ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 47

Column Building ScienceS

then making sure the duct system
was fully balanced on the supply and
return side. We "invented" transfer
grilles and jump ducts to balance the
pressures and handle the opening
and closing of interior doors. All this
is old news today, but it sure wasn't
old news in 1982.
But there was one thing we could
never handle well. If you put a
kitchen exhaust fan or a vented-tothe-outside clothes dryer or even a
bathroom fan in a tight house, you
could still get into trouble negative
pressure-wise to spill combustion
products. We tried to put holes in
the wall and supply outside air to the
furnace zone, but I was never happy
with the approach.** I came to the
conclusion that the only way to go
was sealed combustion appliances
or power-vented appliances. You
can imagine how popular that made
me. Anyway, we got it all done at my
Mom and Dad's-finally.

Photo 6 Earth Tubes. Note the plastic drain pipes
sticking out of the ground. Each pipe was 50 feet
in length and connected to the intake side of a
heat recovery ventilator.

Only took a year. I pretty much knew
it all by the time I was 27.
I started to chase Btus that didn't
need to be chased. The air in the
winter in Canada is cold. Who
knew? Maybe I could pull the air
through the ground and warm it up
before I introduced it to the heat
recovery ventilation system. Earth

tube preheating. The runs would
have to be really long and the ducts
would have to be deep-below the
frost line-and they would have to be
far apart. No problem. I just loved
long coiled plastic drainage pipe. I
got the "solid" kind and added the
"feature" to two houses right away.
The first was an enormous custom
home (Photo 6). The second was a
much smaller house that won me
an award (Photo 7). Got them built
and up and running in late fall. The
earth tubes worked great through
the winter if you believed the temperature measurements I took in the
airstreams. Man, I was a hero.
Then, the summer came, and the
houses began to smell musty and
moldy. The smells were coming out

Earth Tube Preconditioning and the
Psychrometric chart
It is hard to imagine that I used
to be a custom homebuilder in the
early days. I was building tight and
ventilating right with balanced heat
recovery ventilation. I was conditioning interiors with sealed combustion power-vented appliances.
I was heating water with electricity
because there were no sealed combustion or power-vented domestic
hot water systems in the early '80s.
The Mom and Dad lesson stuck. But
then I got cocky. Yup, it happens.
**Yes, I know that this is currently a "code accepted" means of
making things work. And, it sort of works. In fact, it works rather
remarkably well despite my not being that thrilled with it. The
combination of spillage and high CO production in houses with
low dilution air change rates rarely happen simultaneously. But I
sure would sleep easier if we just all went the sealed combustion
power-vented approach. And,don't forget about the gas ovens;
they are unvented after all.

www.info.hotims.com/49802-7
March 2014

ashrae.org

ASHRAE JouRnAl

47



ASHRAE Journal - March 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - March 2014

ASHRAE Journal - March 2014
Contents
Commentary
Industry News
Letters
Meetings and Shows
Feature Articles
2014 ASHRAE Technology Awards
Cold Weather Operation of Cooling Towers
Improving Operating Efficiency of Packaged Air Conditioners & Heat Pumps
Aligning IECC and Standard 90.1
Small Building, Vast Potential
Standing Columns
Building Sciences
Engineer's Notebook
Refrigeration Applications
Data Centers
HVAC Applications
Energy Modeling
People
Special Products
Classified Advertising
Advertisers Index
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Intro
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - ASHRAE Journal - March 2014
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Cover2
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 1
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 2
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Contents
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Commentary
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 5
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Industry News
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 7
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 8
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 9
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 10
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 11
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 12
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 13
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 14
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 15
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Letters
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 17
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Meetings and Shows
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 19
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 2014 ASHRAE Technology Awards
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 21
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 22
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 23
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 24
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 25
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Cold Weather Operation of Cooling Towers
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 27
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 28
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 29
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 30
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 31
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 32
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 33
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 34
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 35
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Improving Operating Efficiency of Packaged Air Conditioners & Heat Pumps
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 37
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 38
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 39
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 40
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 41
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 42
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 43
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Building Sciences
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 45
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 46
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 47
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 48
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 49
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Engineer's Notebook
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 51
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 52
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 53
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 54
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 55
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Aligning IECC and Standard 90.1
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 57
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 58
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 59
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 60
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 61
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Refrigeration Applications
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 63
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Small Building, Vast Potential
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 65
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 66
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 67
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 68
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 69
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 70
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 71
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 72
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 73
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Data Centers
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 75
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 76
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 77
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 78
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 79
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 80
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 81
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - HVAC Applications
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 83
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 84
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 85
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 86
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 87
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 88
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 89
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 90
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 91
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 92
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 93
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 94
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 95
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Energy Modeling
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - People
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Special Products
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 99
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 100
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 101
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Classified Advertising
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - 103
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Advertisers Index
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Cover3
ASHRAE Journal - March 2014 - Cover4
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