Questions tagged [heating]
Heating is warming a space for human comfort. Use this tag for questions on space heating and central heating. For questions about heat for preparing food use the [cooking] tag. For heating water use the [water-heating] tag.
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Will supplemental heating source shut down my heat pump?
What happens to the heat pump when a space heater is used as a supplemental source?I have been told it will shut down my heat pump and in very cold weather it could freeze my pipes. My house was built ...
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Can a compact compost heat recovery system reduce the usage of fossil fuels on household heating?
Two months ago I made a post asking about Compost Heat Recovery System designs that are compact enough for household usage.
Though I got no answers from that post, I managed to develop a prototype ...
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What materials to use indoors to absorb sunlight and store it as heat?
(Also asked in Engineering Stack Exchange)
I'm buying a new place in the northern hemisphere (49° N) with lots of southern (or rather SES) exposure. I'm putting quite a bit of thought (together with ...
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Is there any efficient and small-scale compost heat recovery(CHR) system?
I want to develop a system mainly based on compost heat recovery technology.
Much research has already been in the past years and some good DIY designs established for farms to warm greenhouses. But ...
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Does painting an aluminum heat reflector make it useless?
I've placed aluminum heat reflectors on walls, behind radiators. As the reflectors were quite visible I've painted them the same color as the walls. Now I'm not sure it was a good idea. Do they still ...
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Flying vs heating and cooling
In some regions, summer is cool and there's little use of air conditioning. In other regions, winter is mild and there's little use of heating.
Suppose a household adopted the practice of flying ...
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Is anyone developing direct carbon capture for home HVAC system based on natural gas?
I live in Minnesota and I am concerned about my carbon footprint. I know that heating and cooling are large contributors to emissions globally.
This video from the excellent Youtube channel Technology ...
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Choosing heat sources to use with the current UK energy mix (carbon footprint)
This is related to Relative carbon footprint of gas or electric heating (UK) but with 2 key differences: things have changed in the 7 years since it was asked; I'm asking about the use of the systems ...
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Minimizing home heating costs with high ceilings
I live in an old rental house with 12 foot ceilings and zero ceiling fans. I am trying to conserve as much energy as possible as heating costs are expensive. I have placed plastic on all of my windows ...
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Is it possible to use sand for heat insulation at walls?
This question is most probably meaningful when there is a lot of area to build a single house. The main purpose is to keep the heat inside in winters, where it rarely drops below -5 degrees Celsius.
...
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Why Are Hydronic Electric Baseboards More Efficient Than Convection Electric Baseboards?
My understanding is that convection electric baseboards use electricity to run current through a resistor, which generates heat. My understanding is that this should be fairly efficient in the sense ...
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Carbon offset heating oil
My impression is that carbon offset plans are a rather imperfect and somewhat temporary solution - but still seem to be a step in the right direction, and at least signal consumer demand for green ...
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Which energy sources will replace fossil fuels for heating homes in cold climates?
Many countries are looking to phase out fossil fuels for domestic heat and hot water within this decade (see related question).
Which alternative energy sources will primarily replace fossil fuels? ...
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What makes swimming pool heat pumps unsuited for home use?
I noticed that heat pumps for swimming pools are a lot cheaper than equivalent heat pumps for home use. What could be the reasons for this?
To give an idea, a 16kW monoblock heat pump based on R32 (...
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Can furnace condensate water be used for houseplants?
I recently had my old, broken furnace replaced with a high-efficiency condensing furnace. One function of this furnace is that it extracts enough heat from the exhaust gases to condense them into ...
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How effective are shrink plastic insulation kits for residential windows?
I live in an older home with windows that build up frost in the winter, which indicates they aren't insulated very well. I am thinking of installing kits like these over the windows:
However, before ...
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Doesn't it make more sense to wrap hot sandwiches with the foil facing in?
You know those hot sandwiches sold in grocery stores (northeast USA at least...) that are wrapped in a foil paper? Wouldn't it thermally make more sense to have the shiny foil facing in? To keep the ...
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Calculating U values - Am I doing it correctly?
I have recently moved into a property that needs refurbishment and insulation. It has late 60s - early 70s cavity walls.
I wanted to work out what the current U value is across the property and what ...
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Keep my hands warm while working on a laptop?
I want to keep my hands warm(er) while working on a laptop in a cold room. Would it make sense to take a polar fleece blanket, fold it in half, sew together the two edges that are perpendicular to the ...
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Most energy-efficient way to keep my pipes from freezing without tearing up walls/floor?
I live in a second-floor apartment in the US Midwest. For a few weeks per year, I have found that I need to turn on the baseboard heater in my kitchen in order to prevent the pipes in the kitchen and ...
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Most efficient cheap heating system for small apartment in the US midwest?
I live in the US Midwest and am looking to upgrade from my current old baseboard heaters to a more energy-efficient solution. Any ideas?
I am already well advanced on a parallel project of home ...
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Solar air heater inside the window?
I have an older Solar Venti solar air heater that's supposed to be installed on the roof, or on a wall. For various reasons it has not been installed .. lack of a suitable location.
As it just ...
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Direct Electrical Heating
For a college project, I'm looking to learn about direct electrical and biomass heating as a means of decarbonization of our college campus? Where can I learn about these? Searching for direct ...
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What is the most efficient setting on my oil-filled radiator?
I have an oil-filled radiator with three heat intensities:
Low (900W)
Medium (1100W)
High (2000W)
Given the radiator has a thermostat, what is the most efficient heat setting to use?
My goal is to ...
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How much more efficient is boiling water with a lid?
I sometimes end up boiling water in a pot without putting a lid on top because I can't find the lid.
How much energy is wasted when bringing water to a boil without in a pot without a lid? Or ...
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How more efficient are low surface temperature radiators than traditional boiler systems?
I've recently come across low surface temperature radiators (E2 technology) as a form of heating. Unlike a traditional water radiator they operate at 30 - 50 C instead of 75 C. Small fans pull air ...
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Life cycle analysis comparing natural gas and propane prior to combustion?
I am choosing between natural gas and propane for a boiler. I see a discussion here where the accepted response primarily deals with the CO2 released during actual burning of the gas.
I am curious to ...
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Will a warmer climate reduce energy demand and increase solar PV production?
Nowadays, everyone talks about it: climate change, and more importantly, how to stop it from happening. Although there's a lot of debate around the topic, the consensus is that by inventing a way of ...
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Is an air to water heat pump appropriate to keep a hot tub at temperature throughout the year?
Is an air to water heat pump appropriate to keep a hot tub at temperature throughout the year? The hot tub will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, covered when not in use.
Presumably if the ...
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Efficiency considerations of forced air vs. hydronic central heating
For a building that is centrally heated by local fuel combustion (i.e. heating within the building rather than district heating), one may distribute the heat throughout the building using as a energy ...
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Does air duct cleaning increase heating efficiency?
I recently moved into an older house with a natural gas-burning forced hot air furnace. There are no records of the ducts being cleaned, and based on the layer of black grime I can see, they are quite ...
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For overnight heating, is it more efficient to use an electric space heater in a bedroom or a whole house natural gas furnace?
Is it more efficient to heat a bedroom with whole house's forced-air natural-gas burning furnace, or only an electric space heater in the bedroom?
For a very location-specific application, electric ...
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How many Kilowatt hours of heat does a 4000 sq-feet McDonalds emit on a typical day?
If I recycle the waste heat emitted by a Mcdonald's, can a well-placed Mcdonald's take the place of a community heating boiler?
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Can the heat generated in a data center be used to heat households and offices?
I've just read the article Microsoft sinks a data center off the Scottish coast (The Verge, 6 June 2018)
I understand that the cooling of a data center is a problem. Data centers produce huge amounts ...
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Can hot air move horizontally without a fan (vertical is easy)
Passive solar thermal, taking cool air at bottom and hot air out at top is easy.
But can the same 'hot air rising' system be made to work horizontally.
IE long black tube on a narrowboat
Any ideas ...
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Temperature equalisation throughout the house
We have been living in our home for a number of years now, so have seen several summers and winters, but we are still looking to solve the heating and cooling problems we have.
Heating
The walls and ...
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Are all Peltier-type stove fans the same?
I'm considering a stove fan to distribute heat from a small wood burner. The prices of commercial Peltier-type stove fans seem to range from £25 to £100.
Is there likely to be a significant ...
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What should I do with coal that I have been given?
My wife and I recently moved from London to a lovely old cottage in the countryside with electricity, no gas and a wood-burning stove. We are incrementally improving insulation to make the house more ...
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better to heat house with gas or with electricity?
Is it better to heat house with gas or electricity? We have gas insert and gas heating but am looking at other options for sustainable energy use. Thank you!
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Newer heat pump vs new space heaters in Seattle winter
I see similar questions to this one, but mine is slightly different, so here goes:
I live in Seattle, where the winters are mild, with days in the 40s°F (4-10°C) and nights in the low 30s°F (around -...
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Heat Recovery Ventilator HRV, metal vs paper core?
Which one is more efficient and has longer operating life, thin metal or nano paper core in a HRV?
It will be used in a Nordic country.
TL;DR
I'm searching for a heat recovery ventilator.
I am not ...
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How can a rocket mass heater be combined with a tight modern construction?
I currently have a house under construction. The overall design is for a tight, well-insulated building with a balanced active air exchange system (an ERV: a unit with two blowers, one in and one out,...
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Most cost effective heated flooring?
I am pulling out the carpet in my house. I live in a cold area. I want to heat my flooring, but don't want to spend an arm and a leg doing so.
What is the most cost effective and energy efficient ...
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Is heating with candles economically and/or ecologically worthwhile?
Considering my home doesn't have a heating system nor chimneys, I wonder if it's worthwhile to heat using only candles. There are multiple dimensions to consider:
Does it cost less than electric ...
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Heat escaping very old cob house
I have just moved into a semi-detached house (rented) made out of cob, heated with a wood burner which also heats up the water for radiators and washing. There is also a large boiler,electrically ...
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Can a household's organic waste alone produce enough methane for its own space heating?
If a household puts all its organic waste, from both the kitchen and the bathroom, into a biodigester, will it produce enough methane for the household's space heating in a low -25 °C to high -15 °C ...
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Boosting radiator convection with fans
I found an article online from somebody who built a rig consisting of a number of pc fans mounted under a radiator, blowing upwards. A temperature sensor ensured the fans would kick in as soon as the ...
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Running boiler intake along chimney for preheating
My house has a boiler in the attic that provides hot water for taps and for central heating. On the opposite side of the attic is a chimney pipe for the fireplace on the ground floor. I was thinking ...
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How to heat an isolated room
I live in a medium-sized airy house whose bedrooms are all in the main part of the house, with the exception of one bedroom which is above the unheated garage. This room gets quite cold even in the ...
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How can I vent smoke from a non-rangehood stove without losing too much hot air?
I want to vent smoke, such as roasting coffee smoke and cooking grease out of my kitchen. I do not have a hood, nor is there room to install one due to cabinet and window placements just above the ...
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