At 12:22 PM -0800 12/9/07, Cuyler Page wrote:
>Subject: Re: [BP] The Sustainability of the Puritan way
>
>
>Sounds about right, that's about what we burn each winter.  It's very labor
>(or cost) intensive to live in a cold climate.  Ruth
>
>------------------------------------------
>
>Just depends on the design!
>
>Here, North of the 49th in dry high desert cold country, at the clients
>request, I designed and built a 2500 sf two story home that made use of
>passive solar features, partial earth sheltering with berms,  thermal mass
>masonry core around the chimney with reversible fan to cycle ceiling air up
>or down through the core and crawl space, depending on the season, and
>aerodynamic form to deal with the site's intense North wind.  The building
>code system here did not allow wood heating as a primary source, so we had
>to install some electric baseboards to satisfy the Building Inspector.
>
>The first winter was an unusually bad one here, but, the owner never turned
>on the breakers for the baseboard system and used only 1-1/2 cords of wood
>for the entire winter season.   Unlike some homes with similar features, it
>was even pretty, and was published in the glossy Dr's office regional
>lifestyle mag.   House cost about$100,00 which was standard here then for
>standard, slightly plus, middle class housing.
>
>cp in bc

Cuyler,  That sounds lovely, however, I'm living in one of those old houses
I thought the preservation guys on here were trying to preserve and I'm
trying to preserve it.  I have no idea how may sq. feet it is but it must
be alot.  There are 10 good sized rooms and 2 bathrooms plus a huge hall
that runs the length of the upstairs plus a third of the downstairs.  There
is no insulation except in the attic floor and I'm going to keep it that
way, reason, if I insulate I don't think paint will stay on the house.

We heat this monstrosity with an outside wood fired Central Boiler hot
water furnace.  That thing is the greatest invention as far as I am
concerned.  Some places people are beginning to complain about them but we
are in a very rural area and the only ones it might bother have one too.
Ruth
-- 
Ruth Barton
[log in to unmask]
Dummerston, VT

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