I know this is a firewood forum for discussing wood burning, but I dont belong to any forums where I can ask this type of question so I am hopeing someone here can comment on some questions I have about solar heating and cooling.
I am in the planning stage of building a new house. One of the things I want to do is eliminate as much electricity use as possible. I have some ideals on how to heat and cool the house using solar and I am going to throw this out there for discussion.
For cooling, I have access to a very good creek with lots of running water. Water temps are in the 55f to 60f range year round. My thoughts to take advantage of this cold water is to use a low voltage water pump and solar panel to circulate water from the creek to the house. There is about a 75ft elevation change from the creek up to the house site, but since the water would be in a closed loop system, it shouldnt take a lot of power to move the water. I will be installing a concrete tank at the creek to catch the cold water and something I can install a copper tube heat exchanger into. At each end of the heat exchanger I will be attaching pex tubing for the cooling system. The pump will pump water up to the house and thru another heat exchanger, either copper or aluminum, that is enclosed in a box. The box willl have a squirrel cage duct fan to blow air across the heat exchanger and into the house. I helped do this once with a loop of pipe in the ground, but the guy had problems with the soil becoming saturated by heat and the system stopped working. He had about 300ft of pipe just buried in the ground and the water in the pipe neutralized in temp differences. With a good continuing source of cold water, I dont think the water temp stored in the pipe will neutralize in my system.
My first concern would be heat loss of the pex tubing that is burried about 200ft to the house. Since soil temps below topsoil layer is typically also in the 55f to 60f range it shouldnt be a big problems, but the water temp going from the house will be slightly higher than the temp of the water going to the house. I have seen buried systems before that suffered from soil heat saturation because they where heating up the soil faster than it can cool. I dont think I will have that problems because I will have a constant flow of cold water running in the same ditch.
My second concern is the duct mounted heat exchanger condensing water and a possible mold problem in my duct work. I havent figured out how to combat that issue yet so any ideals or advice is welcome.
For heating, I have a unconventional ideal that may or may not work. I am not limited by lot space and am planning on having a solar hot water heater. I currently use my wood stove to heat my water, but that only works in the wintertime when I actually use my stove. I figure on having a solar water heater connected to my conventional electric water heater. I am thinking if I build a big enough collector, I could circulate some of that solar heated water thru my duct mounted heat exchanger and us the duct fan to put hot air thru the house. I am sure with a big enough solar collector and big hot water storage tank one could probably heat the entire house most of the winter, but my plans would be more modest and using the solar heater just to supplement my wood heat. See I aint trying to completely get away from wood heat
I am in the planning stage of building a new house. One of the things I want to do is eliminate as much electricity use as possible. I have some ideals on how to heat and cool the house using solar and I am going to throw this out there for discussion.
For cooling, I have access to a very good creek with lots of running water. Water temps are in the 55f to 60f range year round. My thoughts to take advantage of this cold water is to use a low voltage water pump and solar panel to circulate water from the creek to the house. There is about a 75ft elevation change from the creek up to the house site, but since the water would be in a closed loop system, it shouldnt take a lot of power to move the water. I will be installing a concrete tank at the creek to catch the cold water and something I can install a copper tube heat exchanger into. At each end of the heat exchanger I will be attaching pex tubing for the cooling system. The pump will pump water up to the house and thru another heat exchanger, either copper or aluminum, that is enclosed in a box. The box willl have a squirrel cage duct fan to blow air across the heat exchanger and into the house. I helped do this once with a loop of pipe in the ground, but the guy had problems with the soil becoming saturated by heat and the system stopped working. He had about 300ft of pipe just buried in the ground and the water in the pipe neutralized in temp differences. With a good continuing source of cold water, I dont think the water temp stored in the pipe will neutralize in my system.
My first concern would be heat loss of the pex tubing that is burried about 200ft to the house. Since soil temps below topsoil layer is typically also in the 55f to 60f range it shouldnt be a big problems, but the water temp going from the house will be slightly higher than the temp of the water going to the house. I have seen buried systems before that suffered from soil heat saturation because they where heating up the soil faster than it can cool. I dont think I will have that problems because I will have a constant flow of cold water running in the same ditch.
My second concern is the duct mounted heat exchanger condensing water and a possible mold problem in my duct work. I havent figured out how to combat that issue yet so any ideals or advice is welcome.
For heating, I have a unconventional ideal that may or may not work. I am not limited by lot space and am planning on having a solar hot water heater. I currently use my wood stove to heat my water, but that only works in the wintertime when I actually use my stove. I figure on having a solar water heater connected to my conventional electric water heater. I am thinking if I build a big enough collector, I could circulate some of that solar heated water thru my duct mounted heat exchanger and us the duct fan to put hot air thru the house. I am sure with a big enough solar collector and big hot water storage tank one could probably heat the entire house most of the winter, but my plans would be more modest and using the solar heater just to supplement my wood heat. See I aint trying to completely get away from wood heat