Passive solar home construction

So, if you have seen my previous posts and video's you will know what I have been up to, building an energy efficient passive solar home. The video link on this post is the final part of the foundation system, which was the most difficult part of the project. Many people have commented on how different the foundation looked upon casual observation. If they only knew how different this was in comparison to a traditional foundation. Here in New England we are one of the few places were people feel the need to put a basement under our homes, for most of the country the slab-on-grade foundation system is conventional construction. Of course we do have some specific requirements when it comes to insulating and heating our homes in this region. This requires a different approach to building, rather than have our foundation being an energy drain on our building we actually use it to our advantage. The thermal mass contained within the foundation allows us to use it to store the homes energy at a constant rate. Once the slab is brought to temperature the energy needed to maintain this is very low, and at a very low temperature. We will be able to heat this home with water at a temperature of 85-90 degrees F. most conventional baseboard heating systems require a water delivery temperature of 160-180 degrees F. The low delivery temperature of the heating system is the key factor that allows the geothermal heat pump to deliver all of the homes heating and cooling needs.






As I am writing this, I have already finished installing most of the Structural Insulated Panels, used for the envelope of the home. I have taken some video of this as well and will post it when time allows. The SIP's showed up on the site on Tuesday afternoon around 2pm. and by this afternoon we had just 3 gable panels to finish installing before moving on to the ceiling panels. These will be in place tomorrow or is it today? The roof framing is scheduled to start on Monday with the hope of finishing it along with some trim by the end of next week. This portion of the project will continue at a fairly fast pace as we push to prepare for a open house scheduled for October 4th.






The most exciting thing we are using in this home is a prototype window system under development by Hunter Douglas. If we have our roof shingles on the roof as scheduled these windows will be installed for the open house. This window system is in my opinion the best innovation in passive solar to be developed in recent years. It contains a very specific glazing along with glass blocks filled with water to store the suns energy and regulate how it is transmitted into the home. Not only is it functional, but very attractive as well. I will continue to post videos and pictures of the project as we move forward.

more pictures of the project http://picasaweb.google.com/TomPittsley/PassiveSolarHomeUnderConstruction#

Thanks Tom Pittsley


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