Here is a link for the exact roofing material I used. I chose an aluminum colored roof for the (hopefully) enhanced reflective abilities (and the "paint" would never peel. :) After placing my order (to be trucked in from another state) a local metal roofing supplier started producing an almost identical product. It was a bit more expensive per sqft, but it would have not wasted energy/money being trucked in and would have been more in keeping with my sustainable goals. This uses no "clips" to install it, thus it is simple enough for almost any construction crew- sort of like putting on vinyl siding. Don't forget your Southern overhang, to block summer sun while allowing winter sun. http://www.unaclad.com/products/sysview.asp?ID=31
In my search tonight I ran across this link it seems to be full of supplier possibilities. http://www.zebroski.com/16-LINKS-CONSTRUCTION.htm#Section%207 While I am pleased thus far with the performance of my radiant floors, I am not sure I would get it again, especially in concrete. I would prefer to have more access to the pipe . While building my house I met a man looking for someone to repair his system- 2/3's was non functional (leaky). His also was encased in concrete with a marble tile covering. No one (plumber-HVAC) wanted to mess with it. I felt bad for him, he seemed like a nice little old man, but my plumber wouldn't go either. He only helped with mine because he was my friend. Also I am wondering about the efficiency of the system due to the way a concrete floor gets "poured" in reality. Supposedly the concrete wire (which the pipe is attached to) gets pulled up to the middle of the floor as the concrete is being poured. As I watched however, I would say that speed certainly takes a priority, and would be surprised if in many places the wire is not sitting at the bottom of the pad. Also makes me wonder what happened to my under the floor foam insulation as it has been heated by this wire/pex every winter. I had imagined walking on this heated floor would be like a big sun warmed rock. Uh, not so. The heat only goes out in strips- maybe 8" wide. Beside this warm strip, the floor is "stone" cold. :) Sort of odd to walk on w/o shoes , you find your kids walking on the little 8"paths. The room temperature is fine though. In addition to the solar option, an outdoor wood stove can also be used as an option in suppling the heat for the pipes. A feature I added was to put floor drains in almost every room. My plumber complained, and talked me out of a few (I should have held my ground) but I love them. It is so much easier than mopping up dirty water- and the water goes directly to the drain tile, not the septic system. (A weird code thing that happened to work out best for me.) Plus kids love to have a water gun fight inside to clean the floors ;) Here is a link on a Net Zero housing experiment http://web.mit.edu/energylab/www/se/proceedings/Kadam2001.pdf Here is a link to Building Science's site. http://www.buildingscience.com/topten/default.htm I went to one of his lectures and ordered his mixed climate book- some call him "the authority" on moisture proofing buildings. I got my money's worth, if nothing else the book will wow your building inspectors, as you try to get some non mainstream stuff approved. Along those lines, see if you can get you local inspector to go with you to a straw bale demo. Mine was willing , though I decided against using it. I HATE drywall. (Joe from Building Science adores it's draft sealing qualities, however) It takes way too much labor, has too many steps- drywall, taping, sanding, painting. It was the worst part of the project and potentially the most expensive. ($23 a sheet- just labor, 2 years ago!) But I found almost no reasonable, fire rated approved substitutes. The best we came up with was using metal roofing material for ceilings. We like a techy look so we used plain galvanized. We limited it to the common areas, but have been really pleased. For most interior walls we used unfinished luon- difficult to match colors of wood, and holes are unrepairable, but I still like it better than painted drywall. Later we wished we had used white tile board- (dry erase board) in the children's rooms. This makes a great wall you can write and erase- tape won't hurt it either. Here is my last link, I thought his ideas inspiring. I read about this place in Mother Earth News at the dentist http://www.cmpbs.org/ Caroline Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
