cheap tricks for energy savingss

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I had a great idea for recovering all the btu's which normally just go down the drain. I did a little search on google, and found out that a company STOLE my idea--almost twenty years before I had it! Check it out:

http://oikos.com/gfx/index.html

Here's some similar ideas:

Bury supply pipes deep enough to have warmer water into house (save many kwh per year)

Wrap a “coil”, which can be square, actually, using oversize pipe to minimize friction loss, on top of septic tank, cover with rigid insulation, make sure that septic tank area has foolproof drainage to avoid cross contamination. Preheats water supply, saving big $$

Put manifold, pipes, in or under slab construction, and run cold water through it. Cools slab, warms irrigation water. Also, run main supply pipe through slab to preheat water to water heater, etc.

Run drain pipe from house alongside supply pipe (again, provide drainage protection to prevent cross contamination)

Run drainpipe alongside underground pipes of ground source heat pump.

These are very preliminary ideas; some of them will require some valving in oreder to utilize them only in the appropriate seasons..

Obviously, most of them are more practical for new construction.

Gotta go,

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), August 07, 2001

Answers

We rented a house which was all cement and had a slab floor with the pipes in it. Can get very expensive to fix if pipes break.

-- kathy h (ckhart55@earthlink.net), August 07, 2001.

Good point, Kathy. I didn't spell out any details for any of this. The best way, imho, to put pipes into a slab is to put them inside a slightly larger low pressure (cheap) pvc pipe, with provisions to slide pipes out to repair them, should it ever become necessary. I personally think this is overkill (although overkill is my middle name, when it comes to building). After all, virtually all houses built on slabs have their pipes under the slab.

JOJ

-- jumpoff joe (jumpoff@ecoweb.net), September 17, 2001.


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