Electric Speedster - step by step build

Bob: IM S6 posted:

There is no real easy clean solution to keeping warm in winter for us who live in northern climes (except to head far south...)

Actually, there is. I read an article about ten years ago about a dude in Michigan. He used solar hot water to take care of 85% of his heat and hot water needs. In MICHIGAN!

10 foot high by 24 foot long solar panels piped to a 500 gallon highly insulated tank. It had a coil rigged inside for domestic hot water.  The balance of the tank was pumped through radiant floor heating in his home. I believe the home was approx. 2000 sq. ft. I recall he said it cost $75 a year to run the electric water pumps. The system would gain 20-30 degrees during the day( from 10 a.m. to about 2 p.m.), then lose 1 degree per hour overnight. As long as the water is between 110 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, radiant works well. Stan can fill in the gaps here as that's his area of expertise, but it all makes sense to me.

DannyP posted:

Bob: IM S6 posted:

There is no real easy clean solution to keeping warm in winter for us who live in northern climes (except to head far south...)

Actually, there is. I read an article about ten years ago about a dude in Michigan. He used solar hot water to take care of 85% of his heat and hot water needs. In MICHIGAN!

10 foot high by 24 foot long solar panels piped to a 500 gallon highly insulated tank. It had a coil rigged inside for domestic hot water.  The balance of the tank was pumped through radiant floor heating in his home. I believe the home was approx. 2000 sq. ft. I recall he said it cost $75 a year to run the electric water pumps. The system would gain 20-30 degrees during the day( from 10 a.m. to about 2 p.m.), then lose 1 degree per hour overnight. As long as the water is between 110 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, radiant works well. Stan can fill in the gaps here as that's his area of expertise, but it all makes sense to me.

We do quite well with a 6 ton Geothermal unit. About 3,600 feet of 1" tubing around the yard in 6 loops. The geo unit provides heat, cool and hot water. House is a stucco bungalow about 2,500 sq.ft. The geo unit runs on electricity and we budget about $2,000 per year for all electric needs. The hydro will go out from time to time like anywhere else so we have a 5kw generator on standby. It won't run the geo unit though so at that point we light up the centrally located wood burning fireplace and that with it's blower and a large ceiling fan will heat most of the open concept style house. The geo unit will heat the house until the outside temps get down to -28 C for three nights in a row...then it needs help. I won't pay for aux electric heat, although it's in the furnace so we just throw a few more logs on the fire at that point. The geo unit cost me about $23k but we had it installed when the gov't was giving $15k rebates. Baha, Mexico sure sounds nice.