or shop for domestic washing and 10gal of HW would be more than enough HW for this use.

When I first typed the solar HW system, I was in the greenhouse mode as the people were trying to use some very expensive ways to heat there small greenhouses. They were also trying to cut installation corners to save cost but at the expense of safety, thus my folder on solar HW.

Reading thru my past system thoughts, I see where a few corrections were needed, so I'm in the process of changing that now. I should have the pics back up shortly.

T_Bone

One thing I'll add to my HW solar collector is DO NOT also focus sunlite on the HW collector OR high pressure steam will be made inside the collector and WILL EXPLODE causing death and/or injuries.

The collector as shown will produce approx 180� water at the storage tank with the collector NOT tracking the sun.

I have not taken measurements of hot water temperature on the solar collector when the sun is being tracked.

I do know from reading about other solar collector systems that using mirrors to consentrate the sun on the collector, high pressure steam will be produced on the collector and a very DANGEROUS pressure will be produced.

HIGH PRESSURE STEAM could be produced with-in a few seconds!

T_Bone