[Greenbuilding] Wood Heating Experience & Exterior Wood Boiler charging Thermal Tank for Radiant Heat

[RT]

On Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:54:52 -0500, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>  
wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 9:42 AM, Sacie Lambertson <
> sacie.lambertson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> *If you have a drafty house, you need to keep the fire going to maintain
>> somewhat even temperature.  However, with a tight house, a hot
>> intermittent fire heats the house and the house holds the heat.*
>>
>> Would this assertion be true regardless of the size of the house?  Or  
>> the
>> size of the stove?
>>

Once a house is well insulated and an effective air barrier strategy has  
been implemented, in a heating climate, the heat loss as a result of  
required ventilation air changes will be ~ equal to or exceed the heat  
loss due to conduction and radiation. (I'll assume the detailing will have  
been done properly so convection losses would be insignificant.

Clearly then, simply heating the interior air volume isn't a very  
effective means of keeping the house warm.

I'd suggest to Eli to focus on envelope improvements first and rather than  
invest resources in paraphernalia like outdoor boilers etc, invest in  
incorporating more interior thermal mass (preferably charged by passive  
means) and if the climate justifies, heat recovery on the exhaust air  
stream.

It was around minus 20 here last night and probably minus 10 to minus 15  
today. The last time the tiny woodstove (the only auxiliary heat source in  
this house of >2700 sf with high/double-height ceilings) was lit was late  
last night and I don't expect that it will be lit again until late  
tonight. I can't imagine having a outdoor wood boiler here as the  
auxiliary heatsource. It'd be like keeping a Panzer tank out in the yard  
"just in case", and that "case" would never, ever happen.

-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

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