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

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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

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