Energy/heating/desing issues
From: RAYGASSER (RAYGASSERdelphi.com)
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 94 21:37 CST
In reply to Jeffrey Hobson's queries:

>Ray Gasser wrote:
>>Community is designed in two roughly parallel rows, with all houses facing
>>within 10 degrees of solar south. Houses have 14 foot mostly glass walls . . .
>
>Sounds pretty neat; clearly you've got an architect who knows his/her way
>around solar design.  I'm curious about your "14 foot mostly glass walls".
>Do you mean 14 feet high?  Are these 2-story buildings?  What's the story?

Actually, they are "multi-level". Lower (living) floor is on two levels,
then up to a mezzanine (which in the "northern" row is over the kitchen),
which comes out about 7-8 feet from the wall and adds useable living 
space and a nice "overlook" to the living/dining area, then up a 1/2-
flight to first level bedrooms, and then, in the larger models, up another 
1/2 flight to a second level of bedrooms:
             /--------- roof is up here --------\
            ======================================
            |                 |                  |
            |                 |                  |
            |                 |    bedrooms      |
            |                 |==================|
            |  high ceiling  /                   |
            |  bedrooms    /                     |
            |==============                      |
            |              \                     |   14 foot
            |                \   mezzanine       |   mostly
            |                  -    -    -    -  |   glass
            |                /                   |   wall
            |              /                     |   facing south
            | office/den /                       |
            |==============   living/dining area |
            | crawl spc   | \  w/ 14' ceiling    |
            ======================================
            (this is a side view, not a floor plan)
 
 The mezzanine doesn't block the incoming sunshine, since it only protrudes
 about 7-1/2 feet from the wall over the kitchen, leaving the entire living/
 dining area with a 14' ceiling. Mezzanine will have a balcony outside,
 which also serves as protection/awning for the main entrance.

 The "glass wall" will have a framework outside for providing shade via 1)
 an awning, retractable in winter to provide heating, or 2) vines/plants
 which will provide natural shade in summer & become more transparent in 
 winter when the leaves leave.

>>Houses will be duplexes, in clusters of 6 or 8 units (4 or 4 buildings) with
>>each cluster having an "energy center" with a common gas fired boiler and
>>each unit being treated as a heating zone (or two). . . 
>
>I'm also curious about the clustered heating system: what is the heat
>delivery medium?  More precisely, do you have a single gas boiler which
>distributing hot water to each unit, where a fan blows air over a hot water
>coil and delivers hot air through ductwork to the house?  Or is the water
>pumped through the floor, providing radiant heating, or baseboard heat
>exchangers,  providing convective heat delivery?  

I may have spoken too soon/loosely on this subject. It's not yet decided for
several reasons, including fiscal realities. Architect is leaning toward
having one boiler for each unit (though all located in the energy center),
primarily because he feels banks may not like having a lien on 1/8 of a 
common boiler if one household defaults on a mortgage. Most residents want
to stress the "Eco", and get fewer/larger/more efficient units, possibly
2 or 3 for each cluster with a primary/secondary/tertiary load and possibly
dynamic switching between the three to even out the usage/lifespans. We
are also looking quite seriously at ground loop geo. $$ may impact, because
the gas company (NYSEG) may rebate (e.g. "not charge") for installing the
main gas lines to the community if we have gas heat. Otherwise, we would
need to spend $40k or so to get gas cooking in the Common House and/or
individual homes (thanks to a nice reply by Roger Diggle, we may be able
to get gas cooking in the super-tight houses with better air/heat
exchangers). Heat delivery will be radiant floor HW.

>Finally, how did you decide all these questions I list above?  Did your
>mechanical engineer (or the architect's mech. engineer) sit through your
>participatory design process?  Who gave you the info you needed about what
>energy impacts, air quality impacts, etc., different design decisions would
>have?  Was it just the architect?  Did you have people in the
>decision-making group who had some of this expertise, and use them as 
>resources?

We have one member who's an energy expert & energy auditor, and several
others with quite a bit of experience in energy-related matters. And we also
chose the architect in part because of his experience in energy-efficient
housing. We spent a lot of time in our "programming sessions" on energy
issues, including use of high-R materials & solar orientation, and he
designed based on that.

By the way, if any of you have need of an energy systems designer/auditor,
our "expert" recently left his job with a prominent consulting firm and is
just starting out doing it "on his own". He's good, and he's eager.
Drop me a message (direct) at the email address below & I'll put you in
contact with him (Greg Thomas).

Ray Gasser,   EcoVillage at Ithaca
raygasser [at] delphi.com

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