Thermal physics

[arki]

Imagine a house in a cold climate, where the conventional insulating outer wall is divided into thinner less insulating concentric layers with habitable spaces between them. The inner core has a heat source and the highest temperature, and accommodates activities with a high comfort temperature as relaxing, laying down etc. The following layers have room for more strenuous activities where a lower temperature is tolerated. As I understand it, heat loss is less when the difference in temperatures is smaller. Is less heat lost to the environment due to the comparably low temperature in the outer layers?

 

Will this system reduce the heating needs for the house in general? Is it an efficient way of saving energy?

 

Could the heat loss from the inner layer heat the other layers sufficiently?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Jan-Egil Pettersen, Norwegian architect.

[CaptainPanic]

Imagine a house in a cold climate, where the conventional insulating outer wall is divided into thinner less insulating concentric layers with habitable spaces between them. The inner core has a heat source and the highest temperature, and accommodates activities with a high comfort temperature as relaxing, laying down etc. The following layers have room for more strenuous activities where a lower temperature is tolerated. As I understand it, heat loss is less when the difference in temperatures is smaller. Is less heat lost to the environment due to the comparably low temperature in the outer layers?

Yes, it would lead to a significant saving in energy. If you do the same vertically (keeping the rooms closest to the roof also colder), it would reduce heat losses even further!

 

Will this system reduce the heating needs for the house in general? Is it an efficient way of saving energy?

 

Could the heat loss from the inner layer heat the other layers sufficiently?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Jan-Egil Pettersen, Norwegian architect.

It is so efficient, that I am surprised you don't know it. In Norway, I think this is used already?

The only reason not to utilize the principle to an extreme, is that people want windows (which must logically be on the outer wall) in their living rooms.

 

In many Scandinavian houses, the (wood burning) heating and chimney are built in the middle of a house, for the same reason as you wrote. If they would be built in the outer wall, the heat losses would be higher, and you would have to burn more wood to achieve the same effect.