Thanks Gary I found that very interesting and informative :)
Regards Roger On Wed Aug 4 11:16 , gary dorn <garyd...@ausconnect.net> sent: > >>We are building new house and will hopefully be having Solar power >>and water. Any advice would be gratefully received, OT of course :-) > > >Mac and WAMUG > >If I may, I make a longish reply covering a number of aspects. > >1. Power system >You are not saying whether you are Stand alone, Grid switched, Grid >connected or Hybrid. Each has its merits and advantages and costs. >You may want to look at unisuns web site for a description and also >stand alone system costs. > >http://www.unisun.com.au/ > >To keep the system to a reasonable size or have a reasonable payback >period, its generally advisable to reduce energy consumption, >particularly look at the items that require either high energy >loading or are on constantly >such as: > lighting - use low level general light and make up difference with >task lighting - stay away from halogens and use PL tube compact >fluros or now LEDs >heating - use the sun or wood, or gas as much as possible ( see below) >cooling - use the breeze as much as possible, then electric pedestal fans >cooking -generally use gas , however it seems that most ovens are now >going electric, induction are super fast although draw 36 amps I >think? >washing - >pumping - see below in water section > >2. House Design >In your house design generally you want to have good orientation so >that you get the sun when you want and have shade when you don't. I >find long thin wings can achieve this the best. > >Next is to fully insulate your building. The building code currently >requires R1.5 for walls and R3.5 for roofs - I recommend that you try >and achieve a higher rating than that, atleast R4.0 for roofs and R3 >for walls, the difference in cost is not that much for a superior >envelope. >Then you ought to locate your thermal mass in the right place. > >3. Heating >Radiant heat is the best and most comfortable sort of heat - the SUN >provides massive amounts of it.- So use the SUN as much as possible >to heat. >This can be done by: > judicision use of glass and mass floor ( for heat absorption) >hydronic floor heating ( hot water tubes in floor) > >If you can't do that then you have to move to burning carbon via; a >gas fired heat box, an electric reverse cycle aircon, a wood fired >heat box, a gas fired heater, an electric panel (convection) heater >or a "Finnish mass stove" > >In my designs we do >Judicious use of glass >hydronic floor heating - see Enviroplumb >http://www.enviroplumb.com.au/index.php >Finish mass stove or masonry oven >wood gas fired heat box, typically large enough for wet back and >cooking ( ala Metters stove sort of thing) > >Interestingly women generally require a higher ambient heating >temperature than men - >probably because a 65 kg women makes 90watts, a 85 kg man 130 watts! > >4 Hot water >Solar is the first preference, - the Apricus evacuated tube system >seems to be the most effective. >Enviroplumb has tanks where by the heated water can be used for >showers, kitchen etcs and also hydronic floor heating. On one of my >projects the heat exchanger is 1000 ltrs >see rotex >http://rotex-solar-hot-water-hydronic-heating.com.au/html/domestic/10/solar-hot-water-heating-hydronic- residential > >if the Apricus system doesn't suit (cost more) then the Solar kleen >system is the next choice >http://www.sola-kleen.com.au > >5. Cooling >Most people are aware the natural ventilation, particularly along the >coast is the most effective and cheapest way of cooling an interior, >yet we seeing a rapid increase in the installation of refrigerated >air con systems. These operate a some 2400w , so they chew up the >power consumption and virtually make a mockery of PV power system . > A few years ago we looked in the viability of making an aircon >system powered by a stand along PV system. The system looked like >costing $30,000 ! > >At a recent sustainability forum for mechanical systems I went too, >the presenter suggested that overhead (high) windows is the >preferred method of inducing cross ventilation in buildings without >the blowing around papers effect. >I essentially call this clerestorey windows. > >6.Drinking water >With the move to incorporating rainwater tanks, initially for gardens >but eventually it might be needed for personal consumption, comes the >need for greater filtering. >We prefer Reverse Osmosis (RO) our supplier does whole house filtering >see http://www.purewatersystems.com.au/ >we go with Grundfos pumps, for their low energy consumption, and >decent size reservoir, so that the pump is only on occasionally to >refill the reservoir. >http://www.grundfos.com.au/ > >Hope this helps > >-- >Gary Dorn >Permaculture architect >gary.d...@eepo.com.au> >Perth, Western Australia, Australia >integrating Permaculture , Organic Solar architecture, >Straw bale construction & Solar and wind power systems >http://www.dornworks.com > > >-- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- >Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> >Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> >Unsubscribe - >wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au','','','')">wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au> > >) -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Unsubscribe - <mailto:wamug-unsubscr...@wamug.org.au>
