[Strawbale] Chinese-made evacuated tube collectors and boilers vs. hot water heaters

[Shody Ryon]

What is the demonstration site demonstrating? I'll
assume eco building, solar power, etc. If this is
correct, what is the philosophy of the building beyond
that? Example, water heating; preheating water with
solar energy and topping it off (raising the
temperature) with natural gas? Or doing all the
heating with solar power which would require thermal
storage. Are you going to be very thorough with the
insulation? This way the system can match what you
want to it to do. My philosophy is not to heat the air
or anything but the floor. I would not like radiators,
unless I (and everyone else in the house) was going to
be out of the house for several hours, more than 8 or
10 hours in a 24 hour period. I am guessing about the
exact hours, but it probably depends on if you are
going to have a high thermal mass in the living area
(concrete floors, and more?) or not.
I think it would be rather easy to heat a space using
natral gas or petroleum, but I would question the
message you are putting out as a demonsration
facility, when what are needed are demonstration
facilities that show how to use what is given free
instead of perpetuating petroleum dependancy.
I like getting on my high horse. So I will get off
now, and encourage you to keep learning about the
subject, and if you can take high horse answers, keep
asking questions here. If it is too painful, I will
answer the next question from behind a harnessed goat
with a magnafine glass. 

Shody
--- peggy dinah <peggydinah at yahoo.com> wrote:


> in british columbia (kootenays). i am exploring
> heating systems for my new farm/natural building
> demonstration site. ok:
> 
> david wrote:
> 
> Furthermore, there are some that are surprisingly
> affordable--such as
> the Chinese-made evacuated tube collectors that have
> been as low as
> $800 or so for a reasonably-sized unit. It is not
> difficult to create
> a setup that has an incomparable lifecycle cost
> where
> there is
> sufficient sunlight year-round.
> 
> can you elaborate on this? what brand? could it be
> tied into a boiler for cloudy day back up? 
> 
> also, the list has been talking about using hot
> water
> heaters to heat floors and radiators. my friend
> wolfgang is a plumber and heating contractor who
> specialized in radiators during his apprenticeship
> in
> germany. he says that using a hot water heater for
> in
> floor heating or radiators is very inefficient. he
> says that i should use a boiler. can anyone speak to
> that?
> 
> thank you, peggy
> peggydinah at yahoo.com
> 

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