free heat from the attic

[georgeodjungle]

got to love that fee heat:

last fall i installed some duct,fan, dryer flaper & thermostat.

i set the thermostat @ 70.

it came on today around noon,

"first time in awile"

 didn't shut down untill 20:00.

out side was 60 but in the attic reached 88, inside a nice 71.

it only comes on once in a wile but,

didn't have to light the ol heater...

[domwild]

George,

Read that idea in a West Australian newspaper some time back. It was an ad for a commercial heating solution. Suggestions were to have a black or dark roof, lots of insulation in the ceiling and to use the piping of an existing cooling system - not compressor-based but water-spray based. Common here in Oz.

This company also worked on cooling the rooms in summer by blowing the hot air out of the attic and out of the ceilings, i.e., the blower reverses direction in that case.  Should be easy to do. I do not know if there are "valves" or shutters on the market for the large dia. air conduits, which can be switched on/off electrically.

Winter: Air from attic into rooms at ceiling height.

Summer: Hot air from ceiling and attic to be vented to outside.

Need shutters in the attic to be opened in summer for venting and closed in winter to heat the air there.

 

[electrondady1]

my attic gets super hot in summer . i would like to duct that hot air to a storage medium  if i could  and use the energy next winter,  

i have no basement , just a crawlspace under house. it's wonderfully cool down there in summer . it would be great to duct that into the house instead of a.c.

i would think heat exchangers/filters of some kind could be used to keep the air clean. perhaps a p.v. powered fan woulod energize the system when needed?

[Norm]

  How about if the clothes dryer were to suck

that hot air from the attic in the summertime?

  Would sure give the heating element a break

I would imagine !

                     ( :>) Norm.

[Saidrich]

I have a close friend who placed a heat exchanger in his attic to heat his domestic hot water with limited success. He told me that he received more success in direct sunlight. Where I live by the time the attic is hot enough to heat my home I am trying to keep the house cool. Kind of like a solor light (only have light during the day when i don't need it.)