Heating appliances

Micro Heaters

January 6, 2012 by kris de decker Filed Under: Heating appliances

“In June of 2010 I moved to a place in Montana with only electric heat. By myself. In the past few winters I had conducted experiments in cutting the amount of energy I needed to stay warm, with a focus on heating myself instead of heating the whole house.”

“I had a lot of motivators here, but the primary motivator was the greenwashing being done around fluorescent light bulbs. My power company sent me literature telling me that I should replace all of my incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs to save energy and money. Based on my lighting usage, the most I could possibly save is $5 per year. Yet, with changing my heating habits, I think I have proven that I can save $500 per year.”

Solar Heating System with Water Battery

May 30, 2011 by kris de decker Filed Under: DIY, Heating appliances, Pools, Solar

Dutch inventor Kees van der Geer sends us this paper and wants to know what we think of it. Comments are open.

“Heating with a sun collector costs nothing and contaminates nothing. In this article I propose a solar heating system consisting of a large solar collector, suitable for the heating of a house and a heat store, capable to bridge a week of cloudy weather. Both are made from simple materials.”

“Maybe a practical solution to make a heat store is to buy a inflatable swimming pool of 17m3 and construct an insulating box around it. ”

Large area solar heating system (pdf), Kees van der Geer, 2011. (Artículo en Español).