[Strawbale] Hot water storage concept - insulation

[Shody Ryon]

--- Joaquin Brintrup <jbrintrup at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> > 
> > On Mar 16, 2008, at 18:25, Tom Oswald wrote:
> > 
> > > Hi,
> > > We are working out ways to store heat in
> > water-mass for home hot water 
> > > and limited/back-up space heating.  We plan to
> > heat the mass by 
> > > passive solar, fire-box, and possibly surplus
> PV. 
<snip>
Hi, this is a great subject. Don't forget this list
needs to be CCed or strawbale at listserv.repp.org
included in the out going out email address, it is not
automatic like many other lists.

I think Laren has thought some of this through and he
recommended a bladder cistern in the crawl space,
because he, if I understand him, thinks the vented
crawl spaces functionality is over rated. This may not
apply if you have a slab on grade. I expect that you
have a basement, if you are this aware of thermal
storage for warming.
I asked the local building department if I could build
an un-vented crawl space and they said if I used
pressure treated wood it would be ok.
I have been wondering how to thermally decouple the
cistern from the earth too. He often recommends
cellulose when it has an advantage, which it often
does.
He has started a website but I doubt he has a lot of
info on it yet:
http://thermalattic.com/
You do not need to install everything all at once, and
may never need the heat pump, but he has found a small
efficient low cost one that is about 5 times as
efficient as an electric resistance heater and costs
around $300 more or less, as I recall. A heat pump can
extract warmth from the thermal storage on during
cloudy days, but a wood stove could work obviously and
it would recharge the thermal storage. Using air for
thermal transfer is not the most thermally efficient
media, but in other ways in terms of maintenance and
consequences for neglect I think it would be low
maintenance. The 2L plastic bottles are in the dark
and last a long time, perhaps 10 years or more.


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