<VV> Re: Garage Heating

[Chris & Bill Strickland]

some comments on heating:

1)   the chocolate chip heating system sounds delicious!!   :)

2)   what happened to wood stoves? no one has even mentioned them, or 
the safety issues involved -- the son-in-law's family just burned down 
Deer Camp, wood stove the likely culprit ...

3)   radiant concrete slab heating -- has anyone ever used a ground 
source heat pump (working backwards) to directly heat a slab (and cool 
the out of doors)? I used to live where they had natural hot water 
heating (geothermal) available, and saw many copper pipe hot water 
heated concrete driveways (to melt the snow & ice) torn up for system 
repair -- I understand that there is now a plastic tubing made for this 
service that is far less troublesome.

4)   we generally have mildish winters in the Willamette Valley of 
western Oregon (where I now live), so are a bit lucky that way -- most 
residential heat pumps are air-to-air here and work fine most of the 
time, although many set ups do include supplemental electric heat. You 
can poor a slab directly on just a gravel bed instead of having to 
insulate under it, and shelter from wind and rain is generally more 
important than insulation.  Don't get me wrong -- I envy you cold 
climate guys that simply *have* to build with insulation and heat for a 
winter shop to be even usable -- I like working in a T-shirt, too, but 
if a jacket is needed, I know how to dress in "layers ...

5)   all you guys on the Gulf that have to build to hurricane standards 
to shelter your Corvairs etc: Godspeed!

Bill Strickland