A Scan Andersen 10 woodstove, installed in the MCNZH.
People commenting on a recent national CBC article about Edmonton’s NetZero Energy houses spent a lot of effort criticizing the fact that the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) has a wood burning stove. Besides proving beyond a doubt that the only thing worse than an ignoramus is an anonymous ignoramus, the comments taught me a bit about what messages to send in a sound bite culture such as ours. Continue Reading →
I’ve thought about the heating system for the Mill Creek NetZero Home (MCNZH) for months now. The home will need a very tiny amount of heat because it’s so superinsulated, super sealed, and passive solarized. The computer model that simulates the energy performance of the house (using HOT2000) has the MCNZH using 2500 kWh. That’s roughly 6% of the heat that my renovated (with new insulation and windows) 1950s bungalow uses.
So we’ll need the equivalent of 9 Gigajoules of natural gas per year for space heating. Given that being connected to the natural gas grid costs about $400/year, and 9 GJ are worth $50-$100/year, it makes no sense for us to connect to natural gas. Plus, Canadian natural gas production is waning, so I don’t want to depend on having gas in the pipe in 20-50 years from now. Continue Reading →
