Our main heat supply died a couple weeks ago (a Vaillant boiler feeding a hydronic water baseboard system) and while I’m researching a cost effective way to replace it, we’re using a few electric space heaters. Occasionally, here in Seattle, the sun comes out. Usually in the winter, that means it’s cold, (for us, cold is 30’s). Our home has a few south facing windows, and I’d like to maximize the solar gain from them when I can.
The windows have miniblinds, and also some long brown curtains that can be open or closed.
On one hand, if I open the blinds and the curtains, the sun will shine in and warm whatever it touches: bedspread, carpet, furniture. Some of it is dark color, some medium, and some light.
On the other hand, I could open the miniblinds and close the curtains, let the sun fall on them and they can warm up the room.
Or I could close the miniblinds. That to me seems the worst option, althought they will get warm too and radiate their heat into the room, They are lighter in color than the curtains but a better conductor.
What is my best option to get the most solar gain when the sun is shining?
Replies
Open everything when the sun is shining in, close everything at night or on cloudy days...
Options............
Like the others have said-open up when sun is shining, close as much as you can when it's not.
And
Introduce heat holding mass into the line of sun if you can.
Move things that block the sun like chairs etc. The longer pattern made on the floor and ending at vertical objects will give more sq. ft. of sun in the room.
Nitpicking, I know, but "The
Nitpicking, I know, but "The longer pattern made on the floor and ending at vertical objects will give more sq. ft. of sun in the room." is not going to add solar heat.
It will increase the area of sunlit space, but the intensity of the sun's radiant heat will be proportionately decreased over that larger area--the resulting heat gain from solar radiation will be the same.
Alright
If you have proof then I will accept it.
Are you saying that 90 degrees of sunlight heat coming into a space is 90 degrees period-can't be more whether a pinprick dot or a whole window's worth of energy entering?
And / or
An 8x10 pc of glass letting in sunlight can only add so many degrees of heat in the room. There's no difference between the 3x4' back of the chair sitting in front of the window that shadow's the space behind it (which will be bigger because of the angle of the sun)?
and,
what if the floor is tile and you move the chair out of the room. Will the tile take on the heat and hold it longer-giving it off slower than the back of that chair?
So mass has nothing to do with it either...................
there's only so much heat energy coming in and you cannot increase the amount or retention of that energy?
The main thing is to get the heat into the room, vs trapping it near the window. If one were to open the blinds and close the drapes behind, on the theory that it would heat up the drapes, then that traps too much of the heat near the window, and thus there's more heat loss through the window glass. In addition, the drapes would reflect a lot of the light back out through the window.
The best setup would be a "trap" with odd angles and dark surfaces, so that very little light would be reflected back. The long floor approximates this (light will be reflected back up towards the ceiling and the back wall), though the occasional chair wouldn't make much difference. Bad would be a light-colored couch or such near the window.
(But of course many of these effects would be so small as to be immeasurable. The most important thing is to simply keep the curtains open during the day.)
The most important thing is to simply keep the curtains open...
Well no kidding Dan.
But like in the other thread on wood burning, the slow disbursement of the heat retained is more to the point. Radiant moderate heat is much more beneficial than the quick higher heat that rapidly vanishes as the heat source goes away. Even if there's only so much energy produced and collected-there's more benefit to moderate release for the comfort of the individual.
"Slow disbursement" simply
"Slow disbursement" simply means the heat doesn't escape as fast. By avoiding "hot spots" near the exterior, heat loss is reduced, since heat loss is directly proportional to temperature differential. In a perfectly insulated room provide a BTU of heat in 10 seconds or 10 hours and you still achieve the same final temp.
OTOH, "personal comfort" can actually be improved by having a "hot spot" -- let's say a hot rock -- somewhere in the interior where people can gather and "bask" in the IR. Difficult to achieve that with solar through a window, though, unless you use a bunch of mirrors. (Maybe here's an opportunity to use that mirrored satellite dish that was discussed earlier.)
Camping-hot front, cold ass
Slow release of heat-comfort for a longer time than hot for a few hours, gradually cooling down till it's cold. I'm not talking heat loss, what I mean is a mass dispensing the heat slowly and more consistanly. And no, you don't achieve the same final temp. In a room with no mass or heat retention absorbers, you'll end up at 78 till the sun goes down, then as rapid a cooling as your insulation allows. If the mass had the heat and distributed it slowly, you might see 70/74 as the peak temp, but longer time cooling down as the heat is given off by the mass.
And no, you don't achieve the same final temp.
Yes you do, in, as I said, a perfectly insulated room. Simple thermodynamics.
And in a less perfectly insulated room it makes more sense (from an absolute heat loss point of view) to disburse the heat widely, vs concentrating it, so that there are fewer IR losses and less chance of a "hot spot" near an (imperfectly insulated) wall or window. (Note that I'm not talking about comfort here, just measurable temperature.)
forget it dan
you speak inglish
I'm speaking spanglish.
We'll never agree on anything to do with heat, radiant, comfort or control.
OK, so long as you agree that I'm right ;)
I can't.
you aren't.
Gee, I offer an olive branch and what do I get???
The most important thing is to simply keep the curtains open du
the truth.
Yeah, open everything during the sunny hours, close everything when not sunny.
open everything during sunny times. Closing things will increase the temp (and heat lost) next to the window. Close everything at night or when it's cloudy.