From news.spc.edu!news.new-york.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!gw-energy.demon.co.uk!energy Sat Jan 3 17:46:05 1998 Xref: news.spc.edu alt.energy.homepower:4206 alt.energy.renewable:33123 alt.home.repair:100737 alt.solar.thermal:2510 misc.consumers.frugal-living:96842 sci.engr.heat-vent-ac:16026 sci.environment:164677 Path: news.spc.edu!news.new-york.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!gw-energy.demon.co.uk!energy From: Graham Winter Newsgroups: sci.engr.heat-vent-ac,alt.energy.renewable,alt.solar.thermal,alt.energy.homepower,alt.home.repair,misc.consumers.frugal-living,sci.environment Subject: Re: poorly insulated home Date: Sat, 3 Jan 1998 10:42:38 +0000 Sender: Graham Winter Distribution: world Message-ID: References: <2gwwgla2iu.fsf@pulsar.cs.wku.edu> <68gfhb$1jh@ufo.ee.vill.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: gw-energy.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: gw-energy.demon.co.uk [194.222.210.111] MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: Turnpike Trial Version 3.03a Lines: 60 > >Why don't you set up a cardboard box on the street with a few signs around >it, and live there for a while? Invite the newspapers. It might help >interest your landlord in some apartment improvements. Meanwhilst, you >could make some solar improvments to the box. KY isn't bad for solar house >heating, about like Philadelphia, with (in Louisville, the closest NREL >weather station) an average Jan temp of 31.7 F, average daily low and high >of 23.2 and 40.3, and 910 Btu/ft^2/day of sun that falls on a south wall. > >If your box were an 8' R1 cardboard cube with 1 poly film wall, >collecting 64ft^2x0.9x910 = 52K Btu of sun over a 6 hour winter day, >and losing 6h(T-31.7)6x64ft^2/R1 = (T-31.7)x2,304, the average indoor >daytime temperature might be T = 31.7 + 52K/2,304 = 54.3 F. Not bad... >You could live in the box on sunny days, with passersby concerned for >the pitiful soul behind the large poly window, and retire to your >(cooler?) house at night. Wear older clothes during the day. > >If the landlord doesn't come around soon, you might want to cover the box >with polyethylene film to keep out the rain and Tyvek tape to seal it >against air leaks, and stack some used tires (my garage pays me $1.25 each >to take them away :-) around the non-south sides of the box, and on the >roof, and fill them with bagged and loose leaves (locals pay a special fee >of 75 cents per bag for the trash haulers to remove them, since it's now >illegal put them in PA landfills), to raise the average US R-value to about >10 (?), and stack some rocks or cement blocks or 2 liter soda bottles or >milk jugs inside the walls to keep the box warmer, so it loses about >24(T-31.7)(64ft^2/R1+5x64ft^2/R10) = (T-31.7)2,304 Btu over an average >24 hour day, and the 24 hour average indoor temperature is 54.3 F. > >If the landlord still hasn't come around (you are putting your rent in >escrow, right?), you might add another layer of bags of leaves behind >the poly film window to make a low-thermal-mass sunspace, so the box loses >6h(T-31.7)64ft^2 during the day and about 24h(T-31.7)6x64ft^2/R10 over >24 hours, a total of (T-31.7)x1,306 Btu, and the average indoor temperature >is 31.7 + 52K/1,306 = 71.8 F. A 4'x4'x8' bed made by tying together 288 >2 liter soda bottles in 4 1' wide x 4' tall x 8' long vertical stacks of >72 bottles each, in a horizontal hexagonal configuration, would make >C = 288x4.2 = 1,210 Btu/F, and R = R10/(6x64ft^2) = 0.026 "Ohms," with >the sunspace vents closed, so RC = 1,210x0.26 = 31.5 hours, so if the box >were say, 80 F at dusk, by dawn it might be 31.7+(80-31.7)exp(-18/31.5) >= 59 F. Covering all of the inside walls with a 1' layer of 576 bottles >would make C = 2,420 F and lower the day-night temperature swing to 10 F. > >Adding another layer of leaves INside the south wall bottles (a solar >closet) would help to keep them warmer on an average day, and further >lower the day-night temperature swing. You might put a 55 gallon drum >in this space, filled with rainwater from the roof, with a garden hose >for hot water for bathing, were bathing not counterproductive from a >public relations point of view. > >A shallow frozen reflecting pool would be nice as well: get a bag of >concrete sand mix and make a 2" berm on the street to make a 16'x16' >frozen puddle. This may help attract the attention of the authorities. > Nick, I am concerned. Please switch your computer off and go on holiday for a week or two. You need a break. -- Graham Winter