[Greenbuilding] [BULK] HVAC

[Lawrence Lile]

> But looking over several months worth of threads I don't see 
any serious discussion of how people are going to heat their homes (and 
cool them in some cases) when natural gas prices begin to skyrocket. I
realize this is a 'greenbuilding' list so presumably everybody is 
trying to implement passive solar as much as possible, and that's 
great.  I'm all for passive solar.  I wish I could retrofit my house 
with it.

That is a darn good question, I would say it is the elephant in the
room.  For every solar house, there are 100 under-insulated conventional
houses that probably heat with natural gas or propane.  

Most of these conventional systems could be powered by heat pumps and
electric resistance backup, or geothermal heat pumps.  If natural gas
gets expensive enough, conversions will become more common.  If they are
on propane, the tipping point has already been reached - in my area it
is cheaper to heat with an air source heat pump than with propane. There
is actually a payback to a conversion.    

Of course adding heat pumps will add load to an already-stressed
electric grid.  However, generally they will be replacing SEER 10 air
conditioners with minimum SEER 13.  Also, the extra energy used in the
winter is generally not on-peak, so the utility grid is probably going
to take it.  But the energy, largely, will be coming from coal,
exacerbating CO2.  That is the problem that our society is not solving.
Sure, wind power is gaining, solar electric is getting cheaper, but
until people start insulating those megamansions, I don't see things
going in the right direction for a long time.   


Lawrence Lile, PE, LEED AP
Project Solutions Engineering

P.S. - The Greenbuilding list is a "Low Flame" zone, we have a pretty
low tolerance for those kinds of wars, so go ahead an ask any question
no matter how dumb it might sound, we don't barbeque people very often.


-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Curt
Sommer
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 12:56 AM
To: greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
Subject: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] HVAC
Importance: Low


I'm new to this discussion group so please try to refrain from excessive

flaming.  But looking over several months worth of threads I don't see 
any serious discussion of how people are going to heat their homes (and 
cool them in some cases) when natural gas prices begin to skyrocket. 

I realize this is a 'greenbuilding' list so presumably everybody is 
trying to implement passive solar as much as possible, and that's 
great.  I'm all for passive solar.  I wish I could retrofit my house 
with it. 

But my question is, what about the other ~9 million homes that are 
already built?  Is there a discussion of this topic somewhere on the 
REPP site that I have overlooked?  I couldn't find it if there is.

I would appreciate if someone could direct me.


Sincerely,


Curt Sommer
www.curtsommer.org

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