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Boulder in House!

JimGPE_3
JimGPE_3 Member Posts: 240
in THE MAIN WALL
takes up 10% of the floor area of the house!

Um, how does one heat a 20' diameter rock in the first place? (Sounds like the lead-in to a bad joke!).

Also, painting the surface with silver paint keeps the heat in. What you want is flat black paint to radiate better.

How much does this granite puppy weigh? Sounds like you are building a house around a rock rather than putting a rock in a house....

Oh, and your instincts about the holes increasing radiation are correct. It won't work. Radiation is a line-of-site thing, not strictly a surface area thing. Now if you were trying to heat with convection, holes might help.

Is this work being done with a Federal grant? Uh huh, yeah, I thought so!

Comments

  • Pete Millar (PM)
    Pete Millar (PM) Member Posts: 18
    BIG Rock In the House

    For our next problem in radiant entertainment my company is going to heat a 3200 sq ft place built with a 20 plus foot diameter granite boulder in it (See related at Alderhill.com, that was our last HIGH MASS proj.) I see this one as a sort of LARGE marble in a somewhat LARGER box.
    Knowing the heat capacity/specific heat of granite and the rate at which it penetrates the stone, the conduction to the ground and etc. we could calc... or maybe we just take the practical limit and calc the load assuming an isothermal boulder.

    Owner has suggested boring holes into the rock for increased heat transfer but I don't think so.

    Thermally break conduction btw stone and slab? Aim radiant wall panels @ it? Paint it silver so to reflect radiant heat? Naw. Plasma coat it w/indium tin oxide and silver a la Heat Mirror Film? Naw.

    Maybe radiant walls would be a way to go, to make the rooms with boulder inside comfortable. The boulder does in a sense bring the outdoors inside in a number of interesting ways.

    I'll leave myself open to ridicule here... any comments?!
  • Mike T., Swampeast MO
    Mike T., Swampeast MO Member Posts: 6,928
    **** VanDyke

    What can we do with that big rock in the living room?

    Even Mary Tyler-Moore knew it was a lost cause.
  • Dave Yates (PAH)
    Dave Yates (PAH) Member Posts: 2,162
    Waterfall!

    We surrounded this one with radiant floors and walls and then turned it into a waterfall. No humidity problems in this home(G). 20'+ ceiling height.

    To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"
  • Steve Ebels
    Steve Ebels Member Posts: 904
    Where's

    The picture of the rock?
  • Pete Millar (PM)
    Pete Millar (PM) Member Posts: 18
    The Rock

    OK! So, actually the idea with silver paint was (whimsical) but intended to work with the fact that if we surrounded a mass (rock) with radiant panels (not conductively attached) then a radiation-reflective surface would keep the rock from being such an adsorber... more radiation to the room, less to the rock.

    The idea with holes was to increase conductive heat transfer to the rock by embedding rebar in the holes and gluing it in. Sort of like some big ugly porkypine kind of thing.
  • Pete Millar (PM)
    Pete Millar (PM) Member Posts: 18
    Van Dyke

    I seem to remember something about walnuts.
  • Art Pittaway
    Art Pittaway Member Posts: 230
    The ultimate

    DUST COLLECTOR, as if the maid didn't have enough to do. Will it have flat places to put down a beverage?
  • Pete Millar (PM)
    Pete Millar (PM) Member Posts: 18
    Waterfall

    I'll be darned, we're going to install a waterfall too! Thanks for the pic!
  • Pete Millar (PM)
    Pete Millar (PM) Member Posts: 18
    Picture

    You're right, I should get you guys a photo. I'll see if I can get in to get a pic today. Stay tuned!
  • Pete Millar (PM)
    Pete Millar (PM) Member Posts: 18
    Flat top

    Yep. Since the top of the rock will protrude through to the upper floor, they're going to flatten its top for a table surface.

    PS The owner is a contractor/mountain man/bike rider and we're a bunch of "grownup" kids having fun.
  • Dave Yates (PAH)
    Dave Yates (PAH) Member Posts: 2,162
    cool

    We were concerned about this green granite (down on the other side of the mountain there's a quarry mining this stuff for the green granules you see on roofing shingles) outcropping sucking the Btu life out of the room, so we had the HO sign off. (He reduced the amount of wall installed radiant tubing substantially.) With this being only the tip of the iceberg - so to speak - I wasn't quite sure what loss rate to apply.

    To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"
  • joel_14
    joel_14 Member Posts: 116
    Rockin idea!!!

    Bore a 6" hole vertcally down the rock from the second floor then hollow out the bottom of the rock on the first floor and turn it into a wicked cool central fireplace / wood stove. Just extend a vent off the top through the roof once that puppies hot it would probably heat the house for days if the power went out !!!
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