Re: [papercreters] Hi Newbie to the group... some insights?

I've been fascinated for a long time but you are light years ahead of me!!! I understand the cooling/fountain properties. That's a great idea to play with. What would constitute a 'thermal mass' short of bringing one of the draft horses into the house... My experiments have been geared first, to the horses and, second, to things that one small woman could move/manage on her own. It was the energy use and water consumption issues that finally made me decide that we were moving now, rather than waiting until I'm too old to implement any alternative technologies. This past summer I devised a really simple misting system that was a huge help with the smoke from the fires. We have 3 horses with COPD and I managed to not only relieve their breathing but to drop the temperature in their shelters by about 15 degrees. When I tried to divert water from the house for this purpose rather than running metered water during a drought, I found out that there are regulations against that. I'll go hunting info on thermal mass. Thanks.

Clarissa

D Gardner <dgardner1@comcast.net> wrote:

Hi,
I've been fascinated by alternative architectures and energies for a
long time --and I've taken classes in alternate energy (where we had
to build our own solar water heater, solar oven, and a few different
designs for parabolic solar cookers < in which the design probably
could have benefited from papercrete for the construction! >).

When my family and I lived in southern New Mexico, I devised a sort
of makeshift solar air-heater (using cardboard boxes, clear plastic
sheets, and black plastic garbage bags) that worked relatively well
(for a "prototype"). I wish I had gotten a picture of the thing
<sigh>.

Now I'm in the SF Bay Area of California.. different energy needs--
although I think the same solar air heater would work here.

I was thinking about the comments about the shades for your windows
(on the home being discussed in previous posts). Interesting.

Has anyone thought that you could have a "thermal mass" next to the
south-facing windows? During the winter days, sunlight would come in
and heat the thermal mass, which would later release the heat into
the living area after the sunset. (The windows could be curtained
with insulating material after sunset to keep the radiated heat
within the dwelling.) If a solar-powered (of course) fountain was
placed against the inside-facing side of the thermal mass, during
the summer this could run a sheet of soothing water over the thermal
mass... the resulting evaporation would cause a cooling effect for
those hot summer days. Ah well.. just theorizing here.

Regards,
Dave Gardner (aka "EditorDave")
http://www.squidoo.com/Energy_Independence/

Clarissa
"He who holds, must first have discovered.
He who has discovered, must first have sought..."
~tale of y Chadee

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