Browse Forums Eco Living Re: Thermal mass walls 21Feb 20, 2010 10:05 pm =It has extra location but I think you have top be a member. I found Bunbury but... "SunPosition calculations for this location are for members only." Perth Info is members only also Bunbury Latitude: 33° 19' S or [Decimal: -33.316700] Longitude: 115° 37' 59" E or [Decimal: 115.633000] Magnetic declination: 00 UTC offset: GMT +8 hrs (Coordinated Universal Time) DST offset: 1 hr offset from UTC to local time (Added to any UTC offset) DST period: Last Sunday in October to Last Sunday in April. Status: Re: Thermal mass walls 22Feb 20, 2010 10:48 pm kexkez =It has extra location but I think you have top be a member. Not necessary. Fu Manchu Your sun calculator is average. It doesn't have Perth but it has Geraldton Sun path is the same as long as you are at the same latitude. Port Macquarie will do quite adequately Latitude (Port Macquarie, NSW) : 31° 26′ 0″ S Latitude (Perth, WA): 31° 57′ 8″ S The equivalent would be 50 km North of Perth CBD along the Brand Hwy. In fact a few degrees is going to make too much to your ultimate calculations for eaves. Re: Thermal mass walls 23Feb 21, 2010 12:43 pm [quote="dymonite69"]We are probably getting a little to technical for our original poster. Thanks for your concern dymonite69. I admit I am completely innumerate but not, thank goodness, illiterate and I'm enjoying this discussion immensely. [quote="dymonite69"] NB windows are both an asset and liability - they easily let in radiant heat during the day but also let out heat at night) Unfortunately we need windows for light. I hate gloomy or even dim rooms. How do you get a lot of light without too much heat gain or loss? Solartubes in the living area? Re: Thermal mass walls 24Feb 21, 2010 8:18 pm Liliana Unfortunately we need windows for light. I hate gloomy or even dim rooms. How do you get a lot of light without too much heat gain or loss? Solartubes in the living area? Not saying that you don't need windows but don't think that if some is great then lots is better. It is an issue of balance. The general recommendation is 7-12% north windows by total floor area. You might push this to 15-19% for cooler areas. Even if a window size is 10% of the room area you are going to get a decent amount of light. In most cases 15-20% is enough even on cloudy days. Re: Thermal mass walls 25Feb 21, 2010 8:33 pm We are going with 50% + for the North facing, 3% west, 15% east, <10% south. Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Thermal mass walls 26Feb 21, 2010 8:50 pm onc_artisan We are going with 50% + for the North facing, 3% west, 15% east, <10% south. I like that combination. I hope you've got lots of thermal mass to store the heat for a rainy day (literally). Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Thermal mass walls 27Feb 21, 2010 9:37 pm Oh yeh Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Thermal mass walls 28Feb 21, 2010 10:34 pm Onc-A, Are you using a indirect gain (trombe wall) or isolated system (sunspace)? 50% would be a lot of radiant energy if it was beaming directly into an occupied area. Are you using any system of trapping the heat so it doesn't leak back out through the windows at night. Re: Thermal mass walls 29Feb 21, 2010 10:55 pm all 3 Dymo, radiant & indirect... and storage lock(hopefully) of warmth. The mezzanie should gain during the very late winter and have reduce loss with double glazing. The conc floors should soak up some warmth . and a 'river' will help clean the space of dust and help to regulate 18c winter and 20c summer. I am not offended by wearing a wincheater We have the benefit of ocean breezes from nw - se, so the temps is pretty mild anyhow. It barely gets to 4c or above 40c Curtains Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Thermal mass walls 31Feb 21, 2010 11:09 pm ... later ...I like my trout close to the kitchen Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Thermal mass walls 32Feb 21, 2010 11:27 pm A word of warning to Lillian. 50% north glazing is far too much for a pure direct gain system (which I gather you are buiding). Even if your house was dug into a solid mountain of rock, that much direct radiant heat would be very uncomfortable. An indirect system where you heated in an unoccupied but interconnected area such as a Trombe wall or Sunspace can have lots glazing. But in this case you can then control the heat entry in a predictable manner with vents or fans. It is rarely that you can capture all the heat because no matter what you use windows are difficult to insulate and there is always expected significant loss at night. Dan Chiras talks about these systems in his book on passive solar design. In personal correspondence, he doesn't believe that they add a whole lot more to a direct design. There may other reasons you would use this e.g. having a greenhouse. On the other hand, he is thinks that earth berming e.g. digging your house into to side of a hill is a cost-effective way of providing mass and insulation. Re: Thermal mass walls 33Feb 22, 2010 10:27 am dymonite69 A word of warning to Lillian. 50% north glazing is far too much for a pure direct gain system (which I gather you are buiding). Dan Chiras talks about these systems in his book on passive solar design. In personal correspondence, he doesn't believe that they add a whole lot more to a direct design. There may other reasons you would use this e.g. having a greenhouse. On the other hand, he is thinks that earth berming e.g. digging your house into to side of a hill is a cost-effective way of providing mass and insulation. Yes, I've been reading Dan Chiras' book. That's why I became so nervous about not having a wall that direct sunlight could hit. Earth berming is not a possibility for us as we are building on a small flat urban allotment (476m) and we have a tight budget. We are trying to keep the house small - not much more than 20 squares. We are still in the process of designing the house but at the moment there is only one medium sized window and one set of French doors facing north in the living area where our thermal mass would be. I'll have to try and guess the percentage in relation to floor space. Re: Thermal mass walls 34Feb 22, 2010 10:45 am Are you designing your own house who using a project design? Don't any other rooms face north? Do you have a space limitation with northern aspect? Can you post a plan on this thread? Try not to have only one room assume all the direct north glazing for the whole house. NB French doors are harder to weatherseal and may be a source of unwanted cold air infiltration. 25% of your heat can be lost this way. Re: Thermal mass walls 35Feb 23, 2010 10:56 am dymonite69 Are you designing your own house who using a project design? Don't any other rooms face north? Do you have a space limitation with northern aspect? Can you post a plan on this thread? Try not to have only one room assume all the direct north glazing for the whole house. NB French doors are harder to weatherseal and may be a source of unwanted cold air infiltration. 25% of your heat can be lost this way. We are designing our own house and I can't post a plan because I have no scanner and no digital copy as yet. The bottom floor is basically a rectangle seven metres wide so the living area which includes kitchen dining and family has northern exposure as does the back bedroom. The council have already thoughfully built our flyover for the garage on the north side so we are losing some northern exposure. That does enable us to have a study/bedroom facing east with a window on the south side for ventilation. The third bedroom/ensuite and study nook are upstairs so that we can have some garden. The study nook has northern exposure and the bedroom faces east with again a window south for ventilation. Facing west are only toilets, bathrooms and wardrobes and the laundry faces south. What is the difference between casement windows and French doors apart from size? Don't they both operate on the same principle and aren't casement windows supposed to be the most eneryg efficient? Re: Thermal mass walls 36Feb 23, 2010 11:17 am So I take it that your garage occupies quite a bit of your north aspect? There are alternatives to getting the sun in to the back rooms such as clerestory windows but this would change your roof line. Aren't french doors, double openings that meet in the middle? It is the middle gap that is hard to seal. Hinged window are easier to seal than sliders because the edges are compressed around the frame. Sliders require brush seals for the edges to move across one another and therefore have more gaps. Hinged windows can be divided into casement (hinge on side), awning (hinge on top), hopper (hinge on bottom) Sliders can be sliding (move horizontally), sash (move vertically) Re: Thermal mass walls 37Feb 23, 2010 12:16 pm dymonite69 So I take it that your garage occupies quite a bit of your north aspect? There are alternatives to getting the sun in to the back rooms such as clerestory windows but this would change your roof line. Aren't french doors, double openings that meet in the middle? It is the middle gap that is hard to seal. Hinged window are easier to seal than sliders because the edges are compressed around the frame. Sliders require brush seals for the edges to move across one another and therefore have more gaps. Hinged windows can be divided into casement (hinge on side), awning (hinge on top), hopper (hinge on bottom) Sliders can be sliding (move horizontally), sash (move vertically) The house is about 18 metres in length and the garage takes up about 6 metres with a 6 metre setback, so it is slightly further back than the rest of the house. Clerestory windows add significantly to the expense I think and Dan Chiras doesn't seem to like either clerestory windows or skylights. Re: Thermal mass walls 38Feb 23, 2010 12:27 pm Clerestory, skylights and rooflights are tricky. The problem comes with losing rising heat through the relatively poorly insulated windows. Skylights may be a problem of allowing too much heat in. The better designs are double glazed, have special coatings or even shutters. Solatubes seem to be able to gather light diffused light through a fairly small aperture rather than admitting direct sunlight. A properly designed clerestory with shading for summer and closable insulated window coverings at night will be the best option. I find that slowly turning ceiling fans also help keep hot air near the floor. Re: Thermal mass walls 39Feb 23, 2010 7:07 pm Well this information has blown me away....I wouldn't have a clue how to work out all this info. When I start my planning stage I'm sure I will have to put the info on this page for some help. I suppose I have the added problem of living in Southern Tasmania which doesn't help when you want to build a 7 rated home. Cheers, Carolyn Carolyn Re: Thermal mass walls 40Feb 23, 2010 7:20 pm Caromac Well this information has blown me away....I wouldn't have a clue how to work out all this info. Me too Caromac! And I'm not innumerate or illiterate It's a very interesting discussion ... I just wish I had the time to try and understand it a little better Building on an acre in Macedon ......one day. Render your bathroom walls, two opinions versus the one, makes you wonder. 3 6062 The spacing of the studs looks pretty large especially for a load bearing wall. 3 11116 Nope, only on the inside, I've literally has my ears to the brick outside and can't hear anything. I can sort of 'reset' the noise by pressing firmly on the studs. This… 10 11759 |