Cutting my heating bill > GreenBuildingTalk - Green Building Forums on Insulating Concrete Forms (ICF), Structural Insulated Panels (SIP), Radiant Heating, Geothermal Heat Pumps, Solar Power

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TechGromit User is Offline

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Posts:221

02/18/2008 3:56 PM
I've been told that insulating my basement would save between 20k to 27k BTU of heat loss. My initial response was doubtful, since the basement isn't heated anyway. When I thought about it, since the basement is cooler than the 1st floor above it, it would tend to cool off the first floor faster then it should. I know that 20k BTU is just a rough estimate, but is there a formula I could apply to figure out what my actual BTU heat loss currently is. I would think that a 10 x 20 foot uninsulated basement would have the same heat loss per sq foot as a 20 x 50 uninsulated basement. And number two, how much can I expect to save per 1k BTU heat loss if I insulated the basement. This would give me a cost / benifit ratio I can use to justify the expense of insulating.

geodean

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Posts:583

02/18/2008 4:35 PM
Attached are two heat loss calculations from a house. The first has no insulation in the floor. The second has R 30 in the floor. As you can see the difference is about 20k BTUh. This is for total floor footage of 2700sqft. 1 kw is about 3400 BTU. If your heat pump has a COP of 3 then you get about 10k BTUh for each kw you buy. So based on your kw rate, you can figure your savings. Hope this helps.
Attachment: no floor insulation.pdf Attachment: with floor insulation.pdf
Dewayne Dean PalaceGeothermal.com Why settle for 90% when you can have 400% We heat and cool with dirt! visit- http://welserver.com/WEL0114/- to see my system

TechGromit User is Offline

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Posts:221

02/18/2008 7:23 PM
Thanks for the PDF files! Over what period of time are these figures for? Daily Averages? Thanks!

geodean

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Posts:583

02/18/2008 7:26 PM
These are BTU's per hour at the design conditions listed at the top of each report. This particluar house was designed for an outside temp of -10° F. So when it is -10 the heat loss will be what is listed on the report.

Dewayne Dean PalaceGeothermal.com Why settle for 90% when you can have 400% We heat and cool with dirt! visit- http://welserver.com/WEL0114/- to see my system

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