I built my rain barrels a couple of years ago and have been testing them out before I posted a video of how they work. So far they have worked exactly how I wanted them to work. Watch the video below for design layout.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Rain Barrels - My design
I built my rain barrels a couple of years ago and have been testing them out before I posted a video of how they work. So far they have worked exactly how I wanted them to work. Watch the video below for design layout.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV)
When you build a tight home in a cold climate it is recommended that you have some way for the house to allow fresh clean air into the house so that moisture and pollution do not build up in your house. This could easily and cheaply be done by opening a window for a couple of minutes during the winter to let fresh air in. The obvious problem is that the incoming air will be very cold and you will have to use more energy to heat that cold air.
This can be solved by a heat recovery ventilator. (HRV). The basic idea is that the HRV unit has two fans in it, one that pulls stale air out of your house and one that pushes fresh air into your house. The process is improved by the use of a heat exchanger core. As the warm air is sucked out of your house it goes through the core at the same time as the cold air from outside is travelling through the core. The two streams never come in contact but they travel through little pathways that have a small amount of material between the two streams that allows heat from the warm air to warm the incoming cold air. These systems claim up to 84% efficiency. Meaning there is only a 16% loss in heat to the new air entering verses the exiting air.
Our HRV is made by Bryant.
http://www.bryant.com/products/airquality/heat.shtml
So on the surface it appears to be a great idea but there are a few things that you need to watch for or it is only a good idea.
The first is cost. Our system cost around $5,000 dollars professionally installed. This included the HRV unit as well as all the ducting. Since we do not use a forced air system our ducting is only for the HRV. Ours draws air out of the house from all three bathrooms and the kitchen. It returns fresh air into all three bedrooms and the living room. We use our HRV in place of bathroom fans. When we take a shower we can push a button on the wall that runs the HRV for 15 minutes to help remove moisture out of the bathroom. When you push the button and turn the system on it pulls air through all the bathrooms and not just the one where you pushed the button. The "suction" of an HRV vent is not as strong as a good bathroom fan but it is quieter.
The second issue is the wall controller. I mentioned the 15 minute bathroom wall timer, this is a great idea and we use it all the time. You will have one main wall control unit that will give you more options. Ours allows us to run the HRV on high speed or low speed, run automatically based on the humidity in the house or to recirculate air within the house without bringing in outside air. All of which are nice features. The main problem with our control unit is the humidity sensor. It is so inaccurate as to be useless. I would not recommend buying an HRV from bryant because their humidity sensors are junk. I went through three different units looking for one that worked and none of them did. Even the installers used their high tech humidity sensor to determine the humidity was 12 % but the controller activated at 55%. The sensor is made of a nylon coil that expands and contracts at different humidities. I would only recommend digital sensors they are more accurate and more sensitive. If the controller did work I could set it to 45% and if people were cooking and taking showers then the HRV would come on and stay on until it removed enough moisture from the house to get below 45%. If our worked like that it would be great.
After further research I would look at going with a Venmar HRV. I have never used one but their controllers look to be much better designed.
http://www.venmar.ca/air-exchanger.html
The third issue is easily solvable but you need to mount the control unit with a humidity sensor close to where most of your humidity will be. In our house all the showers and laundry room are upstairs but the controller is downstairs. Most days the upstairs feels much more humid than the downstairs but the sensor (if it worked) would not be responsive to the moisture upstairs. So figure out where most of your moisture will be and wire the controller close to that location.
The fourth issue is the length of time that the unit must run to bring the humidity levels down. It takes hours to see a change in the humidity levels in your house. This also depends on the humidity of the incoming outside air. The amount of electricity required to run this fan for hours just does not make sense verses opening a window. When we take a shower in the winter we crack the window because it is a much faster way to get the humidity out of the house. If the humidity gets too high in the house during winter and the wind is blowing I just open the windows for five minutes and the humidity drops rapidly. I have an indoor digital humidity sensor so I can watch it drop by the minute. Yes the incoming air is cold but after closing the windows the house warms right back up again due to the heat trapped in the objects of the house.
Overall the idea is good and the device works like it should.
This can be solved by a heat recovery ventilator. (HRV). The basic idea is that the HRV unit has two fans in it, one that pulls stale air out of your house and one that pushes fresh air into your house. The process is improved by the use of a heat exchanger core. As the warm air is sucked out of your house it goes through the core at the same time as the cold air from outside is travelling through the core. The two streams never come in contact but they travel through little pathways that have a small amount of material between the two streams that allows heat from the warm air to warm the incoming cold air. These systems claim up to 84% efficiency. Meaning there is only a 16% loss in heat to the new air entering verses the exiting air.
Our HRV is made by Bryant.
http://www.bryant.com/products/airquality/heat.shtml
So on the surface it appears to be a great idea but there are a few things that you need to watch for or it is only a good idea.
The first is cost. Our system cost around $5,000 dollars professionally installed. This included the HRV unit as well as all the ducting. Since we do not use a forced air system our ducting is only for the HRV. Ours draws air out of the house from all three bathrooms and the kitchen. It returns fresh air into all three bedrooms and the living room. We use our HRV in place of bathroom fans. When we take a shower we can push a button on the wall that runs the HRV for 15 minutes to help remove moisture out of the bathroom. When you push the button and turn the system on it pulls air through all the bathrooms and not just the one where you pushed the button. The "suction" of an HRV vent is not as strong as a good bathroom fan but it is quieter.
The second issue is the wall controller. I mentioned the 15 minute bathroom wall timer, this is a great idea and we use it all the time. You will have one main wall control unit that will give you more options. Ours allows us to run the HRV on high speed or low speed, run automatically based on the humidity in the house or to recirculate air within the house without bringing in outside air. All of which are nice features. The main problem with our control unit is the humidity sensor. It is so inaccurate as to be useless. I would not recommend buying an HRV from bryant because their humidity sensors are junk. I went through three different units looking for one that worked and none of them did. Even the installers used their high tech humidity sensor to determine the humidity was 12 % but the controller activated at 55%. The sensor is made of a nylon coil that expands and contracts at different humidities. I would only recommend digital sensors they are more accurate and more sensitive. If the controller did work I could set it to 45% and if people were cooking and taking showers then the HRV would come on and stay on until it removed enough moisture from the house to get below 45%. If our worked like that it would be great.
After further research I would look at going with a Venmar HRV. I have never used one but their controllers look to be much better designed.
http://www.venmar.ca/air-exchanger.html
The third issue is easily solvable but you need to mount the control unit with a humidity sensor close to where most of your humidity will be. In our house all the showers and laundry room are upstairs but the controller is downstairs. Most days the upstairs feels much more humid than the downstairs but the sensor (if it worked) would not be responsive to the moisture upstairs. So figure out where most of your moisture will be and wire the controller close to that location.
The fourth issue is the length of time that the unit must run to bring the humidity levels down. It takes hours to see a change in the humidity levels in your house. This also depends on the humidity of the incoming outside air. The amount of electricity required to run this fan for hours just does not make sense verses opening a window. When we take a shower in the winter we crack the window because it is a much faster way to get the humidity out of the house. If the humidity gets too high in the house during winter and the wind is blowing I just open the windows for five minutes and the humidity drops rapidly. I have an indoor digital humidity sensor so I can watch it drop by the minute. Yes the incoming air is cold but after closing the windows the house warms right back up again due to the heat trapped in the objects of the house.
Overall the idea is good and the device works like it should.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Radiant floor heating
Well it has been awhile since I posted anything but I figured as winter is coming to a close I would leave a note about radiant floor heating. Before we built our house we did a lot of research on radiant floors and most of it was very positive. We were planning on having a stained concrete floor in the downstairs anyways so adding radiant heat to it sounded like a good idea. We got a quote from a local company to install it and the price was ridiculous. So we decided to install it ourselves with a kit from the Radiant Floor Company. It was reasonable project for the two of us to do by ourselves even though it was cold and the tubing wasn't very flexible.
After we moved in and winter came we were excited to fire up the floor. And sure enough the floor heated up and you could walk around in your socks and feel the warmth.
Then in the spring we installed a wood stove and now we rarely use the floor at all. What happened? Well many things. Some were just a lack of research and understanding on our part and the other was a lack of experience in the use of radiant floors.
Here are the downsides. First is the time lag to heat the floor. It will take a while to heat the floor depending on the temperature in the tubing as well as the size of the zone. Ours is around an hour. Once the floor gets warm you then have to wait for the air to get warm. Which takes even more time. When it does get warm it does a good job of holding the temperature steady for hours.
People argue that radiant floors are very efficient because you are not heating air that can escape your house, the heat is closer to the living zone of the room and blah, blah blah. That all might be true but it is crazy inefficient in the time lag. For a normal family that gets up goes to work/school and then comes home in the evening a radiant floor does not do a good job of allowing you to set the temperature back while you are gone and at night and then heat quickly in the evening and for a short time in the morning while you are getting ready. If you stay home all day radiant could work for you because you want a steady temperature all day. Otherwise a forced air system on a programmable thermostat can provided cheaper and more comfortable use of heating by only providing heat when you need it. If you are cold then bump it up a couple of degrees and you get that heat pretty quickly with forced air.
The other issue, which is obvious but should be noted, is that it will never get really hot. If you come in from working out in the cold you want to stand somewhere really warm to heat up you won't find that spot with a radiant floor unless you lay on the floor. If you are using forced air or a wood stove that option exists and it is really nice.
The next issue is also fairly obvious but was a surprise. Yes heat rises but not radiant heat. Since we have a two story house we were hoping some the the heat from downstairs would rise to the upstairs to help warm the upstairs. That did not happen at all. So we used the electric wall heaters upstairs to keep the bedrooms warm.
After one winter we realized with the help of a tax credit that a wood stove is a better all around choice for many reasons: cheaper, heats the upstairs, carbon neutral, works in a power outage, can cook on it, provides a place to warm up after coming in from the cold, The downside dealing with wood. Since our SIP panel house is very tight we don't have to burn a huge amount of wood and the house holds its temperature very well overnight. We use the heat recovery ventilator (HRV) to reduce indoor air pollution from the stove. There is also the issue of the little kids touching a hot stove but a gate takes care of that while they are young.
Moral of the story is don't be so quick to jump on the radiant floor bandwagon.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Raised bed hoops and row covers
This summer I was determined to have a more successful garden than last summer. I realized that one of my problems is that my garden is very exposed to the wind and weather. During afternoon summer thunderstorms my plants get beat up pretty bad especially if it hails. I decided to try and make some hoops and purchase some row cover fabric. I ordered Agribon - 19, 83" x 50' from Johnny's Selected seeds . From the little bit of research I did I decided to use 1/2" conduit to make the hoops. It was surprisingly cheap at $2.00 for 10' of conduit. PVC was about $1.50. The problem was bending the conduit to the shape of my raised beds. Johnny's also sells a tubing bender but it was a little bit expensive and what would I do with it after I was done? I decided to try my hand at bending them myself. Here is the video I created to show how I did it.
So far the hoops and covers are working great. We have had a number of storms come though which included some hail and the fabric has held up great.
So far the hoops and covers are working great. We have had a number of storms come though which included some hail and the fabric has held up great.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Buying Bare Land
I guess I should have started with this post but recent events have caused me to reevaluate how to assess bare land.
Who are your neighbors? Neighbors can be a great assess or liability. Before you buy a piece of land go and talk to the neighbors. This will serve two purposes. One is to get a read on who your neighbors are going to be and to get a little history on the land. I don't want to sound like a snob but your neighbors can have a huge impact on the enjoyment of your property. Loud music, burning leaves, barking dogs, guest at all hours of the nights, I am sure you have dealt with some of this. They can also tell you a lot about the land. After we bought our property we learned from the neighbors that our lot had been created by a bankruptcy court splitting a bigger lot and that the neighbors were told that this area would never be built on. Luckily our neighbors were nice and didn't mind that we were going to be building on it.
Easements: If you are looking at a piece of land with easements on it make sure you read them carefully. We have a road easement on the south side of our property. We own from the middle of the road north. There is a 30 foot easement from the center of the road onto our property for the neighbors that live behind us. This didn't seem like that big of a deal since it is a single lane road that is probably about 10 feet wide. The issue came this spring when I put some rocks lining part of the road to keep people from driving into the grass and causing weeds to invade. I was confronted by a neighbor saying I was blocking the easement because they have 30 feet of access on my property even though there is no road there. It seemed a little extreme to me but I called a friend of mine who was a lawyer and he said if they wanted to drive in the grass the law say they have 30 feet of my property to drive on.
Road maintenance: If it is a private road it will need to be maintained. How will it be maintained? Is everyone supposed to pitch in and pay to fix the road? That might work fine until someone says they can't afford to pay. Then what?
Fences: Know which property line fences you are responsible for maintaining.
Irrigation: Learn the water right laws if you have any. People get shot out West for water rights issues.
A little research beforehand can help you to avoid some rude awakenings later.
Who are your neighbors? Neighbors can be a great assess or liability. Before you buy a piece of land go and talk to the neighbors. This will serve two purposes. One is to get a read on who your neighbors are going to be and to get a little history on the land. I don't want to sound like a snob but your neighbors can have a huge impact on the enjoyment of your property. Loud music, burning leaves, barking dogs, guest at all hours of the nights, I am sure you have dealt with some of this. They can also tell you a lot about the land. After we bought our property we learned from the neighbors that our lot had been created by a bankruptcy court splitting a bigger lot and that the neighbors were told that this area would never be built on. Luckily our neighbors were nice and didn't mind that we were going to be building on it.
Easements: If you are looking at a piece of land with easements on it make sure you read them carefully. We have a road easement on the south side of our property. We own from the middle of the road north. There is a 30 foot easement from the center of the road onto our property for the neighbors that live behind us. This didn't seem like that big of a deal since it is a single lane road that is probably about 10 feet wide. The issue came this spring when I put some rocks lining part of the road to keep people from driving into the grass and causing weeds to invade. I was confronted by a neighbor saying I was blocking the easement because they have 30 feet of access on my property even though there is no road there. It seemed a little extreme to me but I called a friend of mine who was a lawyer and he said if they wanted to drive in the grass the law say they have 30 feet of my property to drive on.
Road maintenance: If it is a private road it will need to be maintained. How will it be maintained? Is everyone supposed to pitch in and pay to fix the road? That might work fine until someone says they can't afford to pay. Then what?
Fences: Know which property line fences you are responsible for maintaining.
Irrigation: Learn the water right laws if you have any. People get shot out West for water rights issues.
A little research beforehand can help you to avoid some rude awakenings later.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
LEED Certification
While researching building our house we ran across the US Green Building Council. They certify projects as to how energy efficient they are and other criteria. They take into account hundreds of factors and have developed a scoring guide to score the energy efficiency of a building. To have a LEED certified house requires a good bit of work before your project has even started. This does not mean that you should just ignore their resources. Here is the link to the pdf scoring guide. It is 140 pages long and is very detailed and includes many formulas and specifications. Don't be overwhelmed by all the technical talk just browse through all the categories and you will learn a lot about what can go into a house. You can even score your own project.
LEED Scoring Guide
LEED Scoring Guide
ICF - insulated concrete forms
Frost Protected Shallow foundations
If you are thinking of using ICF's I would recommend looking into a way to protect the foam that is above grade. It needs to be protected from the sun and also from sharp objects and abuse. Ours ended up being covered with a latex type of plaster.
I was driving by a strip mall under construction and noticed that there was a crew applying a plaster over the rigid foam insulation. I stopped by and talked to the owner of the plaster company and talked to him about what I needed to cover my ICF's. After talking to him he convinced me that it would be worth my money to have two of his guys come and do it for me. It was a small job that would require special scratch coats and final coats. He came and looked at my foundation later in the day and said they could do it in two mornings, one for the scratch coat and one for the finish. For a couple hundred bucks it looked really good and has held up perfectly. I regret that I can not tell you the name of the product use.
The other issue that we encounter was how to use the ICF's and pour a slab floor. What we came up with was to break the Styrofoam on the inside walls down about 4 inches and leave the outside Styrofoam at full height. The wall would be poured flush with the lower inside wall. Then the slab would be poured to the outside foam.
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