energy efficient house

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vedenev's picture

I want to make calculations of heat energy efficient house for cold countries such us Russia, Alaska of USA and Canada. This house use energy of wind and heat energy of soil.

I am finding sponsor for this works. The sponsor will be used technologies that will be developed.

See details in this doc-file:
http://simulations.narod.ru/energy_efficient_house.doc

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Karl's picture

vedenev;5004 wrote:
I want to make calculations of heat energy efficient house for cold countries such us Russia, Alaska of USA and Canada. This house use energy of wind and heat energy of soil.

I am finding sponsor for this works. The sponsor will be used technologies that will be developed.

See details in this doc-file:
http://simulations.narod.ru/energy_efficient_house.doc

I assume that "heat energy of soil" means Geothermal.

So, essentially you are seeking a sponsor to design and develop energy-efficient houses for cold climates, based on wind (for electricity generation?) and geothermal energy (for heating?)...

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vedenev's picture

No it is not Geothermal energy. Geothermal energy starts at 80-100 kilometers depths. It is expensive to bild such long borehole. At depth of several meters soil temperature keep constant during the year for Sibiria it is about 0 Celsius degree. This effect is used. In picture in energy_efficient_house.doc you can see that energy comes both from undeground soil and from wind. So this idea is new.

Wind is used not for electricity generation but for pumping of refrigerant.

House heating is major energy consumption for cold counties.

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Ann Vole's picture

It sounds like you want a "ground source geothermal" system using a heat pump. Heat pump technology is getting quite mainstream in North America and special designs have been marketed for Canada with it's colder winters (the cooling pipes get well below freezing point of water so the working temperature range needs to accommodate -15 C to 70 C). You can check out IGSHPA (International Ground Source Heat Pump Association) who has done many long term studies on heat pump designs and has an accreditation process and education. I believe there is a European organization similar to IGSHPA.

IGSHPA - Down to Earth Energy

My intent is to do things differently though. Heat pumps suck heat out of the ground and then sun shining on the ground or pavement on the surface brings the ground back to the warm temperature. Even bore holes going down 200 feet (60 meters) are still using the sun's heating more then the earth's internal heating. This makes the ground into a solar panel. The problem is that the heat pump still needs power to run and solar cells are hard-pressed to provide enough power and it also needs to be stored in batteries. Instead, I plan to heat the ground up to the temperature needed and insulate the surface. This requires lots of solar heat in the hot part of the summer and the hot part of the day to be stored for use in the winter and at night. Heat can also be made by pumping hydraulic oil through pipes with the pumps powered by wind. The friction of the oil against oil makes heat all along the pipe. The definitive source of information on annual heat storage is the book "Passive Annual Heat Storage" by John Hiat.

Earth Sheltered Homes - Rocky Mountain Research Center

I was then thinking of storing other temperatures for freezer, refrigeration, hot water and cooking and making those temperatures using smaller heat pumps powered by solar or using outside temperatures (for cold) or solar heat panels for the higher heat. These would then be used as needed in specially made appliances (refrigerators, freezers, stoves, ovens, hot water tanks, driers) that use these stored temperatures.

Another thing to consider is the research done in Northern Sweden and Norway where they have homes that cannot be provided electricity grid, or fuel due to the remote location and no solar or wind power due to tall trees and dark winters when above the Arctic circle and they are built on bedrock so ground source geothermal is not an option either. Their solution is just to have a very air-tight and very well insulated house and to have a very efficient heat exchanger to bring in fresh air and then just use body heat of the people and the heat from cooking and computers to heat the home.

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Ann Vole's picture

natureguy;5247 wrote:
1st Carbon neutral building

pooja's comment in link wrote:
Cooler countries like US and Northern European have an advantage over warmer countries like India and others. They need heating while we need cooling (Air Conditioners).

While most of the renewable energies are capable to provide heating, almost any technology (protable form which is used at home) can't run our air conditioners.

Heat pumps never really took off in cold climates as much as in hot ones because ground source geothermal heat pumps are the cheapest form of air conditioning (1/3 to 1/4 the energy needed for the same amount of BTUs of cooling) but you can go one step further with annual and daily heat storage because you can store the cool air at night or at cool times of the year in the soil and eliminate the need for a heat pump altogether but still need fans or pumps to move the transfer fluid around unless you build underground like the "Passive Annual Heat Storage" book I mentioned recommends... then you have permanent 18-20 C room temperature without any fans or any mechanical stuff. Many ancient buildings found in the deserts of Iran and Iraq had similar air vent designs built into the walls as was only discovered when they used ultrasonics to see the internal structure of the walls. These buildings are very steady in temperature and working perfectly being unoccupied for decades and being built thousands of years ago and surviving many earthquakes... it can be done and built with dirt and stone and straw... you just need to know how to arrange the air vents inside the walls and under the ground.

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I also found thet I "reinvent the wheel". It is heat pumps. Yes, in "energy of heated soil" is come from sun finaly. Earth surface is some kind of solar panel. The question is what the ariea of such solar panal depending on depth of of the evaporator end evaporator shape/size.

I found info about geothemal gradient. Geothemal gradient is about 2 Cel deg per 100 meters. Example: at the depth 1 km we have temperature 0+2*(1000/100)=20 cel deg for Siberia.

Another idea: Is it possible to bild power plant? The maximal posible coefficient of efficiency of the plant is (Th-Tc)/Th=7%. Coefficent is small so it is need to cool big volumes.

My page was moved to:
Heat energy efficient house for cold countries.

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Karl's picture

vedenev;5250 wrote:
Another idea: Is it possible to bild power plant? The maximal posible coefficient of efficiency of the plant is (Th-Tc)/Th=7%. Coefficent is small so it is need to cool big volumes.

My page was moved to:
Heat energy efficient house for cold countries.


I see that the plan includes a turbine for the wind energy. I recently saw an article on a "Non-turbine wind generator": http://www.sustainabilityforum.com/forum/5218-post1.html

Assuming that this is a plan for a single house, would such a system (if proven feasible) be more cost effective?

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Ann Vole;5248 wrote:
.....you can store the cool air at night or at cool times of the year in the soil and eliminate the need for a heat pump altogether but still need fans or pumps to move the transfer fluid around unless you build underground like the "Passive Annual Heat Storage" book I mentioned recommends... then you have permanent 18-20 C room temperature without any fans or any mechanical stuff. Many ancient buildings found in the deserts of Iran and Iraq had similar air vent designs built into the walls as was only discovered when they used ultrasonics to see the internal structure of the walls. These buildings are very steady in temperature and working perfectly being unoccupied for decades and being built thousands of years ago and surviving many earthquakes... it can be done and built with dirt and stone and straw... you just need to know how to arrange the air vents inside the walls and under the ground.

Do you have a link from where I can download this book. Moreover the technology looks great. Please elaborate if you have more info on the topic.:goodjob:

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natureguy;5254 wrote:
Do you have a link from where I can download this book. Moreover the technology looks great. Please elaborate if you have more info on the topic.:goodjob:

Ann Vole wrote:
The definitive source of information on annual heat storage is the book "Passive Annual Heat Storage" by John Hiat.

Earth Sheltered Homes - Rocky Mountain Research Center

in case you do not see the link, it is earthshelters.com and you may also be able to find the book at your library or used book suppliers like Amazon

Amazon.com: Passive annual heat storage: Improving the design of earth shelters, or, How to store summer's sunshine to keep your wigwam warm all winter: John N Hait: Books

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one of the reviews on Amazon for the "Passive Annual Heat Storage" book ends as follows

Quote:
... So, I cannot express my contempt for Hait's writing any stronger without getting obscene (one reason I had to work with an engineer is that it is practically impossible to figure out the details from Hait's book only), but I cannot find an alternative. And so here we have information that is invaluable, written by someone who couldn't explain how to open a can of beer. That is the
frustration.

I also agree that the book is not as good as it could and should be but it is the only one on the topic I can find so I hope to write my own book on the topic but unlike Hiat, I do not have a building made to prove my improved versions actually work SO I will also try to build my prototype buildings as I write my book and use such to provide lots of pictures of each step of the way.

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Ann Vole;5265 wrote:
I also agree that the book is not as good as it could and should be but it is the only one on the topic I can find so I hope to write my own book on the topic but unlike Hiat, I do not have a building made to prove my improved versions actually work SO I will also try to build my prototype buildings as I write my book and use such to provide lots of pictures of each step of the way.

:cool: I just noticed that you started a discussion related to this over a year ago in this thread: http://www.sustainabilityforum.com/forum/sustainable-lifestyle/392-topic-starter-list.html#post5266

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Ann Vole;5264 wrote:
in case you do not see the link, it is earthshelters.com and you may also be able to find the book at your library or used book suppliers like Amazon

Amazon.com: Passive annual heat storage: Improving the design of earth shelters, or, How to store summer's sunshine to keep your wigwam warm all winter: John N Hait: Books

Is there a free book / ebook on the topic?

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natureguy;5270 wrote:
Ann Vole;5264 wrote:
in case you do not see the link, it is earthshelters.com

Is there a free book / ebook on the topic?

only the first chapter on the earthshelters.com link

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this is my idea of a wind powered heat pump... except with several insulated areas of dirt at different temperatures each of which is insulated and each of which can be used to heat or cool air (or liquid) for use in heating or cooling the rooms, the refrigerator boxes, the freezer boxes, the oven and stove tops, the cloths drier, etc

note that in the design I copied this image from, air conditioners work way more efficiently if their heat is put in the cool ground instead of trying to put the waste heat in the already hot outside air which is why heat pumps really took off in the southern USA where it might stay above 35 C day and night for weeks and where the dehumidification of the air is the prime objective of the air conditioner instead of just cooling the air meaning the air conditioner is left on continuously half of the year.

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vedenev's picture

It is smart idea with vibrate string. I think it is possible to make big string system that will be work as power plant. Another idea:
Vaneless ion wind generator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't understand how it works with isolator undergound. For hot countries we need use heat pump to pump heat from house to more cold underground in summer. In winter not need it.

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vedenev's picture

See new calculation result on the bottom of the page:
Heat energy efficient house for cold countries.
I made calculation of cooling of soil with boreholes-radiators.