[Greenbuilding] Greenbuilding Digest, Vol 11, Issue 12

[sat jiwan ikle-khalsa]

so shouldn't the new inverter technology from mini-splits be combined with the ground source heat pump efficiency and a great insulation/air barrier?  to require powering by a 1kw or less solar system?

at some point investing in all three pieces will be overkill unless the systems get heavy use.  note that each improvement diminishes the payback on investment of the others.  (i.e. in and old house increase efficiency of furnace and amount of insulation and the super efficient furnace runs less due to the insulation and takes longer to payback since it's being used less.)

maybe if energy prices reflected their true costs (local and global environment impacts and military actions)  it would make sense to focus on all three. so maybe do them all if you can (i.e. client has the money). and otherwise choose the 1 or 2 investments that work best for your particular project.

-satjiwan

~ ~ ~ ~ please use my permanent email address: satjiwan at alumni.brandeis.edu ~ ~ ~ ~



Some of my recent projects:  
SEE: http://www.Truthful-Living.com


> 
> an equally important consideration (besides the relative efficiency of one
> mechanical system vs another) is whether it makes more sense to drill baby
> drill and pay baby pay for geothermal, or to put a comparable effort into
> air sealing and insulating, etc, and installing a smaller conventional
> mechanical system accordingly.
> 
> this is not to say that there are situations where a deep energy retrofit is
> too intrusive, and a gizmological (to borrow from thoughtful Ontarian
> friend) solution is the better deal.  But in principle, my working
> assumption is that conservation is the first task.
> 
> AA
> 
> 
> *Alan Abrams**
> Abrams Design Build LLC*
> *A sustainable approach to beautiful space*
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 10:08 PM, Matt Dirksen <dirksengreen at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
> > I heard from a mechanical engineer friend that the inverter tech in
> > mini-split systems is making it's way into central systems now. Carrier
> > should have it's new stuff out this fall. Lennox may even already have it
> > out, for all I know. He says that it's efficiency should rival the current
> > ground source heat pump systems, but without the need of well digging.
> >
> *********************************************
 		 	   		  
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