I missed this thread (just occasionally checking in on the web these days)
but if anyone has questions about efficient mechanical systems, I am happy
to share what I know about them off-list. I'm not a mechanical engineer,
but I've been seriously engaged in Passive House (Passivhaus) since 2009,
and have learned heaps about this kind of thing. (Passive House reduces
heating energy requirements by 90%, *before* adding any on-site energy
sources like photo-voltaic panels. In order to do that everything including
both the envelope of the building and the mechanical systems, has to be as
efficient as possible. Click here to read more on my
site<http://harrisonarchitects.com/passive_house>.)
For the most recent Passive House (the second in Seattle) on which I
consulted <http://www.cascadebuilt.com/projects/park-passive/> we used a
mini-split air-source heat pump for space heating, and an air-source heat
pump water heater for domestic hot water. We put the DHW tank inside the
heated space, and ducted intake and exhaust to the outside. Good stuff.
Rob in Seattle
On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 10:37 AM, Brian Gray <bsg017@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> As a retired scientist, and for the record, I have to say that I am
> with Chris Barker when he said
> <And I agree with you: whether or not climate change is caused by us,
> there is n
> o excuse for wasting scarce resources. But for the record I and many
> scientists
> of my acquaintance are astounded that anyone still has any doubt.>
>
> And I feel that Ken Norton is being overly complacent when he says that
> the worl
> d would not have major difficulty in coping with a 20ft rise in sea level.
> Woul
> d not the significant reduction in land area available for human
> occupation cau
> se significant problems, political as well as technical, even in the
> majority of
> countries which have land 20ft above current sea level? And political
> problems
> can be more difficult to overcome than technical problems as can indeed be
> seen
> in the current debate about how to react to global temperature data.
>
> Like Chris, I like to reduce resource usage and am aware that my current
> car giv
> es me over 50 miles per UK gallon whereas fifty years ago a car with much
> lower
> performance and comfort did not give me much over half that. And the gas
> energ
> y used in heating the my home has dropped by a similar amount in thirty
> years as
> I have improved insulation and the efficiency of the boiler/furnace. But
> I dou
> bt if I will be using a twenty year old camera for a lot longer!
>
> Brian Gray
> --
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