[Greenbuilding] Distibution and radiant heat and Morse stove solution

[RT]

On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:32:37 -0500, Tedd Weyman <weyman_tedd at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> This Australian  marketing gimmick by Morse stoves,
> claims of heating large areas including cathedral ceiling houses with  
> "radiant" heat from a single point (no matter what the fuel) is just  
> that: a gimmick.


Curiously enough, this so-called "gimmick" has been a reality for more
than a few homes (including my own) here in MooseLand.

And I daresay, the climate here is just a tad cooler than anyplace in
Australia (ie ~8750 HDD/yr for my locale).

But to be accurate, none of the aforementioned uses a "Morso".

Typically they're just locally-made EPA rated/approved, non-catalytic  
woodstoves, in my case, the smallest one I could find (firebox interior  
dimensions ~ 11 " x 19" x  11").

And in my case, it and its 25 year-old predecessor (a downdraft unit which  
was replaced by the current unit simply because it didn't have a glass  
door and I wanted one) have been the only auxiliary heat sources ever used  
in my home since it was built. (Yes, I did install the Code-required  
automated heating system (a forced air furnace) but it was only turned on  
once, immediately after it was installed, to test it.)

> If you have a  single point
> radiant source hot enough to warm you 10 feet from the source, you burn  
> up 3 feet from the source.

Based on my observations and experience, I'd have to say "not necessarily".

It would depend upon the details.

I can sit in a chair that is about three feet to the side of the front of
the masonry surround of my wood stove (located on the lowest level of a  
multi-storey house, at about the geometric centre of the plan) and not  
feel over-heated in the slightest.

I do though, have an almost silent fan ( a modified table-top fan that
draws 0.3 amps) mounted on the backside of the masonry surround to move
air past the heated surfaces of the woodstove and masonry surround to
increase the rate of heat exchange and convection takes care of  
distribution to the rest of the house.

I did try using the original "EcoFan"  (rated for up to 100 cfm) and its
bigger cousin "EcoFan AirPlus" (rated for up to 150 cfm)

(see  
http://www.leevalley.com/en/gifts/page.aspx?p=50246&cat=4,104,53209,50246)

for this task but went back to the modified tabletop (multi-speed) fan .
Since the woodstove generally only gets fired up late at night, I have it  
connected to a crank timer to shut off after about 4 hours.


But probably none of this will be news to most on this List.

Once a house is well insulated/air-sealed and its massing, orientation and  
landscaping have been reasonably well considered, the building heat load  
will be so minimal that occupancy gains and solar gains should provide  
most of it (speaking "typical"-sized houses, say 1600 - 2800 sf) in Cold  
Climate Regions, say, > 7500 HDD/yr), and the remaining auxiliary heating  
requirement will be so small that a wee woodstove is quite adequate as the  
auxiliary heat source.
True, one could probably get close to 100% of the building's heat load  
 from occupancy/solar gains by making the house look like one of Nick  
Pine's wet dreams, but curiously enough, most people seem to like having  
windows on their homes and have their houses look like houses rather than  
Grade 6 science experiments gone awry.


Speaking of "gone awry": I'm just beginning to receive messages posted to  
the List back in the
latter part of Dec. 2010 so I've not seen any of the messages in the "One
more pleasure" thread yet which I'm guessing led the above response by
Tedd on Jan 04 2011, which curiously, I received before the December  
messages.
My guess is that that pesky ListMom Sacie's trying to mess with what's  
left of my head.
-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a >
manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply"
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