Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Heating Systems

[R.P. Aditya (aditya]

On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 09:46:37AM -0600, balaji [at] ouraynet.com wrote:
> We are especially interested in "solar evacuated tube" technology, which
> operates with a liquid (either water or something else).

We (Great Oak Cohousing, Ann Arbor, MI) have a pair of solar collectors which
are composed of evacuated tubes to heat water just for CH use -- you can see a
picture and the related data about how much energy it has produced and money
it has saved us at:

  http://www.gocoho.org/campus/ch_sdhw

> Do any cohousing communities use a system whereby heat is generated in a
> centralized facility and then transported to individual households?
> 
> Our assumption is that cost savings can be had if we standardize and
> centralize the heating system.

although we have two collectors, and the system produces a fair amount of
heated water even in winter, in our cloudy climate and for our community's
size (37 households) two collectors are not enough to produce sufficient heat
in winter for the CH let alone any other buildings...but a large array of
them, maybe 4-5 per building might be able to if we had as many sunny days as
Boulder, CO :-)

Adi
Great Oak Cohousing
http://www.gocoho.org
Ann Arbor, MI