> Most houses are "designed" with but one goal: reduce the cost of materials.
> That's why rooms that need water are typically clustered. Don't want your
> washroom next to your kitchen? Sorry, plumbing's expensive! I imagine that
> principle explains the "cold room" syndrome.
It's sunny today and I'm around to measure the changes. Experiment time...
Old gravity air systems were usually designed with an understanding of
how airflow works. A good installation is a thing of beauty. However,
it does depend on what the house was originally like when it was
built. Going back in and insulating the walls or replacing the windows
changes the whole flow thing and needs adjustment. It's the old thing
of "does hot air rise or does cold air sink?" argument. A good updraft
in the ducts depends on a good downdraft in the cold-air returns. With
the advent of forced-air systems, people tend to park their brains and
think that air-flow doesn't matter. As the chief designer for the Red
Bull F1 cars says about aerodynamics, that you can't force air to go
where you want it--you can only encourage it. In most gravity systems,
the primary upflow is through the middle of the house and the returns
are on the outside. This takes advantage of the natural sinking of the
air along the outer walls and windows. Forced air systems almost
always are reverse of this where the cold-air return is in the middle
and the hot air comes in along the outer walls. This works fine if the
walls and windows are very well insulated, but ends up creating a
pretty big nightmare if they aren't. Success is dependent upon brute
force.
In our house-hunting adventures over this past year, we encountered
MANY houses with very poorly designed central heating/cooling systems.
One primary reason is that so many houses have been built on. Another
reason is that, frankly, most of these places were built by idiots.
The hot water pipes are rarely any better. The place we bought is
pretty good in the heating/cooling system (more or less), but pretty
rot-gut in regards to the hot water. I'll be adding pipe insulation
before putting the suspended ceiling in the darkroom.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
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