There are several members of the NW Ecobuilding Guild who
have designed rubble-trench foundations in their projects. They have been built
and in place for some time to provide a track record of performance. They have
also developed shallow trench foundation systems which are now approved by
several building departments in and around Spokane, Washington and Northern
Idaho.
Don Stephens has also designed an interesting
earth-coupled, earth sheltered home. The home has pipes under it that have
hot air going through them heating the soil all summer long. The hot air
comes from solar panel hot box on the lower south facing slope below the
home. By winter time, the stored heat is slowly utilized to heat
the home. The homeowners moved in this spring 2002. They are monitoring the
ground temperatures over time (thermocouples were installed throughout the
system) and the temperatures in the house to check performance. I expect there
will be a good article written up on this home in a couple
years.
Contact Bruce Millard of Studio of Sustainable Design
at;
and Don Stephens at;
At Your Service
Tom St. Louis Pres.
T.R. Strong
Building Systems Co.
Problem Solving for Sustainable Building
TM
Distribution & Support for Recycled Content,
Energy and Resource
Conserving Building Materials
Member: NW EcoBuilding Guild
6901 Bayview
Dr. NE.
Olympia, WA. 98506
360-705-2868 FX 943-6418
http://www.baubuilder.com
E-mail tom_st_louis@msn.com
