[Greenbuilding] please rant: thar she blows : 001301c77aa7$fc4780a0$0301000a

[Ross MacLeod]

I understand the folly of using 'room by room' heating in order to
compensate for poor insulation.   But, I find the idea of intelligent space
heating that maintains a comfortable climate only where required,
intuitively appealing.   It does however, raise a couple of questions for
me:

   1. Is there some clever and simple  way to implement an automatic
   system for managing a 'room by room', or 'follow me' heating system, that
   would also be reasonably convenient?
   2. In a reasonably well insulated home, (upgraded existing housing)
   how much of a difference in energy consumption could this approach have?

Related to this, is there a material other than concrete that could be used
to effectively provide thermal mass for a modern radiant heating system but
not entail as much embodied energy?