Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Heating upstairs

[OCCNG11 (normangauss]

Regan:

Most older houses are leaky.  That is, the cracks around the windows and 
places where pipes and electric receptacles penetrate interior walls can be 
significant sources of cold air.

In modern energy-efficient homes, there is a concerted effort to minimize 
these openings.  Thus heat rising up the stairs and into open rooms is much 
more likely to keep the rooms from being uncomfortably cold.

Our new two-story duplex and triplex units are very well insulated and 
sealed.  We have forced air heating but seldom have the fan blowing during 
the day.  Our winter daytime temperatures are typically in the 50's and 60's 
and nighttimes are typically in the 40's and 30's.  I keep our thermostat 
set at 65 at night and leave my bedroom window open an inch or so.  Yet the 
heat almost never comes on at night.  The water heater is outside and only 
the heat of the refrigerator serves to warm the place at night.  In the 
morning, the programmed thermostat causes the heating system to heat the 
place to 75 degrees and the place stays warm and comfy without major 
assistance from the furnace after that.  Additional sources of heat are the 
computers, lights, TV's, and cooking.  All this means less work for the 
furnace.  The fact that we are built on concrete slabs and have insulated 
floor covers also means minimal heat loss through the floor.

If you want to encourage warm air flowing up the stairs, you might consider 
installing small exhaust fans in the exterior walls of the rooms you want to 
keep warm.  The occupants of each room can then turn on the fan until the 
room is warm and then turn it off.  Seems like a simple solution to me.

Norm Gauss
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Regan Conley" <reganconley [at] earthlink.net>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 6:27 AM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Re: Heating upstairs


> > --- Alfred wrote:
> > So far we have been told that not installing heat upstairs will not 
> > work, that
> > it will work, and that at worst we would have to plug in electric 
> > heaters
> > --- end of quote ---
>
> I lived in a heatless upstairs house in the San Francisco Bay Area  when I 
> was in high school and my sisters and I were always freezing.
>
> Several people here have noted that it's fine because they like to  sleep 
> in cold bedrooms, but not everyone does.  And what if you want  to use 
> those rooms for more than sleeping?  Many of us have the  experience of 
> getting chilled in our offices because we are sitting  still -- do you 
> want that experience in a home office?  Are your kids  going to be doing 
> their homework in there?  Keep in mind that the  rooms would only get even 
> residual heat if you left the doors open  all the time.  You dramatically 
> limit the useable square footage of a  house by not heating it.
>
> In my opinion, not installing upstairs heat will "work" or "not work"  to 
> the extent that people like to be cold or warm.  And this is  something 
> that is extremely difficult to do on one's own.  I think  you'd be better 
> off supplying fundamental systems to all parts of the  house and leaving 
> the finish work to the occupants if you really need  to save money.
>
> Regan Conley
> Urban D.C. Cohousing (forming)
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