On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:15:13 GMT
[email protected] (Robert Scott) wrote:

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:54:03 +0100, Steve O'Hara-Smith
wrote:

Then there are ice dams in winter.

Also too used to mild winters where below freezing is rare.

OK, for people in your type of climate, the reason against using the
attic to pre-heat domestic water is to limit air-conditioning costs. The

It might be if air conditioning were common here - which it isn't.
Round here the temperature gets below 0 C or above 25 C maybe two or three
times a year - almost a perfect climate, apart from the rain.

money you save on hot water by using the attic to pre-heat it is more
than cancelled out by the extra money you spend on AC, as compared to
what you could have saved by passively venting your attic.

What we do in these parts usually is put insulation in the loft so
as to thermally isolate it from the house. In summer it gets hot up there
and in winter it gets cold (range perhaps 5-40 C).

It does strike me that it may well be reasonable to use the loft as
a solar collector here.

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