Re: SB: SB: Passive solar SB designs

[roger e gorham <pilgrim78@juno.com>]

do ya have the detailed plans of that spinnin' house?   i need to build a
mother-inlaw house here in tex and it should work..  cause she's as dizzy
as the girl that married me 39 yrs ago...  that girl has lived with me in
tents, boats, trailers, trucks, and a pickup, now she wants a straw
house....    'n big enough fer momma...   mine and hers..  so..  we're
buildin' straw, but i need the mothernlaw plans fer the out house...  
thanks... no worry,  i've been hidin' the tar 'n feathers case some of
the women folk think i need it... pil



On Fri, 27 Sep 2002 00:49:54 -0600 "Keith Rowe" <keithrowe@ezpost.com>
writes:
> At the risk of being tarred and feathered, or in this case, stucco-ed 
> and
> strawed, I'd like to add my two cents to a question that was never 
> really
> asked, but that maybe should be.
> 
> We talk of "passive solar design" in our structures, and Chris 
> wisely has
> sought information on it, as we did when my wife and I designed our 
> SB home
> a few years back. My question is this: Is there ever really a net 
> energy
> GAIN, over the course of a year, by using the concept of windows to 
> heat our
> homes?
> 
> The obvious answer is yes, but is it that simple? I happen to live 
> in a
> 'passive solar SB house', in the wilds of Canada, designed in part 
> by an
> architect, and engineer with experience in the field of energy 
> efficiency.
> After two years here I have a few observations.
> 
> 1)Windows are a huge sucker of energy, or at least they are at my 
> latitude.
> My windows are very high energy, fixed design with low e's and argon 
> and
> three panes and little gnomes inside them that tell the bad 
> 'coldies' to
> stay the heck out of the house, and they cost me a pretty penny even 
> though
> I built the frames myself. But do the math. On a SUNNY December the 
> 21st I
> get about 2 1/2 hours of energy coming in of any beneficial amount 
> from the
> sun, but for 24 hours of that day I have energy being sucked out of 
> a big,
> R-6 surface in an otherwise R-40 house.(don't start arguing with me 
> about
> the ins and outs of R values and how inaccurate they are, I'm just 
> making a
> point) I'd be floored if that equation came out in my favor.
> 
> 2) We do need windows, because they give us views and light and such 
> which
> makes life worth living, so I think, at least in Canada, we need to 
> look at
> windows and say: "Well, we know they suck heat from the house, lets 
> design
> things so the LEAST amount of energy is lost." as opposed to: "Wow! 
> If I buy
> good windows and face them all south, I can kiss the evil energy 
> companies
> goodbye!"
> 
> 3) A look at fenestration(a big fancy word that means 'the study of 
> windows
> and how they work, and using big words make me feel important') 
> tells us
> that as we go up in R value, we go down in transmitted radiant 
> energy that
> passes through the window. So we're fighting a losing battle in 
> trying to
> bring in the good stuff while keeping out the bad stuff. 
> 
> So ultimately, I say we use windows for light and views, orient as 
> many
> south as possible, keep them off the north side, accept that they 
> will take
> away energy, and move on to more important things, like  trying to 
> figure
> out how to spend more time with our kids, or why the dropped slice 
> always
> lands peanut butter side down...
> 
> Those are my thoughts, not yours.
> Keith
> 
> P.S. I think I've figured out a truly efficient design, but I don't 
> think
> it's exactly passive... 
> 
> 1) Make a house with a big central pillar, on which it rotates, and 
> tilts
> with the sun as it tracks across the sky, so the light is coming in 
> the one
> wall of windows the whole day. 
> 2) Screw, nail, or glue down all objects in the home so they don't 
> slide
> when the floor tilts. Practice balancing on this ever changing 
> plane
> 3) Paint the inside of your house black to absorb ALL the heat from 
> the sun.
> 4) Build huge blocks of solid styrofoam and as soon as your 'spidey 
> senses'
> tell you there is no longer an energy gain, run around the house and 
> place
> them carefully in the window cavities to seal them up. 
> 5) Get up before dawn,which will be a different time each day, and 
> run
> around taking out the styrofoam blocks. Find an appropriate place 
> for them
> so all your guests that come to visit you in your black, tilting, 
> rotating
> straw bale house won't trip over them.
> 6) Wind the big huge spring that moves the house around.
> 7) Have a nice life.
> 
> K
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to:
>    <strawbale-unsubscribe@crest.org>
> 
> or for the digest to:
>    <strawbale-digest-unsubscribe@crest.org>
> 
> Please send any list administration questions to
> strawbale-owner@crest.org
> 
> 
>