Word: heat
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...then the solar age may be on its way. In San Diego County, all new residences built after Jan. 1, 1980, must have solar hot-water heaters. In Santa Fe, solar-home builders Wayne and Susan Nichols estimate that a combination of air-lock entries, good insulation and solar heat radiating from a green house and rockbed system houses could reduce heating costs by up to 90%. When the town fathers of Soldiers Grove, Wis., voted to rebuild their often flooded town well above the Kickapoo River, they instructed the architects to design a thermally efficient community, with solar heat...
Engineer-Architect Fred Dubin, who considers conservation "a national security issue," is currently engaged in 75 energy-conserving projects involving new and existing buildings. He is developing an integrated energy system for large buildings that uses wind and photovoltaic cells for generating electricity, then recaptures waste heat from the cells for heating water. The imaginative Dubin has also conceived a vast underground heating and cooling system for Washington's Market Square Development complex...
...York, Chicago, Boston and other major cities, he can call for heat on a hotline. While the federal ceiling of 65° applies only to commercial and public buildings, most cities enforce local laws requiring landlords to keep residential buildings at a minimal 68° by day and 55° by night. Scofflaws reported over the hotlines are generally given a day to adjust the thermostat before they face fines or jail sentences. "Our big club," says Chicago Building Department Director Nick Fera, "is that we can haul a landlord into court within 24 hours." That may not deter...
Proper house insulation is the first prerequisite for the effective use of any energy-saving device. The newly designed $1,400 Blueray furnace, for example, captures as much as 90% of the energy that is locked in a gallon of heating oil, vs. the 70% recovered by a conventional furnace. But it makes no sense to install highly efficient equipment in the basement if all the additional heat generated escapes through leaky baseboards, wall sockets, attics, exhaust fans and chimneys, where up to 85% of a home's heat loss occurs...
Vent dampers. Before a furnace or boiler can heat a house, it first must heat itself. Only after the inside temperature climbs to about 130° F does the furnace begin transferring warmth. Yet whenever the system shuts off, much of the accumulated heat within the furnace escapes up the flue. The vent damper is an electrically operated plate that blocks the flue during an oil-or gas-burning furnace's off cycle, thus retaining the heat. The plate then rotates to an open position when the unit trips on again. Department of Energy studies show that dampers...