Staircase position for stack affect and energy efficiency

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Staircase position for stack affect and energy efficiency

(8 posts) (3 voices)

Started 5 years ago by micky
Latest reply from Catopsilia

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micky
Member

hi

We are designing 2 story house in melbourne and are deciding where to place the staircase. With energy efficiency, air circulation and practicality in mind, where is the best place to position a U shaped return staircase? The options we are looking at is:
1. adjacent to the main living area to the south side - to maximise the stack affect in summer (openable window at top of stairs) i'm imagining this would be great in summer for air cirulation but in winter it would be a big source of heat loss through rising heat, closing off the stairwell is not a practical or elegent solution with multiple kids running around
2. off the main entrance to the north side where we can zone off this area from the main living area in a corridor. I'm assuming this would be better in winter but it would reduce the air cirulation and reduce the impact of the stack affect.

so, how effective is the stack affect in a normal two story dwelling, in a new house thats super insulated and air tight, how much of an issue is heat loss through an open stairwell?
Appriciate the feedback, especially some real world experiances

Thanks Mick

Posted Wednesday 7 Jun 2017 @ 12:42:09 am from IP #
Catopsilia
Member

Hi Mick

I will have something to say shortly.

Posted Saturday 10 Jun 2017 @ 10:53:39 am from IP #
Benny
Member

micky - in my experience the stack effect won't help much in summer particularly if you will have AC on anyway. If you allow the rising air to draw in outside air and its 35+ outside its not going to cool you much - especially if you have good insulation keeping the interior cool anyway. Also the upstairs area will help keep the downstairs cool.
In winter losing the heat upstairs is a HUGE effect. We have a u staircase just off the main living area and its essential for us to close this off with a curtain in winter or we can't get that room warm. We don't worry about heating the upstairs areas.

Posted Sunday 11 Jun 2017 @ 1:14:41 am from IP #
Catopsilia
Member

To Micky

One wing of my house is two-storied, and has a stairwell which was open to the rooms at the time of the thermometer readings.
When the saying "Hot air rises" is applied to a house it should be changed to "Hot air rises, and cools as it goes".
You may get a little insight from the analysis of this graph in this blog post.
https://climatebysurly.com/2017/06/11/house-june-warmth-profiles-i/
There is analysis of the details of daily temperature cycles to follow.

Posted Sunday 11 Jun 2017 @ 1:40:53 am from IP #
Catopsilia
Member

As Benny says "In winter losing the heat upstairs is a HUGE effect."

For the previous post, it took five attempts to be accepted as not a robot. How many this time, I wonder.

Posted Sunday 11 Jun 2017 @ 1:48:40 am from IP #
micky
Member

thats great, thanks for the info!

Posted Monday 12 Jun 2017 @ 10:50:20 am from IP #
Catopsilia
Member

Hi, Mick
I can now give some detail on the performance of the two-storied wing of my house in the middle of a nasty winter. It will not relate exactly to your project, but perhaps even a little data will help.
https://climatebysurly.com/2017/06/26/house-june-warmth-profiles-ii/

Posted Monday 26 Jun 2017 @ 6:42:41 am from IP #
Catopsilia
Member

I have posted a graph similar to the one above in the "Low Energy Houses" thread.
http://www.ata.org.au/forums/topic/3/page/10#post-99220
That other graph is not for the two-story situation. It may interest those owning or planning to build houses with a clearstory intended to increase solar-gain.

Posted Wednesday 5 Jul 2017 @ 8:26:20 am from IP #

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