In some of my pictures of snow at the house, Cop Car suggested that the insulation value of the snow against the foundation must be very helpful in keeping the house warmer. Unfortunately, that would not be the case. I have a roof that is made for a more southern home; not only is it fairly flat, it has wide eves at 3 feet. This really works well to keep out the summer sun while allowing plenty of winter sun in, protect the ramp from snow, and protecting the foundation from rain. I really like the wide eves for that reason. However, the snow pack is away from the house, except for where I have either snow blown in that direction or shoveled - and both those spots are near the garage, which is not very helpful for insulation.
This is the side of the garage. Sure, if the garage was fairly air tight at the door, and in back, the snow might be helpful - but neither of those cases are true. The snow is blown in that direction while snow blowing the path to the oil tank - just for the little help it might provide.
The front of the house is mostly barren, except the part closest to the garage, from my shoveling the snow from the roof dumping (I don't blow snow that way because I don't want high-velocity projectiles aimed at the bay window. Oh, and if you look in the lower left corner, you will see a mound of snow on the steps. I took the pictures about 25 minutes after I was done snow blowing - which was about 5 minutes after the roof dumped and I had to put my boots back on to go shovel.
On the side that the pellet stoves are on, it is mostly clear for about a foot before the snow pack starts - mostly of that is from the roof dumping. And, what little snow is there, has slid down the berm from the roof snow. I did have to shovel out some of the berm closest to the lower pipe (the Harman in the basement), to make sure there was no impedance to the exhaust.
Of course the back side of the house does not have snow around the foundation because of the ramp.
I'm sure the snow does provide wind relief for the sill of the house, and some insulation value to the garage, just not as much as Cop Car imagined from looking at pictures taken from a distance.
"I did have to shovel out some of the berm closest to the lower pipe (the Harman in the basement), to make sure there was no impedance to the exhaust."
Hmmm...let's see...impedance is calculated as: Z = |Z| e^{j\arg (Z)}
Oops! Your writing about gas flow, not electrical!
The photos make it clear why your house's thermodynamics don't depend upon snowfall very much. Oh, well. Thanks for the clarification!
Posted by: Cop Car | March 01, 2015 at 11:19 AM
Not only can't I get the correct kind of impedance, I can't get the correct "you're".
Posted by: Cop Car | March 01, 2015 at 11:20 AM
Well, to be totally correct, I wasn't talking about actual impedance, but to getting the exhaust to go out away from the foundation and the air intake for the stove. The berm wouldn't actually impede the air flow, so much as give it something to bounce off of and come back to where it isn't wanted (CO - not good to breathe for either stove or humans).
Posted by: bogie | March 01, 2015 at 02:44 PM