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An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

bbc.com

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Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#121

Post by WalterBright »

scheme271 wrote: post #113
coryrc wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forced ventilation of the attic creates negative pressure in the attic, which pulls conditioned air from the house. The additional air movement (which you should minimize with air sealing) costs more than the additional loses by the mildly increased temperature differential through the insulation. If you aren't using A/C and have the windows open, then it only helps, of course.

Unless you have really good insulation, in hotter areas, your roof will absorb a lot of heat and that gets transferred to the attic and then to the rest of the house. One of the cheapest and best upgrades in hotter areas is to have an attic fan and vents to send the hot attic air outside.

> attic fan

The cupola does that using the "stack effect" and the acceleration of the wind as it hits the sloping roof, at zero cost!

That said, I do have an attic fan connected to a thermostat. I'd rather have a cupola, though.

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#122

Post by riazrizvi »

jimnotgym wrote: post #84

Some highlights of this rubbish article > Pretty much all the fireplaces I see are also built on the central spine of the building, meaning not much heat would be lost to the windows or exterior wall. Or maybe because, as the first half of the article say, it is because the outside walls have nowhere to put a fireplace, because they are covered in windows? > he told me it can feel around 10C (18F) warmer inside on a…

You had me at ‘rubbish article’. There’s a bunch of Youtube content on this that’s far superior, example:

https://youtu.be/puzxeIvpgwg

https://youtu.be/SrC3wms8pQ8

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#123

Post by dietr1ch »

HPsquared wrote: post #70
maccard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An open fire is not a particularly warm thing to have unless you’re directly in front of it. Most of the heat goes straight up the flue, and it uses an enormous amount of air to keep burning - it will pull huge volumes from rvertwhere it can. This is why these old buildings didn’t suffer from damp issues - the open fires burning were ventilating them.

It's the same problem as those portable AC units: the exhaust (chimney in this case) draws large amounts of air in from outside which is at the wrong temperature (cold in this case).

At some point they realised and the newer ones have a dupex air duct so you can keep air pressure even

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#124

Post by thangalin »

> Scandinavian cabins, despite lacking modern insulation, maintain warmth in sub-zero temperatures. This video explores centuries-old building techniques, comparing their performance against modern homes. Discover the surprising physics principles behind their resilience and energy efficiency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqwiMtoDhk

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#125

Post by pinnochio »

jimnotgym wrote: post #84

Some highlights of this rubbish article > Pretty much all the fireplaces I see are also built on the central spine of the building, meaning not much heat would be lost to the windows or exterior wall. Or maybe because, as the first half of the article say, it is because the outside walls have nowhere to put a fireplace, because they are covered in windows? > he told me it can feel around 10C (18F) warmer inside on a…

The author is not a scientist publishing in a scientific journal, in case that wasn't clear from the domain.

You always this cranky and uncharitable?

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#126

Post by ahartmetz »

sandworm101 wrote: post #116
maccard wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An open fire is not a particularly warm thing to have unless you’re directly in front of it. Most of the heat goes straight up the flue, and it uses an enormous amount of air to keep burning - it will pull huge volumes from rvertwhere it can. This is why these old buildings didn’t suffer from damp issues - the open fires burning were ventilating them.

If it has a flue or chimney, it isnt really an open fire. Look at an ancient long house, or farmer's thatched cottage from say 400 years ago. They had a fire on a stone circle on the floor in the middle of the room, and a high roof sometimes with a hole but often not. It was smoky, but kept everyone warm.

It gave people lung cancer, too. Maybe genetic adaptation to that (pretty toxic) environment is why smoking doesn't kill people more quickly.

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#127

Post by zdragnar »

xnx wrote: post #4

> Fireplaces were strategically arranged so minimal heat would be lost to the outer walls I'm always a little confused by radiators placed underneath windows in modern buildings. I'm sure it evens out cold spots, but it sends a lot of heat right outside.

I lived in a house for a bit with a bedroom was in the northeast corner of the house, and the radiator was on an inside wall. The only convenient spot for the bed was the exterior corner.

On more than one occasion, I found my bedsheets completely frosted stuck to the wall.

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#128

Post by pluralmonad »

vosper wrote: post #5
lm28469 wrote: post #3

Yep cheap energy and modern building techniques made us lose a lot of the common sense of yesterday. Good thing initiatives like the passive house institute are bringing back some of these principles, you can easily cut a modern home heating/cooling needs by 70%+ by following simples rules

Passive house thinking comes from an era of peak oil concerns, no solar, and no heat pumps. None of those conditions holds anymore. Further, passive houses are notorious for overheating and because they’re so airtight they require expensive mechanical ventilation and make-up air systems unless you want indoor air pollution problems. People building houses today are much better served by spending their money on solar…

Ever more complex systems/technology are fine for some and not for others. Some people care about simplicity and the ability to maintain and repair the system themselves.

Re: An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm

#130

Post by donavanm »

SturgeonsLaw wrote: post #104
teiferer wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, nobody builds a house without modern insulation (rock wool etc) and 3-pane windows. It wouldn't be legal either.

That depends where you are. Here in Australia the default is single glazed windows, and double glazed is hideously expensive, especially to retrofit. Sounds you're somewhere with some actual building standards though.

Also in australia, the BCC/NCA is an absolute joke compared to basically every other industrialized country. There’s a reason for the annual “Austrlian houses dont meet WHO minimum standards” articles.

As an example single pane windows havent been effective or widely used since the 70-80s in north america and europe. And both places energy standards effectively preclude them since 2000ish. Or insulation in australia is effectively absent in pre 2000s, and maybe R-4ish on a new build now. Conversely NA was R-4 in the 70-80s and it would be about R-6 (or more) these days.

Our residential solar and heat pump uptake is great. But for building standards and quality were a joke.

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