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Post by patamos on Oct 23, 2015 8:53:51 GMT -8
Hi Folks, So i have a project starting up where i am putting a vortex heater in an addition to an existing house. The house has an uninsulated crawl space and presently-cold floors. And i have been pondering ways of delivering heat to warm the floors. For a while I was set on a vented water tanks and pumping heat through hydronic tubing between the floor joists. But then I happened back across Donkey's mention of water being 'the universal solvent…' always wanting to escape whatever container we put it in… So then the lightbulb went off in my head: why not hot air? Build a plenum off the flue stack and a small fan can send the warm air into the crawl space. It will take some puttering to get the air to spread out even enough, but then will act something like a large bell I've seen a few systems where people are drawing heat from a plenum off their flue, but they all had custom ductwork. Does anyone know of pre-manufactured double wall flues with plenums built in for this purpose? all ideas and suggestions welcome thanks pat
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Post by Vortex on Oct 24, 2015 9:41:01 GMT -8
When I first moved into my cabin it had no under floor insulation and draughty gaps between floor boards, when it was really windy the rugs would sometimes hover! The crawl space went from nothing at one end to about 2 feet at the other. I thought about trying to insulate it from underneath but it was impossible to even get under half of it and the other half a cat had been using as a toilet ~ I came up with a this solution. You make 'sausages' of rockwool wrapped in builders plastic (1000 gauge DPC plastic), the seam tapped up with good strong duct tape. The 'sausages' have to be exactly the right size to fit in the gap between the joists, above the foundation timbers. You leave about 2 feet of extra plastic at the end of the 'sausage', which you roll up and tie a rope on to, which you them feed through the gap between the joists with a long stick or pole, and then slowly pull it through into place This is the only picture I have from when I did it. It shows the end of the sausage coming out where I'd just finished reinforcing the floor ready to build my stove. I had to do it in 2 pieces there but the rest of the house I did in one sausage for each gap. Hope that's some help.
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