Menu
What's new
By:
Filters
AllBuffs | Unofficial fan site for the University of Colorado at Boulder Athletics programs

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • Prime Time. Prime Time. Its a new era for Colorado football. Consider signing up for a club membership! For $20/year, you can get access to all the special features at Allbuffs, including club member only forums, dark mode, avatars and best of all no ads ! But seriously, please sign up so that we can pay the bills. No one earns money here, and we can use your $20 to keep this hellhole running. You can sign up for a club membership by navigating to your account in the upper right and clicking on "Account Upgrades". Make it happen!

Coach Prime Needs To Find House 1 Mile From Campus

Boulder County has had strict requirements for some time on homes over 5000 sq ft that requires essentially solar and geothermal in order to get building permits. I think it’s a net zero requirement. A builder friend of mine likes to bitch about the added cost of it and I like to tell him nobody needs homes that big and if they can afford that size they can afford to not make the world more polluted.
 
buffaholic said:
Boulder County has had strict requirements for some time on homes over 5000 sq ft that requires essentially solar and geothermal in order to get building permits. I think it’s a net zero requirement. A builder friend of mine likes to bitch about the added cost of it and I like to tell him nobody needs homes that big and if they can afford that size they can afford to not make the world more polluted.
Click to expand...
Good for you. And good for Boulder County. It's a great policy. If you want to live in a mansion and pull that much extra off the grid to no purpose, tough luck. Build your mansion, but only if you don't put any strain on the grid. 👍
 
I lived in southern Oregon in a neighborhood with hot water geothermal. We had a 120 ft deep well that was 180 degrees. Closed loop of pipe ran cold water down and drove the hot water up. Radiant baseboard. Super nice. When it was hot in the winter we would open the windows.
 
buffaholic said:
I could be wrong but many heat pumps are not using beneath ground geothermal options, and that chart likely covers all heat pumps. Those that exchange just with air are far less efficient, although more so than traditional heating/cooling.
Click to expand...
You are correct.
 
Potatoes said:
Those are a bit different. Geothermal involves pulling gw thru water wells, typically a supply well and then a return well. The water goes thru a heat exchange and if open loop is discharged back into the aquifer. So you have two wells on the property, hence the high up front cost.
What is is growing in popularity is noted above, the heat exchange is done by ambient air and condenser units against the house, kinda looks like an ac unit. Recent advances in technology makes the air heat pump systems effective in producing heat for homes down to -20 which is opening up is use in northern and colder climates, they have typically been a southern thing until now. These systems are compact and cost effective. Versatile also, can be installed in houses with no duct work or retrofitted into existing duct work.
Click to expand...
Thats an open loop system. Closed loop systems are what I was referring to. I was, however, misreading the chart.
 
I was informed by a few dozen people that kelly would perform miracles at lsu. I think he lost 4 consecutive conference games instead.
 
Uncle Ken said:
The word "literally" has been in use for centuries and you can't seem to figure it out. Sooooo....*





*Unless you were literally shocked, in which case I apologize.
Click to expand...
Given that the first definition of "shocked" in Merriam-Webster is "surprised and upset," I stand by my use of the word "literally."

I am very surprised, and I am a little upset/annoyed that a bunch of guys who may have the wherewithal to purchase a heating/cooling system with such a ridiculously low energy use/small carbon footprint have "never heard of" this decades old technology.
 
Our new townhome in Silverthorne has a radiant floor heating system. No traditional ductwork in the place at all. It has taken a few adjustments by a plumber to get the system to stay within a few degrees of where you set the thermostat and the whole thing runs off a boiler in lieu of a furnace. Apparently it is hyper efficient, but you don’t want to monkey with thermostat settings as it takes hours to change the temperature.

I haven’t confirmed, but I have to believe it is a Summit County code requirement. I don’t believe for a second this builder put it in because they wanted to do so.

So far, my utility bill hasn’t been any higher in winter than the last place despite being substantially bigger but it is still early days.
 
skibum said:
Given that the first definition of "shocked" in Merriam-Webster is "surprised and upset," I stand by my use of the word "literally."

I am very surprised, and I am a little upset/annoyed that a bunch of guys who may have the wherewithal to purchase a heating/cooling system with such a ridiculously low energy use/small carbon footprint have "never heard of" this decades old technology.
Click to expand...
And Skibum provides an example of how "literally" has been dumbed down; it is now used to draw our attention to the figurative use of a word, rather than the literal.

john travolta grease GIF
 
Last edited:
skibum said:
Given that the first definition of "shocked" in Merriam-Webster is "surprised and upset," I stand by my use of the word "literally."
Click to expand...
But that saying that you are "literally surprised" is not a good use of the word. The word is intended to communicate that you don't mean the figurative definition of a term - and it isn't generally used with a feeling (e.g., "I was so surprised that I literally fell out of my chair" works, but "I was literally surprised" does not because there "literally" is just an extra word that adds no additional meaning or context to the communication).

I literally find this confusing.
 
Highlander said:
Our new townhome in Silverthorne has a radiant floor heating system. No traditional ductwork in the place at all. It has taken a few adjustments by a plumber to get the system to stay within a few degrees of where you set the thermostat and the whole thing runs off a boiler in lieu of a furnace. Apparently it is hyper efficient, but you don’t want to monkey with thermostat settings as it takes hours to change the temperature.

I haven’t confirmed, but I have to believe it is a Summit County code requirement. I don’t believe for a second this builder put it in because they wanted to do so.

So far, my utility bill hasn’t been any higher in winter than the last place despite being substantially bigger but it is still early days.
Click to expand...
This system, depending on the energy type at the boiler may not be much of a win in terms of efficiency. Let’s talk how many solar panels you got!
 
buffaholic said:
This system, depending on the energy type at the boiler may not be much of a win in terms of efficiency. Let’s talk how many solar panels you got!
Click to expand...
Natural gas.

I may be able to put some solar panels on the roof here and back in South Denver. We've blown so much cash in the last 6 months, I've put that on the backburner for now.
 
Hank said:
But that saying that you are "literally surprised" is not a good use of the word. The word is intended to communicate that you don't mean the figurative definition of a term - and it isn't generally used with a feeling (e.g., "I was so surprised that I literally fell out of my chair" works, but "I was literally surprised" does not because there "literally" is just an extra word that adds no additional meaning or context to the communication).

I literally find this confusing.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Literally isn't ideally used to highlight the more basic meaning of the word, but rather to emphasize those rare cases where there is a more (wait for it) literal connection.

I was literally shocked by what I learned when I peed on an electric fence.
 
acknowledging that I tend to be more pedantic on these matters than others, I've found myself stating things like the below when using the word 'literally', especially in written form.

"The show was so good, it literally (in the figurative sense) blew my mind"
"I literally (in the literal sense) need that question answered in the next hour"
 
Last edited:
hokiehead said:
acknowledging that I tend to be more pedantic on these matters than others, I've found myself stating things like the below when using the word 'literally', especially in written form.

"The show was so good, it literally (in the figurative sense) blew my mind"
"I literally (in the literal sense) need that questioned answered in the next hour"
Click to expand...
You're a bad person.
 
Had a company quote solar. Their price was crazy. They offer financing and the lady quoted “$157 per month for 25 years. You will see immediate savings because your utility bill averages $175 a month.” So I checked and I came up with our average at about $118 per month. So even if rates increase, it’d take the rest of our lives to recoup the initial costs. They wanted over $30k. I think with the 30% credit it’d be around $24k. Ridiculous.
 
DBT said:
Had a company quote solar. Their price was crazy. They offer financing and the lady quoted “$157 per month for 25 years. You will see immediate savings because your utility bill averages $175 a month.” So I checked and I came up with our average at about $118 per month. So even if rates increase, it’d take the rest of our lives to recoup the initial costs. They wanted over $30k. I think with the 30% credit it’d be around $24k. Ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Have you considered a bigger house with a lot more monitors? That could help make the math work.
 
Highlander said:
Our new townhome in Silverthorne has a radiant floor heating system. No traditional ductwork in the place at all. It has taken a few adjustments by a plumber to get the system to stay within a few degrees of where you set the thermostat and the whole thing runs off a boiler in lieu of a furnace. Apparently it is hyper efficient, but you don’t want to monkey with thermostat settings as it takes hours to change the temperature.

I haven’t confirmed, but I have to believe it is a Summit County code requirement. I don’t believe for a second this builder put it in because they wanted to do so.

So far, my utility bill hasn’t been any higher in winter than the last place despite being substantially bigger but it is still early days.
Click to expand...
Love our in floor system. Definitely set and forget.
 
Wait guys.... I think I literally just figured out how to use literally correctly after catching up on this thread.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top