Browse Forums Eco Living 1 Sep 14, 2009 8:15 pm Hi everyone. We need to replace carpet in our living room which faces almost north. We have floor height windows here that are about 3 metres wide and this is where the carpet has faded and started to disintegrate. I am wondering if we could put in about a 1 metre wide strip of dark coloured tiles here to improve our heat absorption in winter. Would this width be worth bothering with. I still want carpet in the rest of the room because this is where the kids sit and play on the floor and I also prefer carpet underfoot. Is it worth while to put in a 1 metre strip of tiles or is the area too insignificant to bother with. The room is very deep having the kitchen and dining areas beyond. The only part of the north wall where there is not a window is about 2 metres wide with a gas log fire and this area is already tiled. I would cover the tiles with mats in summer to prevent heat absorption, plus we have roller shutters here so we can prevent any sun penetrating. Any ideas? Re: Is 1m wide tiing beneath window any good? 2Sep 14, 2009 10:54 pm It will help but hard to quantify how 'significant' this will be. The standard glazing:mass ratio has been quoted as 1m2 of excess north glass to 6m2 floor mass. Excess north glass is defined as the amount of glazing that exceeds 12% of the floor area. e.g. Floor area = 20m2 Recommended glazing = 12% x 20m2 = 2.4m2 If your north facing glass is 3.4 then you have 1m2 'excess'. This will need to be matched with 6m2 of floor mass. This is a rough rule of thumb derived from the US. It seems to tie in well with Paolino's work in Oz. However, I had a chat with an local eco-architect at last weekend's Sustainable House day and he reckons we need less mass in temperate Australia than the conventional amounts quoted in the US literature. Re: Is 1m wide tiing beneath window any good? 3Sep 14, 2009 11:09 pm Here is a literature review of what I could find on the subject: Thermal mass volumes I also remember some research comparing using light versus dark colours for mass and it showed that it made no difference to the thermal performance of the building. It seems counter-intuitive but I suspect that the absorptivity of most building materials and furnishings are all relatively high such that the colour has much less impact. Furthermore, any remaining radiation gets reflected around the room and eventually absorbed by other objects within it. Re: Is 1m wide tiing beneath window any good? 4Sep 15, 2009 7:31 am Loungelizard, it will certainly help and be better than none at all. It will also remove the issue of the carpet fading in the future in that area. You need to do something so make the tiled area as big as possible. Hi, Seeking volume or semi-custom builder in victoria(east), which have existing double story wide floor plans. Seeking 18-20m wide homes with depth of 12-15m long. Or… 0 25314 Pulse is correct. It's the trap that takes up space. The plan shows a vessel style basin so you don't have to worry about a basin inset, it's just the trap that the… 5 2307 |