[Greenbuilding] H2k and NZE home modelling

[John Straube]

Over-sized wood stoves in ultra low houses are a real issue as Mr Orr pointed out.
Great solution Ross since it also solves the hotwater problem, but not cheap.  I have seen numerous homes/retrofits in my area lately go with the small pellet stoves (like the one from Regency or QuadraFire) or inserts which have good controlled combustion and small output.
Even with their 12 kBtu/hr output when running clean on low, they need to be cycled off/on in not really cold weather and hence need thermal mass (the heat output is equal to the heat gain through a couple of sliding patio doors in full sun).  Placing them in a masonry surround of some description seems to work ok.  
One of the joys of these units is that one can watch the fire burn, and people regularily run their houses at 25 (in the main area) just to enjoy the heat!

John 

On 2011-01-27, at 5:59 AM, Ross Elliott wrote:

> Hi Harold,
>  
> I burn my wood in an indoor Tarm gasification boiler and store the heat in an insulated 850 gallon tank, so I think I’ve found a way to burn clean and still have a very low heat load in my house. My wife and I walk our dogs past our neighbor’s house and noticed they were burning wood badly, very smoky all the time (before this year they had been using just electric heat, but I guess the 30% increase here in Ontario got yo them). Last night the whole fire department was at their house putting out a chimney fire…
>  
> Ross
>  
> From: Harold and Mary Orr [mailto:h.m.orr at sasktel.net] 
> Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 10:20 PM
> To: relliott at homesol.ca
> Cc: Ross Elliott; 'Gordon Howell -- Howell Mayhew Engineering'; 'John Straube'; 'Green Building'; 'Peter Amerongen--Habitat Studio and Workshop'; 'Amelie Caron--EcoSynergy'; 'Rob Dumont'
> Subject: Re: H2k and NZE home modelling
>  
> Ross you have a point but I would like to point out that places that thave gone this way (i.e.: firewood) have had difficulties.  Two examples Boulder CO and Whitehorse YK.  A  forest fire came wihin 20 miles of Whitehorse and killed a large area of forest, the trees were still standing and after a year were bone dry.  So a large percentage of the city put in wood stoves and furnaces, bought chainsaws, and burned wood.  The air got so bad they had to forbid wood burning.  the same thing happened in Boulder CO.  Of course neither of these cities were deeply into conservation, but I'm afraid that that would not have helped.  Low energy homes need only a small amount of heat, with wood stoves it means starving the fire to keep the heat down and so it burns very dirty.  This means serious air polution!!!

Dr John Straube, P.Eng.
Associate Professor
University of Waterloo
Dept of Civil Eng. & School of Architecture
www.buildingscience.com

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