Trombe Wall Variation

 Was watching a "green" show that had a
Trombe wall and started thinking that if
properly modified, a design might
include little niches where you could
plant sun tolerant plants. This could
serve two purposes. The plants might
help absorb heat and they would probably
help clean indoor air.

Are there any serious problems with my
thinking? I can see that proper watering
and maintenance might present a problem,
but not insurmountable.

 

Malcom \"Mal\" Reynolds wrote:


I doubt the plants would absorb any more heat than the wall but do take
a look at this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-emissivity

Graham

 Eeyore wrote:

That Wiki looks very suspect to me.

It states
"The principal mechanism of heat transfer in multilayer glazing is
thermal radiation from warm surfaces to cooler surfaces"

That is rarely true, unless the gap is evacuated, eg a Thermos flask.

As I understand it radiant heat transfer between two surfaces at around
ambient temperature is quite a bit smaller than the conductive loss
through the best commercial glazing. Radiant loss to *space*
(effectively a very cold surface) from glazing or any other surface can
be quite significant, but depends on the atmospheric humidity and the
solid-angle of view of the sky from the window.  Basically only on a
very cold clear night with a good view of the sky.

If you compare the published r-value of high-performance glazing to that
of plain glass, the improvement is in the order of at best tens of
percent, not hundreds.

Tim Jackson

 

Tim Jackson wrote:


You're not familiar with low-E glass ? Since I believe it was invented by
Pilkington of the UK I can see that Americans might reject it on a NIH ( not
invented here ) basis.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=en&hs=hdv&q=low-e+glass&btnG=Search

Graham

 Eeyore wrote:

I'm familiar with it, I've read manufacturer's spec sheets, I understand
how it works, its uses and abuses.  I disagree with the statement I
quoted as unwarranted on the basis of physics.  The statement actually
has nothing to do with coated glass, it is supposed to be a statement of
the problem that glass addresses.


Tim
(an hour's drive from St Helens)