[Strawbale] [SB-r-us] re: Passive Heating

[activism98201 at verizon.net]

It is my understanding that double-pane windows ARE OK, and that you should specifically request ones that have less iron(?) in them: tell the window folks that you're wanting them for solar gain.  The solar-gain loss in double-pane is minimal compared to the insulative properties of the extra pane (read "savings of heat loss that vs. single-pane).

And yes, low-E isn't something that you want on solar gain windows.

Standard design should look to minimize total glass area on pole-facing sides of buildings as well as for east and west-facing windows.

NOTE: I'm still not sold on the 2L bottle solution, as one then has to pull down the heat (takes energy, non-passive energy).  Concrete can still be preferable when all factors are considered: much has been stated about up-front costs, but I believe that this group is mainly looking at total costs, which operational costs are a big component of.  Personally I'm a fan of the KISS principle: concrete is simple and presents no threat of system failure (unless some really bad things happen, like the earth opens up and swallows your house) (of course there's the environmental impacts, but one has to measure the total energy costs, operational as well as construction).


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA


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From: Shody Ryon <qi4u at yahoo.com>

Do not use low E windows for solar heat collection,
and use insulated shades at night when heating the
house, correct?
Single-glazed non insulated glass would be best for
collecting heat, correct?
I think the littlehouses yahoo group has a cutting
edge heating a cooling system, such as solar assisted
heat pump system for around $300 for the ac unit (not
for sale there, but suggested for it's low cost and
high efficincy). There are other extensive design
considerations. The system is called a "thermal attic"
and it has about 8 different ways to heat and cool a
house (heating while collecting heat, heat while
cooling thermal storage, etc), the heat pump is used
as a back up system and may not be needed in Israel or
even Canada, if other designs are incorporated.