Comments on: Drilling for heat

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:33:55 +0000

Joan – Great point about thermal underwear! We could save so much CO2 if people would simply bundle up a bit. I find 60 degrees F quite comfortable; too warm and stuffy and it’s hard to think.

Yeah, heat pumps that just use the outside air don’t do much for winter heating. The below-ground temperature is in the low 50s – good for air conditioning in the summer, and a real boost for heating in the winter. The groundwater systems are expensive to install, but pay for themselves within a few years.

By: Joan

Joan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:55:36 +0000

Dave, I was curious about your geo-thermal heating. Had thought that was something only available in Nordic countries conveniently situated on top of volcanic activity. Thankfully, I was wrong and this geo pump is a nifty way to go. My neighbors did buy the cheaper “Heat Pump” that is supposed to perform magic inside out air exchanges. It lasted about a month before they got rid of it for one of the traditional gas sucking furnaces of Missouri. I was, however inspired to write a ditty.

Too Late To Exchange

There are different kinds of heat pumps
Some are inside out exchangers
Geos burrow in the earth
But with the first kind there are dangers.

If your climate is quite temperate
You’re fine with heat exchange
But if not you might be thinking,
“These heat pumps are really strange.”

If you’re counting on some warm air
During winter best beware
Cause along with thermal heat
We’re sporting thermal underwear.

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 13:42:32 +0000

Hi all - Thanks for the comments. I should have said that, although this ended up as an essay, it was prompted by a ReadWritePoem suggestion to trying facing down one's fears. Such things almost by definition seem silly when brought out into the open. Sorry for the lack of photos, but the light wasn't really very good. I haven't wanted to blog much about the new house (except obliquely) because until it's finished and occupied, vandalism is always a possiblity. But it will be a caretakers' house, and replaces the home of our former neighbor Margaret McHugh, whose derelict house I've written about more than once. We're making it as green as possible.

By: Pablo

Pablo — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:59:54 +0000

Keep that shorn head warm with a cap or such. Of all the things I’d imagined my round rocks to be, I’d never looked on them as shaved heads. Now I probably won’t be able to see them as anything but that.

By: SvenWaring

SvenWaring — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:59:55 +0000

Conform not to conformity;
Conform not to nonconformity.
The artist never shits. He/She defecreates.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:40:48 +0000

Geothermal heat-pumps, woodstoves and passive solar design, oh my! I would love to hear more about all of that.

If you are walking around with a camera and an umbrella, I don’t think you ever need to fear conformity.

By: suzanne

suzanne — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:02:20 +0000

where are the PHOTOS!!!!!!!
and
whose house will it be?

By: dale

dale — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:20:11 +0000

Yes, that’s one thing I’ve never been kept up about at night: worrying about you becoming the man in the gray flannel suit :-)

Wow, they’re really drilling for geothermal there?

By: leslee

leslee — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:08:06 +0000

Nice. And I’m pretty certain you’d never be assimilated into the Borg. Or the ‘burbs for that matter.