Mechanical systems

Treating and recovering gray water in the home has always been a bit of a hit and miss affair, with DIY solutions often the only option - until now. At last, a packaged solution for gray water treatment & recycling - the Hydraloop Reducing home water consumption is an increasingly important issue, as the world is…

Wood Combustion – How Firewood Burns, the stages and processes, & how to get the best heat for your $ while being eco-friendly. Understanding how firewood burns, the technical details Stage 1: The Evaporation of Moisture – otherwise known as “getting the[email protected]thing going” If you’ve ever tried to burn wet or…

Solar panels good, coal-fired power plant electricity bad. If only it were that simple to choose. We discuss the best alternatives for producing your own power at home, from solar to wind turbines to generator bikes. Home Energy Generation, which option is best? How the electrical grid is fed near you will be a huge…

Would you exercise for an hour every day if the workout powered your home for twenty-four hours? EcoHome investigates if Bike Generators cut the mustard. Mitigating climate change at home, get on your bike! As we look for ways to mitigate climate change, improving home energy efficiency and decentralising power…

Ecohome’s new demo house will be a slab on grade with Solar radiant floor heating powered by air tubes heated with air solar panels - Ingenious! Ideal for boosting Passive House heating in cold climate zones. EcoHome is in the process of building our next demonstration low-energy house, and to do so we…

The flat plate solar thermal collector from Viessmann has a modulating collector to prevent overheating. Solar thermal panels in cold climates are at risk of freezing in winter, so in the North, we use a glycol mix as a heat transfer fluid. This prevents panels from freezing but introduces new problems in the…

Choosing the right solar thermal water heater system. What is a solar thermal collector? A photovoltaic (PV) solar collector converts solar radiation into electricity, but a solar thermal collector is much simpler than that. It refers to a device that collects heat directly from solar radiation. That can be as…

A comeback for foam radiant floor ICF forms heated with air tubes. Radiant heating systems are very common in concrete floors now because they provide a very balanced and comfortable distribution of heat. Those systems are most commonly hydronic, meaning heated liquid is pumped through tubing in the concrete which…

A study showed that reflectors on solar panels can increase their performance by up to 30%. The continuing drop in cost for home solar power generation has led to a dramatic increase in the rate of installations, for both residential and commercial use. Increasing the yield through reflection could make that an even…

How to choose and properly size a solar home battery system. Home battery systems have recently improved in two substantial ways, and the first big improvement is in the batteries themselves. Lithium-ion batteries on the market today are much more robust and functional than the lead-acid batteries we have relied on…

What to consider when choosing between a fixed-angle solar mount or one that tracks the sun all day. When considering home solar power you will first want to: Update your appliances and get your demand down as low as possible. Convert any appliances that you are intending to convert (such as installing heat pumps…