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Is anyone living in a passive solar home? Or is an architect?

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Blanka:
Geothermal heating is not a thing to go for on a 1-house scale. Those instalations are perfect for 10-50 houses, but with 1 house, the expenses on maintenance and the efficiency are much worse than in large scale projects.
What works best to achieve low energy bills and low installation costs here is a combination of this:

-High insulation on both walls and windows (HR++ glass)
-Solar screens outside the windows for summer situations.
-CO2 sensor demand based ventilation or collecting heat from exhaust air and feeding it into the water heating system (not into the intake air for pollution risks).
-Solar heating of water with a storage tank for basic heating.
-A concrete wood-stove that can connect to a central heating system.
-Low temperature water heating (40-50 degrees C) with low capacity radiators (search JAGA Strada radiators) and floor heating (even possible in a concrete layer on a wooden frame for good thermal mass).
-Natural gas combined tap/low temperature heating for peak situations. Netherlands is bad in environmental building, but we make the best natural gas heaters in the world. Have one flew over if you have natural gas in the street! 105% efficiency (even the electricity for the fans is converted to heat). 500m3 gas/year for heating and tap water is enough with the insulation techniques described here, 200m3 if you also use the wood stove and solar panels. They also have a version with a intergated generator that keeps your house going in case of a power outing! Gas supply never fails here!

spystyle:
Thanks for the write-up Blanka, I'll have a lot of words to Google and check out.

I need a crash-course in architecture, or friends that are bored architects :)

If you get bored and would like to scribble out a quick sketch of what you think would be a good passive solar A-frame, I'd like to see it :)

I studied photography for a year and can tell you a great photography crash-course : The book "Understanding exposure" by Brian Peterson coupled with a "Pentax K1000" camera (or similar manual camera*)  and you've got yourself a great crash-course that is very affordable. After that you can add the book "Complete book of Photography" by Kodak and switch to just about any camera or keep using the manual one. All that would cost less than $100 and you'd have a great crash course in photography.

I wonder if there is a similar quick and affordable way to learn architecture?

I must learn architecture :) But I have no time or money for school  :burgerking: I'll need to know a good book or two.

Have fun!
Craig

*Manual cameras force you to learn quickly because you have to think about shutter speed and aperture from the word go.

protokatie:
Well you asked for some drawings so here they are, in their crap-tastic MSpaint form!







One extra thing to note that isnt in the drawings is that the house was on the side of a hill with the south side facing the bottom, also there was a huge porch out front (south) to reflect light back at the house.

spystyle:
Bravo!

MS paint drawings have such character :)

And it's very informative :)

spystyle:

--- Quote from: drventure on January 22, 2010, 11:08:48 pm ---That's great! I love that style of architecture.

I've really been interested in Monolithic domes, one big company in the biz is pretty close by

http://www.monolithic.com/

...
--- End quote ---

Hey I looked closely at dome homes :



http://www.monolithic.com/stories/free-forever-safe-serene/photos#10

They seem like the ideal housing for America's "tornado belt" and similar. They look like they'd resistant just about anything. It's kind of like a bunker!

I think with the right kind of doors those could be used as above ground fallout shelters :)

Here in Maine hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes are the stuff of TV shows - we have to deal with freezing cold winters and humid hot summers, but no disasters (yet).

So I don't think a concrete dome is the solution for Maine. But they are well insulated (R-60 equivalent) and fire-proof. That's nice.

I'm still thinking of the best shape for a passive solar home, I'm thinking of something like a "half-bean" - the north side aerodynamic to deflect wind and the south side flat and glazed to collect heat from the sun. 

I still need a crash-course in architecture, or to make friends with bored architects :)

Cheers,
Craig

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