I climbed up on the roof of my garage a few days ago to clear off the snow from my solar panel, only to wake up this morning to another 25 cm of snow sitting on the roof. The entire solar panel is buried so that you cannot even make out where it lays on the roof! Everyone is staying home today. It is remarkable how much snow can accumulate!
One of my favorite sounds on a frigid day like this is the gentle Ahhhh of heated air rising through the vents in the floor, warming the house. Venturii calculates the difference in temperature between the inside air and outside air, and adds more heat inside when it gets colder outside to compensate for the accelerated heat loss through windows, walls and ceiling. I've been wondering and doing a bit of research on applying hot water lines to the underside of the floor sheathing - particularly beneath the stone tiles that lay inside our front, and back doors and main floor bathroom that always feel cool to the foot. Even if we could raise their temperature by a few degrees, it would go far to take the edge off. In my mind a simple recirculating pump and a couple of zone valves could control the flow of hot water from the hot water tank, out through the heating loops and back into the tank. I'm not sure if there would be any issues with doing this with shared domestic hot water, but I guess that's where further research comes into play. Ideally I'd like to do one zone for the front entrance, one for the main floor washroom, one for the kitchen / dining room and one for the back entrance, though it may be more difficult to get lines under the back entrance since part of the basement beneath it is finished. Eventually when we finish the rest of the basement, we'll probably (most likely) do some sort of in-floor heating. I've been in basements where this is the case and it's funny - the effect is so subtle you don't even notice it until you step into the furnace room or some part of the basement without in-floor heating you are suddenly (and startlingly) aware of the difference. For that project, I may even consider electric in-floor heating, thought I am loth to use electricity for heating anything but my tea since it is the most expensive form of heat available here, despite the convenience and ease of precise control.
