[Greenbuilding] Bamboo Floor, Radiant Heat and Thermal Mass

Lynelle Hamilton lynelle at lahamilton.com
Sun Feb 27 18:10:03 CST 2011


I think I follow all of this.  The exterior shell of the house, as well 
as one interior wall (holding a masonry heater) are durisol block with 
5" concrete.  The rest of the interior walls are stud/drywall. The room 
is 850 sq. feet (kitchen, dining and living) the glass exposure 98 sq 
feet.   It looks dicey that the mass would be sufficient if I used the 
bamboo.

Thanks, Frank!

Lynelle

On 27/02/2011 1:42 PM, Frank Tettemer wrote:
> A question....
> How much mass would I lose by floating bamboo flooring over a slab 
> floor in a passive solar home? South glass exposure is significant 
> (25%) of south wall, but 3' overhangs allow direct sun in December and 
> January only.
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Lynelle
> ...................................................................................................................
>
> Hi Lynelle,
>
> The ratio of glass-to-mass-to-surface area is a do-able, ( and 
> necessary), pre-calculation, I would think.
> And Dan Chiras has enlightened us with his ratios!  They work well, in 
> my building owners' experience.
>
> That the Sunlit floor-to-glass-area's ratio is worth *1-to-5.5*.
> Where-as the Unlit floor-to-glass area is *1-to-40*.
>
> So that means, in my pea brain, that getting sunlight directly on the 
> floor mass is worth doing, (if pre-calculations say it's needed),
>  ... and that a Bamboo-Matt-Covered floor glass-to-mass ratio would be 
> calculated at somewhere in between those two above ratios.
> Say *1-to-25*, or even *1-to-30*?
>
> However, if it's a thickly plastered straw bale house, there is a huge 
> wall surface area to add to the total South facing square footage,
> at the rate of *1-to-8.3*.
>
> You could add up your areas, do the math, and see how much mass area 
> you would require with the different calculated ratios. Then you could 
> see if you can easily afford to lose the best sunlit ratio a bit, and 
> make up with it with adequate quantities of the second best ratio, 
> window area-to-wall area.
>
> (That's how I'd attempt to solve it, back at the drawing boards.)
>
> Frank
> -- 
> Frank Tettemer
> Living Sol ~ Building and Design
> www.livingsol.com
> 613 756 3884
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Effective immediately, please use the following e-mail address to reach 
me: lynelle at lahamilton.com




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