[Strawbale] Re: Strawbale Digest, Vol 4, Issue 9

[Mark Bigland-Pritchard]

Sounds like an air source heat pump - in terms of carbon emissions, 
whether this is a good idea depends on the source of your electricity 
(bad idea if from fossil fuels, potentially a good idea if from renewables).
Here in Canada, ground source heat pumps - more reliable and efficient 
than air source, but more expensive to install - are becoming quite 
trendy.  On both sides of the Atlantic (in the English-speaking bits) 
they are, confusingly, marketed as geothermal heat pumps (a misuse of 
the term in my professional opinion...).  The same caution applies for 
these as for air source re carbon emissions, but the British electrical 
generation mix (and I imagine the Irish mix isn't that much different 
now) is now such that they perform better than condensing natural gas 
boilers in terms of emissions per kilowatt output.
If you were to send me some info on the building design and heating (+ 
electrical) requirements, Simon, I could calculate for you the 
approximate size of wind turbine you would need.  (But be warned: you 
might be surprised how big it would need to be.  You might want to think 
about ways of minimising heat consumption first.)
atb,
Mark
Borden, Saskatchewan


Simon Blackbourn wrote:

> Hi Harald
>
> I'm very interested in the heating system you mention, but the 
> potential project is a very low budget one - so can you tell me if 
> this was an expensive and/or complex system to install?
>
> And do you think it could be powered by a small windmill? The house 
> will be in a very windy location - the extreme south west tip of Ireland!
>
> Best Wishes
> Simon
>
>
> On 18/01/06, *avantgarden at wxs... <mailto:avantgarden at wxs...>* 
> <avantgarden at wxs... <mailto:avantgarden at wxs...>> wrote:
>
>     ..... the remarkable thing about is the heating system.
>     The house is standing in a rather shady situation, sad enough, solar
>     systems cannot be applied for heating. Instead electricity is used to
>     extract warmth from the outside air and sending this warmth via water
>     through pipes. Those heat up the loam stucco inside the house. Who
>     knows
>     the english term for Luftwärmepumpe, I guess its not airwarmthpump;-)
>     The bad thing about it is, that it needs electricity for this process.
>     The good news is: It needs very little maintanance and consumes
>     little
>     electricity. Last week I noticed a weekly average of 25 KW per day
>     keeping the house temperature at 20 C° whith an average outside
>     temperature of -3 C°.....
>
>
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