It was a lovely holiday season; I hope you and yours had a fine time.
If any of you received, or gave, any interesting gifts that reflected
the spirit of appropriate technology, please drop me a line. I heard
of several innovative gifts given this last Christmas. Among them were;
a toy car that is propelled by a stream of air stored in a balloon (I
will avoid mentioning how appropriate this vehicle would be for some
politicians) , a photovoltaic music box that plays You Are My Sunshine,
a fuzzy bath robe that must have an R value of 85 (perfect for those
mornings the fire didn't last all night) , a bottle of Irish Whiskey (for
those evenings you don't want to build a fire) , bubble bath (for an
insulating layer of bubbles on your bath water) , and a book titled The
Solar Cat Book (reviewed this issue, I hope).
The mail was rather slow this month, but with the new year launched,
I expect that to change...
Dear Q & A;
I am planning on building a house next summer. My architect and I have
discussed various conservation measures. We are doing what seems to be
considered typical insulation techniques to the shell of the house; double
glazing, minimum windows in the north wall, 2 x 6 stud walls, etc. Do you
have any suggestions for the interior layout that would aid conservation?
Richard Fader
Dear Richard;
That is a topic I have had some personal experience with. In remodeling a
small one-bedroom house, I added a second bedroom, to the west, adjacent
to the original bedroom. Both have exposed north walls. The original bedroom
has a north-facing window. In the new bedroom I built a full width closet on
the north wall. |
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This gives an extra layer of wood between the cold north wall
and the living space, and a wide layer of loose clothing as well. No quantitative
study has been made on the effects of this closet, but the residents report this
new room to be much easier to heat.
You also might look into putting your kitchen
in the northeast corner of the house. There are several reasons; 1) kitchen
appliances add a lot of heat, so I would place it on the cold/north side, 2)
afternoon west sun can overheat the room, so you might want to move it east, 3)
it is nice to see the sunrise in the morning.
Other things to think about might be, a sunken living room with a good fireplace
to take advantage of natural convection heating, water supplies and hot water tank
at the south side of the house, especially if you intend to use solar DHW (here
we have a trade off with the kitchen placement). Avoid architectural heat sinks,
like masonry chimneys on an outside wall.
If any of my readers send in suggestions for interior decorating for conservation,
I will be sure to pass them along. Until next month I bid you, adieu and leave you
with this thought, ride the bus for the Ayatollah.
Send questions, comments, and thoughts to:
Q & A
c/o Richard Lee Gilmore
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