https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/ Building science knowledge, HVAC design, & fun Tue, 29 Jan 2013 06:56:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5125 Tue, 29 Jan 2013 06:56:40 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5125 Allison, 

Allison, 
I just read Martin Holiday’s article. Of all the doomsday scenarios he posed, the solar disruption of the electric grid, and therefore the financial, communication, transportation, food, water and fuel grids, seems the most likely and the the most devastating possibility. Hopefully a less than completely devastating warning event, like a Katrina or a Sandy will mobilize people to take preventative measures before “the big one” hits.

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5124 Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:43:31 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5124 bobspez:
bobspez: Indeed, the Sun could wipe us out technologically with such an event. Did you See Martin Holladay’s 2011 halloween article? 

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5123 Sat, 05 Jan 2013 03:05:43 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5123 Allison, 

Allison, 
As long as you mentioned apocalypse and big picture items, it brought to mind the solar flares that hit the US in 1859 for a three day period(the Carrington Event) that melted telegraph wires in the U.S. Luckily, analysis of ice cores shows these events average about once in every 500 years. If a similar event were to happen today it would destroy all non shielded computer chips, taking down everything that uses computers … all communications, vehicles, water, gas and electric utilities, appliances, communications and finance.  
Such an event would put us back into the 19th century, except we no longer have the capacity to survive in that environment.  
But Homeland Security recently released a study on the problem. Hope it creates better preparedness than our “duck and cover” Atomic bomb drills did back in the 1950’s. We grammar school pundits back in the day used to say the drill was to put your head between your legs so you could kiss your rear end goodbye.

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5122 Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:52:30 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5122 David, 

David, 
I’m presently in a 1200 sq ft. energy efficient one story home. Ten years ago I was in a 105 year old 1400 sq. ft, 2 story home with an open eave airflow in the attic and new windows/storm doors. 
The hot air heating system we had worked fine at 20degrees F, poorly at 15degrees F and was virtually worthless at temps below zero. We had a blizzard with temps below 15 degrees during the day and reaching below zero at night for several days. We spent those days freezing despite plastic on the windows and doors and running electric heaters. After that experience I removed the hot air heating and installed an 85,000 BTU boiler and hot water baseboard heating. That boiler was about twice the capacity of the previous system and above spec for the house. We never froze again and our energy bills didn’t go up, so you are correct on that score. What I should have said was that putting in the over capacity boiler gave us the capacity we needed to cover any contingency, that the lower capacity boiler did not. For us it was well worth the $15,000 it cost us.

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5121 Wed, 12 Dec 2012 09:28:30 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5121 @Bob: couldn’t agree with you
@Bob: couldn’t agree with you more. 
 
@bobspez, if boiler is sized to the 99 percentile design temperature, any deviations below that are only going to be a few hours, not for several days. During brief excursions below the design temp, the home’s mass and insulation (thermal lag) prevents indoor temps from dropping much if at all (unless house is leakly and poorly insulated). That’s the reason we design to the 1 & 99 percentile temperatures. 
 
In any case, an additional 10% to 20% oversizing will handle pretty much anything nature can throw at a system, if home is accurately modeled. In any case, doubling your boiler capacity greatly increases its cycle losses. 
 
Finally, your point is regarding “all those energy savings” makes no sense.

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5120 Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:40:03 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5120 Well, if you have ever sat in
Well, if you have ever sat in a cold house when temps uncharacteristically dip below zero for several days you will understand why people aren’t willing to undersize their boilers. When it happened to me I doubled the size of mine. You can say all you want about statistics, but three or 4 days in the cold wipes out all those energy savings for decades.

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5119 Tue, 11 Dec 2012 09:40:11 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5119 I would be very interested in
I would be very interested in hearing your comments on Joe’s discussion of pellet stoves and boilers in particular.

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5118 Sun, 09 Dec 2012 22:07:58 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5118 This was my first trip up to
This was my first trip up to Westford, and I have to say … it was quite an eye-opener. After going to hundreds of “advanced” conferences I finally was at one where I was absolutely sure that most of the people in the room knew more about this stuff than I did. First time ever I took notes … lots of them. 
Took lots of tylenol too, but that’s another story …it seems nobody up there was putting the alcohol in their gas tanks. I thought all energy geeks are boring … guess it’s just me.

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5117 Sun, 09 Dec 2012 03:17:26 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5117 Thanks Allison,  &lt
Thanks Allison, 
 
As we have discussed, Contractors “Load Calculations” on old houses are nothing more than adding guesses that give them the “loads” they want. Or as the Author says,  
 
“they simply change some of the inputs to make the procedure spit out answer they’re comfortable with and no one questions their answers.”  
Hank Rutkowski P.E. Author ACCA Manual J. 
 
Why should we expect anything other than CYA bogus Loads from a procedure with no relationship to physical reality? 
 
Hardly science, more like witchcraft 
 
Thanks for your posts, 
 
pj  
 
 

]]> https://www.energyvanguard.com/blog/a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session/#comment-5116 Sat, 08 Dec 2012 19:07:41 +0000 http://energyvanguard.flywheelsites.com/?blog_post=a-day-with-professor-straube-at-the-building-science-experts-session#comment-5116 The cooling side has it’s own
The cooling side has it’s own issues. Rarely if ever will you find an A/C unit over 13SEER that’s under 3 tons. The 14+ SEER units that are 1.5, 2 and 2.5 tons sit in the warehouse for years, few contractors buy them. People who are willing to pay more for an AC unit will normally upsize just about every time. When I replaced my own 3ton unit with a properly sized 2ton 14 SEER unit I found this out 1st hand. The AC was made in 2009, yes it had been in the warehouse 3 summers. The matching coil was made in 2012. The bigger is better mindset is alive and well. Some of the guys at the shop though I was nuts going 800sft/ton on my new AC since the 500sqft/ton rule of thumb had been drilled in their brains so long… 
 
It doesn’t matter to contractors that oversizing basically kills the rated SEER, and the existing ductwork will barely support the old AC much less the new one. Don’t even get me started on all the poor installs of high end equipment we run into. Lets just say that if it isn’t a single stage AC with a single stage furnace or a simple heat pump/electric heat that something will not be right. I’ve even seen where somebody had a 15SEER heat pump with a conventional heat thermostat. Yes it worked, but ran on heat strips all winter! And crappy ductwork, I won’t even go there, there has been enough articles written on that subject.

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