Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

richsoil.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–276 of 276 posts

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#271

Post by dredmorbius »

fuzzywalrus wrote: post #260
byuu wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His article on CFLs ( http://www.richsoil.com/CFL-fluorescent-light-bulbs.jsp ) is very cringe-worthy as well. As part of his argument, he references a report he heard of claiming that kids gained 20 IQ points by switching back to incandescent bulbs. Seriously.

His article on Diatomaceous earth is mind boggling, advocating cooking with it http://www.richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp wikipedia: "In order to be effective as an insecticide, diatomaceous earth must be uncalcinated (i.e., it must not be heat-treated prior to application)[13] and have a mean particle size below about 12 µm (i.e., food-grade – see below)" Its used occasionally for deworming people and considered…

I've encountered advocates of DE consumption previously. No real sense of whether it's legit or bogus, though there seems to be some plausibility. I'd have to look into other sources. Wheaton's credibility based on his other statements isn't great, and dosing and/or specific indications would be useful.

It is helpful to realize that in a pre-industrial society, parasites were very common among humans (and still are in less developed nations), including many introduced via food. Whether or not DE could combat that is arguable, but a regular intake might be argued if you're subject to parasites in your food supply. I'm more in favor of alternatives such as cooking.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#272

Post by dredmorbius »

jccalhoun wrote: post #233
byuu wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His article on CFLs ( http://www.richsoil.com/CFL-fluorescent-light-bulbs.jsp ) is very cringe-worthy as well. As part of his argument, he references a report he heard of claiming that kids gained 20 IQ points by switching back to incandescent bulbs. Seriously.

as soon as i read "greenwashing" I knew we were getting into dumb territory...

Greenwashing is real. Whether it applies to CFLs is another matter.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#273

Post by sampo »

stinos wrote: post #182
fulafel wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most houses have poor in insulation. Also, adding good insulation without degrading indoor air quality and causing moisture/mildew problems is tricky. So improving energy efficiency of heating for existing houses with lesser insulation is very useful.

tricky Well, it is mainly a matter of installing a proper ventilation system. So improving energy efficiency of heating for existing houses with lesser insulation is very useful. it is, but it can never reach the levels of energy savings coming form decent insulation (where decent means: German standards for instance)

It is a common complaint among people who moved from Finland to Germany, how dodgy the German houses are. If the rest of the world is even worse, maybe I should never leave home.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#274

Post by sampo »

dirkf wrote: post #197
alricb wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention: In a well-insulated, well-designed house, you won't have any worries about frozen pipes, even with a low thermostat temperature, since all pipes will be inside the insulated enclosure. There's a whole community of people trying to build better buildings out there. The Passivhaus people, the PERSIST (Saskatchewan) and REMOTE (Alaska) approaches ( http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/g…

I'm currently living in a passive house (in Belgium, Europe). We've only moved in two months ago so we haven't experienced a winter yet but even in the current summer climate it has already been an order of magnitude more comfortable than any of the other places I've lived in. When the temperature hit 30 degrees Celsius for a couple of days last week the house was at a comfortable 23 degrees. Everywhere. Key design p…

> underfloor heating pipes [...] we can use this system to passively cool the house

While floor heating is cozy and wonderful, I am somewhat skeptic on the comfort of floor cooling.

Re: Micro heaters cut 87% off my electric heat bill

#275

Post by snicker »

dgacmu wrote: post #254
dredmorbius wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the ideal structure is not supposed to exchange air with the outside" No, the ideal structure should minimize heat loss from air exchange . I'm not fully up on my air exchange rates, but it's fairly typical for ranges to be in the 4-20 range, that is, the interior air is exchanged with the exterior 4-20x per hour. In my Thorsten Chlupp references elsewhere you'll find he makes extensive references to heat exchangers…

+this. Another way of putting it: A well-designed structure should minimize random, unintentional air exchange, but provide sufficient deliberately-engineered ventilation to keep the air and people happy. For efficiency, that ventilation should go through a heat recovery ventilator (HRV) or energy recovery ventilator (ERV) as appropriate to the climate and budget. (An energy recovery ventilator also exchanges moistur…

Perhaps I lacked the verbosity in my original comment, but this was what I meant to imply: ventilation is part of the design. Unintentional exchange is to be avoided.
Post reply on HN