Quote:
Originally Posted by aardvarcus
Since people like analogies so much… This conversation reminds me of something else…
Person A:
Did you know you can heat your house from the sun? South facing windows, size the overhangs to reject summer sun, extra insulation, etcetera.
Person B:
No. I do not believe it. Unless you pay extra for a special house with a special certificate from a governing body regulating low energy construction, no house can be made or modified to be heated by the sun. You can’t mimic details to get there. You cannot copy construction techniques to get there.
Person A:
But wait, it works. I applied some rules of thumb and some hard math and calculated…
Person B:
Rules of thumb don’t work. The sun does not work. You see, not every house is heated by the sun- it must be wrong! Other houses have south windows, overhangs, insulation but they require supplemental heat. Houses can not be heated by the sun. You must have central HVAC, you see all houses have central HVAC. All architects design to have central HVAC.
Person A:
But I actually built one, and it works. See, here are some plans.
Person B:
You might have accidentally found something that worked for you, but it will not work for anyone else. Nobody listen to this other guy, he is wrong. See this plan has 12% glazing and this one has 10% glazing. Inconsistent. They don’t agree. Must be wrong. Everything is wrong. Install central HVAC or I will taunt you some more.
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However, Person B is cynical rather than sceptical. If Person A had showed how much heat the sun provides per square metre, showed the suns path through the sky in winter and then in summer, and also said, "it worked for me and I followed these rules, however that doesn't mean it will work for you" then that is fine.
In the UK we have houses like that, but because the sun is so low in the summer the overhangs need to be huge and are often not big enough and prolonged heat and sun has heated the houses to unbearable levels. Just because your rule of thumb works on your latitude, doesn't mean it works everywhere else.
No-one is saying following a template won't work, we are saying it is not always the best.