On 16 Mar 2006 06:48:50 -0800 someone who may be
wrote this:-

Sorry, but this is nonsense.

So you claim.

1. Most houses do not have only one room with a south facing wall, it
is more normal to have 2 or 3 on one floor, and 2 on the other. That
makes 4-5 rooms heated directly, or about half of the house typically.

That rather depends on the house. Many houses have no south facing
walls, as they are part of a terrace. If they do have south facing
walls then they may have the number of rooms you claim facing south,
but are more likely to have one room on the ground floor and one or
two on the upper floor. Perhaps a quarter of the house typically.

2. Even if no circulation at all were used, a solar panel could still
contribute over half the heating use.

Such panels could indeed heat any suitable rooms, in the right
weather. Whether that was over half the heating use or not depends
on the house, but I suspect it would be rather less than half for
nearly every house. A barn designed specifically for this form of
heating could manage more. Still I'm pleased we have now gone from
whole house heating to supplementary heating.

3. Over half because there will be air mixing regardless of what you
do.

One needs large volumes of air to convey the same amount of heat as
a small volume of water. That is why air ducts are large and heating
pipes small.

Add the fact that any houses are open plan, in many the internal
doors get left open,

To heat a room it is not enough to just leave the door open and hope
for the best. One would need a means of supplying warmed air to the
spaces concerned and removing the cooler air. One could design a
house around such a system, but it would be difficult to fit into an
existing house.

and in many cases part of the south facing wall
supplies a corridor, and you're well over half.

So you claim. I disagree for the reasons I gave above.

Etc. The assertion that ducts are needed is a flying pig.

Ditto.


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54