[Robotgroup] Residential Geothermal HVAC and Solar Energy..?

[Doug Emes]

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Boswell" <Michael at hilltopcafe.net>
> Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] Residential Geothermal HVAC and Solar Energy..?
>
> 50% reduction is going to take a lot of work. It is all about heat loads.
> You have to determine what your biggest heat loads are and develop
> strategies to reduce them. Then do the analysis all over again, and again.
>
> One area that I keep thinking about is my refrigerator in the kitchen. I
> would like to find  a way to move the hot side coils outside the house. That
> way the energy is moved directly from the inside of the refrigerator to the
> outside without having an intermediate step of going inside the house and
> using the House A/C to move it outside (at least in the summer)

Well, in the "olden days" folks had a "cold box", that actually stuck
outside the kitchen wall
to use the ambient cold weather.  Doesn't help us here in Texas much,
but you might
want to look at these:

1) A conversion of a chest freezer to operate as a refrigerator
http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.pdf
http://mtbest.net/freezer-to-fridge-thermostat.html

2) general link for solar heating/cooling
http://www.greenpowertalk.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6

3) magazine for home power etc.
http://www.homepower.com/home/

I have seen some pretty neat plans for solar ovens that keep your
kitchen cooler by moving the
cooking area OUTSIDE the walls of the house.  Another idea is to route
all of your coils to a
"Warming box" oven that is well insulated, and has a vertical thermal
release valve, so if it does
get too hot, you can simply open a flue and let the hot air rise up
and out.  Ive never seen a
normal kitchen have the fridge back to back with the oven, but it
doesnt mean it cant be done.