http://www.tess-inc.com/projects/type This site's great. It's got some detail on the O'Neil Residence which uses both solar, geothermal and hypocaust (yes, Neal, the site actually uses that archaic and obsolete word)
Sorry for the really long link on this one. If you want to just go to www.sciencedirect.com you can do a search on hypocaust. Lots of interesting modern and archaic stuff. Here's a quick extract of the article I found most interesting:
Abstract
Hypocaust, an ancient Roman concept for keeping the inside of buildings warm, has been explained with a survey of a few modern buildings based on these concepts and using solar heat employing a number of design variations. Results expressed in terms of energy requirements per m2 of floor area per degree day comes out to be minimum (15.4 kJ m−2 per DD per annum) for a solar chimney and maximum for solar air collectors (128.4 kJ m−2 per DD per annum). The basic parameters that determine the performance of a hypocaust construction are size of the cavity determining the heat transfer between the flowing fluid and the building component and the storage capacity of the hypocaust element. The optimum width of the cavity comes out to be between 50 mm and 100 mm. Heat storage capacity of the building element used as hypocaust corresponds to 0.125°K temperature rise per hour in relation to the building heat load.
Here's a patent for a hypocaust system http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7066239.html This sounds a lot like that tricky whole floor ducting system from Texas.
Solar air systems: a design handbook by S. R. Hastings, Ove Mørck, International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme has a whole section on using solar heated air in a hypocaust system.
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?IA=WO2006118363&wo=2006118363&DISPLAY=DESC Another hypocaust system patent.
http://www.hypocaust.net/ This one made me laugh in light of Neal's statement that hypocaust is an archaic term no longer used in modern context. This company in England installs hypocaust systems in modern homes. At Hypocaust we are dedicated to making your heating requirements a reality, we strive to offer high quality products, fantastic service and superb after-sales support. I first read about hypocaust floors in modern homes in a Dick Francis novel, the one about the architect/builder with six boys and a share of a race course. The architect/builder converted barns, among other structures, into homes. He had hypocaust installed flooring in his current project. It's a great read, not only for the building stuff, but because Dick Francis is a really good writer, one of my all time favs.
http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?IA=WO2006118363&WO=2006118363&DISPLAY=CLAIMS Yet another patent. I wish the patents had pics so we could *see* what they were describing.
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1776888 Evolution of hypocaust systems including reference to computer models on hypocaust system performance in a hospital
http://www.transsolar.com/__software/download/de/ts_type_460_de.pdf Air to soil heat exchange, includes some interesting math. This is the stuff Don understands really well. As this is described, Don's AGS system could be refered to as a hypocaust system.
http://www.unige.ch/cuepe/html/biblio/pdf/BuriedPipes_RapFin_1998.pdf Moist air model for hypocaust
By now I'm fairly certain I've made my point. If anyone wants to push it I can keep going . . . I am, after all (next to Charmaine, who is of course the supremest research queen) the research queen.
ElfN
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