[Greenbuilding] Q: Average thermal mass for furnishings?

[JOHN SALMEN]

Here is a link to a furnishings weight calculator
http://www.movers.com/moving-guides/tools/moving-estimate-weight-cost-calcul
ator.aspx

gives weight and volumes - pretty clever tool somebody spent a lot of time
on and looks pretty accurate and comprehensive

JOHN SALMEN ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
4465 UPHILL RD,. DUNCAN, B.C.  CANADA, V9L 6M7
PH 250 748 7672 FAX 250 748 7612 CELL 250 246 8541
terrain at shaw.ca


-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Keith
Winston
Sent: October 26, 2010 12:37 PM
To: greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Q: Average thermal mass for furnishings?

On 10/26/2010 1:13 PM, RT wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:22:43 -0400, Corwyn <corwyn at midcoast.com> wrote:
>
>> I am looking for an average value for thermal mass(of furniture,
>> possessions, appliances, etc)inside a home,
>
> I suspect that one could call up a moving company and ask them what the
> weight of the contents of a trailer or box is.
>
> They may even have some "average" numbers for the possessions of
> various family sizes.
>
> One would of course have to subtract the weight of the cardboard boxes,
> newspaper wrap etc.
> but I suspect that moving companies would also have a pretty good idea
> of how many boxes would be required for the various family sizes.

I know that UHaul has different size trucks they recommend for 
different moves: single-person apartment, 4-5 person household, etc. 
That would be more a volume thing, and you'd have to correct for 
packing inefficiency, I'd expect 50% or so. There's probably a better 
estimate out there.

It might not actually take too long to simply run through a house and 
estimate, perhaps lumping things into different categories for the heat 
capacity of their materials, though I suspect an estimate of weight 
would suffice.

It's sorta like counting the jellybeans in the jar: I'm gonna say that 
my household (5 adults, 1 child) has (including cabinets etc and all 
furniture) has around 10k lbs of stuff: furniture, clothes, etc.

I'm 99.999% certain that that's just a wild guess, but that it's no 
more than 3 orders of magnitude off in either direction ;-)

I would imagine these numbers would vary A LOT from family to family 
and especially country to country... what are the estimates of building 
materials, and what proportion are inside vs. outside the building 
envelope? I would expect that to vary wildly depending on building 
type/construction, at least.

Keith

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