Here is an idea for you that may work better than AC

Here is a link that might be useful: Earth Tubes

Smile3,
Interesting concept but I doubt it would work in this area. They specifically state "Please note that Earthtubing is not meant as a summer cooling system in hot, humid climates where moisture would reach dewpoint and collect in the tubes."

That would be true for months of each year, especially during the cooling season.

Anne

Smile,

Just to reinforce the point - tonight it is 71 F with a dewpoint of 68 F - 90% humidity. And we're in a dry spell during the dry season! While those Earth Tubes may work great in Colorado or out that way, they would not be very good around here in the Deep South.
Anne

Bob,
On the "no flame" bit - I've had second and third degree burns. I cannot emotionally handle being around flames. And I know the load that it adds, though I do not use a hair dryer Vacuum does not get used much since we now (and will) have wood and tile floors. Most of my cooking is done in the microwave rather than on the stove or in the oven.

Actually, I'd guess that the most "extravagant" load I'd add would be my electric blanket, though using it on winter nights lets me lower the thermostat a lot. The absolute highest load would probably be the clothes dryer.

The way I am laying out the house, there will only be a few interior spaces with no natural light: the laundry room, closets, and one hall - and using Solatubes in them should be easy. The mudroom could benefit from a Solatube since it will extend well into the house.

I'll have to think about where I could put pole mount PVs - close to the house, though not actually shading most of it, are a lot of trees. There is an open pasture to the northeast of the house site - wonder if the horses would be tempted to mess with the panels?

I'll try to post a link to the current house plan and an aerial of the house site and surrounding land. Not tonight, though, we spend half the day halter breaking foals and it is late!

Anne

Gary, I've downloaded some of the info you suggested - been lurking here a while reading old posts. But I'll need to do some homework on the other stuff you've pointed to!

Locally most of our power is from a LP plant and a hydroelectric dam (built in the 30s and revived in the early 80s). A company is talking about building a coal gasification plant in a nearby county, but the electric coop I am in is not going to participate in that project, though the only city in this county has signed on.

As I told Bob, I will try to post the current iteration of our house plan and a site aerial.

Thanks - I'll be back with more questions.

Anne

I'm not sure how many horses you have. If you built a low level stable, and put the house over the stable, you could gain heat from the horses in winter. The grass uses sunlight to make food for the horse, the horse eats the grass, and some of the metabolic heat is released. You can still see some older farmhouses in New England, connected directly to the barn, designed and constructed to take advantage of metabolic heat derived from farm animals.

Anne,
Look into an induction cooktop. They are twice as efficient as regular radiant or gas cooktops and much safer since they don't heat up -- I've used bare fingers to pick up spilled items from active "burners". See the Appliance forum for lots of information.

Also, you might want to consider super-insulating your house. My parents have a new Energy Star house and they rarely run the heat in the winter since most of the heat for their mild climate house is supplied by lightbulbs and their own bodies with a little help from the dogs! Heat recovery is also viable. It is fairly inexpensive to recover heat from waste water as it goes down the drain and use it to pre-heat incoming water or to recover heat as air is vented from the house.

Gary,
I've thought about a mattress heater - two reasons I have not tried one yet: when my old electric blanket has gone out, no one had a mattress heater in stock and I just bought an off the shelf electric blanket for a quick replacement. Second - I've worried about how lumpy the pad might be. I'm the classic "Princess & the Pea" type and hate any sort of lump or uneveness/ You're the first person I have discussed a mattress heater with that owns one - are they at all lumpy?
Anne

ericwi,
Here in Florida, the inconvenience of dealing with the heat, insects and smells produced by the horses in the summer would far out weigh the heat gained in the winter. In fact, one major aspect of planning a barn in Florida is a high rate of air exchange to keep the horses cool in the summer. The relatively few cold nights we get in the winter are not worth sealing up a barn sufficiently to gain heat from the animals.

In the old days they used to do what is called "deep bedding" of the stables and barns. They'd put down a thick layer of bedding material (straw) then not clean out the manure and soiled bedding for the entire winter. It was not just the heat of the animals that heated the living quarters above, it was the composting of the organic material, too. While that can be done in cool, dry climates, in Florida it just makes a nasty, smelly mess with millions of insects and lots of disease.

Also, in the last 40-50 years it has been found that sealing a barn tightly leads to many respiratory problems in horses (I don't know much about other livestock), so I'd want good airflow no matter what.

These days, if I had enough horses being kept up I'd consider building one of the setups to collect the methane and use that for heating - if I could find a way to never have to deal with the flame, that is.

Some dairy operations are participating in collecting methane and providing it to local electrical power plants. Other than short bits on the news, I don't know much about these projects. I want to say they were in the Pacific Northwest.

Thanks for the thought, though.
Anne

jxbrown,
I've read about the induction cooktops, but so far have not seen one at a price I'd be willing to pay. But I am keeping an eye on the new technologies, so will watch out for lower prices as the inductions become more common.

I talked to a builder yesterday that builds ICF houses. His price per square foot range is within my budget and I like some of the other things he does. I'm going to look at one of his houses in progress, maybe this weekend. If I do not go ICF, I will probably go 2x6" with Icynene insulation (which I will probably use to insulate under the roof, no matter what). I plan to spend more money on building a well insulated and tight envelope than on any other aspect of the house.

Anne

Hi Anne,

On the mattress pad heater, we have not found it to be lumpy. I think we are using a regular mattress over it.
I guess you could always order it from a place with a good return policy?

On another part of the electric appliance front, we are in the process of replacing our frig. We are finding that the lowest use energy ones seem to be the conventional freezer above frig without the through the door icemaker (icemaker inside instead). We have found a 21 cubic foot one at 420 KWH per year. I measured our old one over a week -- its right around 1100 KWH per year -- quite a difference.
Anyone know of a better than 420 frig (without getting into the very exotic and expensive ones)?

Gary

Gary