By Bill Hoy, Project Manager
As mid-April approaches, good progress is being made on the REHAU MONTANA ecosmart house. The structural insulated panels (SIPs) for the second floor walls are 90% complete and the contractor is preparing the structural beams and connections for the placement of the SIP roof panels. The roof panels have been delivered to the project site and are scheduled to be installed using a crane this week.
In addition, the Aaon water source heat pump will be delivered to the sub-contractor this week with installation and placement scheduled for early May. Within the next few weeks, the structure of the house will be completed and the plumbing rough-ins will begin.
As mid-April approaches, good progress is being made on the REHAU MONTANA ecosmart house. The structural insulated panels (SIPs) for the second floor walls are 90% complete and the contractor is preparing the structural beams and connections for the placement of the SIP roof panels. The roof panels have been delivered to the project site and are scheduled to be installed using a crane this week.
Heat Sink Storage Installation
One of the unique concepts of this project is the installation of an experimental heat sink storage based on the Drake Landing Solar Community project in Canada in which 52 houses are part of a district geothermal community system. Each house has two thermal solar arrays that generate domestic hot water. In the summer months, excess hot water is dumped back into the central thermal well field to regenerate heat in the field. Last winter, after two full years of dumping excess hot water in summer, the community was able to use the heat sink for more than 60% of its heating requirements.
The REHAU MONTANA ecosmart house will have three thermal solar panels for generation of the domestic hot water needs and supplemental use of the radiant heating demands. Once hot water needs are met, the excess hot water generated from the thermal solar panel in the summer will be dumped into a heat sink located on the southwest corner of the house buried 10 feet below the concrete deck of the front patio slab.
The heat sink is made up of four zones of one-inch REHAU PEX piping laid in runs of approximately 400 feet each, placed in a loop configuration on top of sheet foil insulation. The loop field will be encased in one foot of grout, scheduled to be poured April 18. Then the heat sink will be backfilled with 95% compacted road mix base material within the ICF walls, and topped with rigid insulation prior to pouring the exposed concrete patio deck.
The heat sink has sensor monitors located at various heights as well as temperature and flow sensors to document the benefits of this concept and measure the contribution of the heating requirements for the winter months.
The REHAU MONTANA ecosmart house will have three thermal solar panels for generation of the domestic hot water needs and supplemental use of the radiant heating demands. Once hot water needs are met, the excess hot water generated from the thermal solar panel in the summer will be dumped into a heat sink located on the southwest corner of the house buried 10 feet below the concrete deck of the front patio slab.
The heat sink is made up of four zones of one-inch REHAU PEX piping laid in runs of approximately 400 feet each, placed in a loop configuration on top of sheet foil insulation. The loop field will be encased in one foot of grout, scheduled to be poured April 18. Then the heat sink will be backfilled with 95% compacted road mix base material within the ICF walls, and topped with rigid insulation prior to pouring the exposed concrete patio deck.
The heat sink has sensor monitors located at various heights as well as temperature and flow sensors to document the benefits of this concept and measure the contribution of the heating requirements for the winter months.
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| Loop-configured REHAU PEX piping is laid at the base of the heat sink. |
