Ken Kern: Heat

“It costs three to five times as much to remove a BTU of heat from a house in the summer as it does to add one BTU of heat in the winter.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Winter , Time , Summer , Housing

“If no attempt is made to control excessive heat loss through glass… a solar house may require as much as 20 percent more fuel than an orthodox house during December and January… Wendell Thomas recognized and solved this problem… by burying the house in the ground, except for the south and east window areas. …at night… windows are covered with from inside by insulation boards and drapes…”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Problem , Loss , Housing , Night

“It must have been in Iran that Frank Lloyd Wright got his brilliant idea for cooling a house… During the summer months, the sunken fireplace hearth was filled with water. Down-draft air movement from the chimney circulates over this pool to cool… This unusual fireplace has a summer-cooling as well as winter-heating function.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Idea , Water , Winter , Summer

“A perfectly flat roof permits up to 50 percent more heat gain that a pitched roof… This illustrates the failure of the flat-roof construction to get natural, hot air flow out from under the eaves.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Failure , Nature

“It is no mystery that clay cook pots perform as they do or that clay ovens are considered healthy devices for us to use. In prehistoric times, baking ovens were built of clay and sand. Later these stoves were placed inside shelters where they could deliver some of their accumulated heat to the household…”

Ken Kern

p, 125
Ken Kern's Masonry Stove (1983)

Time , Cooking

“Convected air heating requires 70° air temperatures, whereas 65° are required using a radiative means of heating. The result is a 30% savings in fuel consumption.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

“The Arab's tent… actually consists of two separate tents. The outer tent is white and acts as a heat-reflective layer. The lower-inner tent additionally protects… by providing a blanket of moving air between the two tent layers. …this tent system also illustrates the two, most basic principles of summer cooling: reflective insulation and ventilation. …One system must supplement and reinforce the other.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Summer

“Glass… is not required for the collection of solar heat. The National Physical Laboratory of Israel… has perfected a highly polished metal surface coated with a molecular-thin black layer of special paint, which absorbs more than 90 percent sunlight. The polished metal radiates very little of the heat it receives. …A south-facing wall fitted out with these plates would really "drink in" solar heat, windows, or no windows.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Drink , Painting , Perfection

“Most houses grossly violate the basic principles of natural summer cooling and sound winter heating.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Nature , Winter , Summer , Housing

“As far back as 1624… Louis Savot invented the first heat-circulating fireplace. His unit was installed in the Louvre, Paris, and became the prototype for Ben Franklin's 1742 Pennsylvania stove. The 1624 French fireplace achieved 30 to 45 percent more efficiency than do most American tract home fireplaces of today! Savot surrounded the grate of his creation with a metal chamber, which had warm air outlets above the fire opening. He also supplied the fire with air from under the floor. Thus, room drafts were reduced and combustion efficiency was further improved. Few people are aware that practically all of the technical features of Franklin's Pennsylvania stove were copied from earlier inventors.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

People , Home

“Around 1800 American-born, expatriate Benjamin Rumford discovered that once heated, a firebox built of masonry materials did not cool the fire. Instead, it slowly built up the heat that kept the fuel in the firebox burning hotly. He joined the growing debate between builders of metal and masonry stoves, contributing considerable support to the latter.”

Ken Kern

p, 125
Ken Kern's Masonry Stove (1983)

Support

“As much as 70 percent of the sun's heat rays can be reflected from one's house by the installation of a white or light-colored roof.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Color , Light , Sun , Housing

“Heat from a centrally located masonry stove is transferred to all parts of the living space by steady radiation. Therefore, stove operating temperatures never fluctuate erratically, causing harmful air-turbulance. This makes for a more healthful indoor climate.”

Ken Kern

p, 125
Ken Kern's Masonry Stove (1983)

Health , Parting

“A wind of only 15 mph may increase the heat loss from a window surface by 47 percent or from a concrete wall by 34 percent. Therefore, heating plans have a critical relationship with windbreaks and with wind baffles.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Loss

“About one-fifth of all the heat that enters the average house comes through windows. …external shading is by far the most efficient method for controlling interior heat build-up. The air-wash between the shading screen and the window is also very effective. The screen should have a light-colored finish… Insulation boards placed next to the window pane at night, will help prevent heat losses through glazed openings. Overhangs and horizontal sunshades placed above south-facing windows serve effectively as heat reducers.”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

Color , Light , Loss , Help

“In cold climates it will cost only half as much to heat a well insulated building as it will cost to heat a poorly insulated one. … the annual fuel saving will amortize in two years the addition cost expense of the insulation!”

Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)