Natural pools. Low to no chlorine. Filtration and aeration potentially handled by plant life.
http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/gardening/23-beautiful-and-sustainable-natural-swimming-pools-062050
http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/latest/natural-swimming-pools-460908
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Finnish Fireplaces
http://www.woodmasonry.com/pages/whatis.html
Highly effecient and ornamental at the same time. The firebox is placed within a chamber that forces the exhuast gasses to flow through winding channels of thermal mass. The heat is stored in the thermal mass and then radiated out even after the fire has stopped burning.
Expensive, but they can look very nice and they can potentially meet (or exceed?) effeciency numbers for even catalytic burn fireplaces.
Highly effecient and ornamental at the same time. The firebox is placed within a chamber that forces the exhuast gasses to flow through winding channels of thermal mass. The heat is stored in the thermal mass and then radiated out even after the fire has stopped burning.
Expensive, but they can look very nice and they can potentially meet (or exceed?) effeciency numbers for even catalytic burn fireplaces.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Cooking via induction
http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/03/technology/power_induction.moneymag/index.htm?section=money_realestate
Works great for recharging electronics, looks like it has other interesting purposes as well.
Works great for recharging electronics, looks like it has other interesting purposes as well.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
The end of an era
Well that was short lived. After taking a closer look at land costs, architectural fees, and material costs I decided that trying to build anything within 60 miles of where I work would require a few more decade's worth of savings. And that's taking into account the moderate price drops we've seen as a result of the myriad issues in the US housing markets. I'd still like to pursue this, but it would have to be somewhere else in the country. I have no immediate plans for moving, so I've taken nearly all of my house fund and put it into the markets.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
It's rebate time
http://www.dsireusa.org/
A quick link to a website that provides information on state incentives for Green technologies. I haven't looked at any states outside CT, but for CT the listing looks pretty thorough. Certainly more so than many other sites I've drifted across.
A quick link to a website that provides information on state incentives for Green technologies. I haven't looked at any states outside CT, but for CT the listing looks pretty thorough. Certainly more so than many other sites I've drifted across.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Pattern #159: Light on two sides of every room
It works exactly as it sounds, Alexander argues that every room should have light coming from at least two walls. This is one I'm concerned about given the PS constraints seem to directly conflict.
One idea that the commenter on a previous post introduced was an interior atrium idea. The light still comes in from the south, but rooms beside the atrium can have W/E windows facing the atrium. They would therefore have light coming from two walls, while not exposing the house to sunlight on external W/E walls.
Major downside I imagine would be cost (the atrium requires additional walls and might end up being ineffective living space). One more idea to added to the list of possibilities.
One idea that the commenter on a previous post introduced was an interior atrium idea. The light still comes in from the south, but rooms beside the atrium can have W/E windows facing the atrium. They would therefore have light coming from two walls, while not exposing the house to sunlight on external W/E walls.
Major downside I imagine would be cost (the atrium requires additional walls and might end up being ineffective living space). One more idea to added to the list of possibilities.
Basic Features
The features I'm looking for in order of importance
Must Haves:
Must Haves:
- Passive Solar
- Media Room (a room where light can be tightly controlled)
- Liberal use of daylighting
- Library
- Somewhere to store electronic equipment, preferably with some sound isolation and close to the media room.
- Workshop
Friday, February 1, 2008
Standards
Energy Start (good): http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=new_homes.nh_features
LEED (getter): http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222
PassivHaus (best): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
LEED (getter): http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=222
PassivHaus (best): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
Passive Solar 001
The basic idea behind passive solar design is to maximize the efficiency of the sun in heating and cooling your home. It revolves around the idea that in summer the sun arcs higher through the sky than it does in winter. Making use of this fact, combined with tightly controlling how energy enters and exits your home, is what passive solar is all about.
1. A tight building envelope is crucial to insuring you have control of energy coming in and out. With well insulated walls and ceiling the vast majority of energy exiting and entering your home is going to come through the windows. This allows you to focus your efforts on controlling energy flow across your windows rather than across the entire surface of your house.
2. South facing glass is used to control how much sunlight and energy your house picks up. Glass on the other 3 walls should be minimized as the energy movement is harder to control. With south facing glass you maximize the amount of light entering your home (the sun arcs in the southern sky for people in the northern hemisphere). The classic PS design has a lot of south-facing glass and minimal glass elsewhere.
3. The windows should in turn have some sort of structure that shields them from the top. The purpose of this structure is to allow in sunlight during the winter and to block sunlight in the summer. In winter the sun is lower in the sky and so it shines through under the shield and heats the home. In the summer the sun is higher and the shield shades the window, reducing the amount of sunlight (and thus energy) your house receives.
4. Thermal mass is the final component. It is used to store energy during the day so that it can be used at night when the sun has set. In the summer it can be used to store "coolness" at night and release the "coolness" during the day. During winter days the sun heats up the thermal mass and during winter nights the thermal mass heats the home as it cools. In summer the thermal mass can be cooled at night by opening the windows, then during the day the sun's energy will go to warming the thermal mass rather than warming the home. The net effect is that the thermal mass serves to smooth out the temperature differences between day and night.
Note that these pertain to the particular type of house I want to build. There are a lot of alternative setups out there for making use of Passive Solar design. Trombe walls and solar rooms come immediately to mind.
1. A tight building envelope is crucial to insuring you have control of energy coming in and out. With well insulated walls and ceiling the vast majority of energy exiting and entering your home is going to come through the windows. This allows you to focus your efforts on controlling energy flow across your windows rather than across the entire surface of your house.
2. South facing glass is used to control how much sunlight and energy your house picks up. Glass on the other 3 walls should be minimized as the energy movement is harder to control. With south facing glass you maximize the amount of light entering your home (the sun arcs in the southern sky for people in the northern hemisphere). The classic PS design has a lot of south-facing glass and minimal glass elsewhere.
3. The windows should in turn have some sort of structure that shields them from the top. The purpose of this structure is to allow in sunlight during the winter and to block sunlight in the summer. In winter the sun is lower in the sky and so it shines through under the shield and heats the home. In the summer the sun is higher and the shield shades the window, reducing the amount of sunlight (and thus energy) your house receives.
4. Thermal mass is the final component. It is used to store energy during the day so that it can be used at night when the sun has set. In the summer it can be used to store "coolness" at night and release the "coolness" during the day. During winter days the sun heats up the thermal mass and during winter nights the thermal mass heats the home as it cools. In summer the thermal mass can be cooled at night by opening the windows, then during the day the sun's energy will go to warming the thermal mass rather than warming the home. The net effect is that the thermal mass serves to smooth out the temperature differences between day and night.
Note that these pertain to the particular type of house I want to build. There are a lot of alternative setups out there for making use of Passive Solar design. Trombe walls and solar rooms come immediately to mind.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
On the shoulders of giants
http://www.cathy-moore.com/house/house.html
That's a link to a woman who did very much what I want to do. In fact, that's pretty much the exact approach I want to take, except my preferences tend to something more modern in design. I also want space laid out a bit differently (2 stories instead of 1.5 and a dedicated media room). The last difference is I'm looking to incorporate some of the design patterns from Alexander's book. So I'm basically going to try and follow in her footsteps, but tweak things to satisfy my own wants and desires.
If I can swing it financially I'd actually like to build something architect designed. Though I've been casually looking for a few months and its pretty hard to find architects who do small residential, have experience with passive solar, and know how to design to the opportunities/constraints of SIPs/ICFs.
That's a link to a woman who did very much what I want to do. In fact, that's pretty much the exact approach I want to take, except my preferences tend to something more modern in design. I also want space laid out a bit differently (2 stories instead of 1.5 and a dedicated media room). The last difference is I'm looking to incorporate some of the design patterns from Alexander's book. So I'm basically going to try and follow in her footsteps, but tweak things to satisfy my own wants and desires.
If I can swing it financially I'd actually like to build something architect designed. Though I've been casually looking for a few months and its pretty hard to find architects who do small residential, have experience with passive solar, and know how to design to the opportunities/constraints of SIPs/ICFs.
Readinglist
I've got to head out, so last post in this initial deluge will be a list of the decent books I've come across so far. Incidentally, if you're looking to buy these, check out abebooks.com before Amazon. I love Amazon, but you can save some serious money at abebooks if they have what you're looking for.
Of Special Note (If you can only read two from the list, read these):
Not So Big House
Frank Lloyd Wright
Construction
There are a lot of more technical books out there, especially about PS design, but the ones listed above are a good general start for some of the ideas I'm interested in.
Of Special Note (If you can only read two from the list, read these):
- A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander
- The Not So Big House - Sarah Susanka
Not So Big House
- The Not So Big House - Sarah Susanka
- Creating the Not So Big House - Sarah Susanka
- Not So Big Solutions - Sarah Susanka
Frank Lloyd Wright
- Frank Lloyd Wright; The Houses - Hess and Weintraub
- The Natural House - Frank Lloyd Wright
Construction
- A Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander
- Prefabulous - Koones
- The Passive Solar House - Kachadorian
There are a lot of more technical books out there, especially about PS design, but the ones listed above are a good general start for some of the ideas I'm interested in.
How did I get here
Like pretty much everything of any significance in my life it started out in a bookstore. This was in the beginning of 2007 and I'd been casually thinking about getting out of the renting game. As is typically the case I started out by trying to read up on whatever information I could get my hands on. Initially I was only looking to buy, thinking that building would never be within my price range, but while wandering around a Barnes and Noble I came across a magazine called 'Small Homes that Live Large.' At the time I knew anything I'd be looking at would be small, given my budget relative to local home prices, so I picked it up and started paging through it. Turns out every home it described had some aspect that appealed to me, so I ended up buying it to read later.
The most important idea that I took from reading the magazine was the fact that building didn't necessarily have to be expensive. They showcased a series of beautiful and expensive houses, but they also covered several houses that had been built with a definite budget in mind. I looked at the cost/sqft values listed in the magazine and began to wonder if I couldn't afford that myself.
Once the idea was in my head the real reading began. I have this bad habit of buying book after book based solely on positive Amazon reviews, so I went through a lot of junk at first. At some point I came across a reference to Susanka as one of the most vocal voices for the small but growing "quality over quantity" dialog in home building. I ended up buying 3 of her books and they're really the inspiration behind this entire thing. She was able to formalize and clearly describe some of the ideas that had been kicking around in my head about housing in general and cost/value relationships in particular. At that point I decided this was an idea I was going to seriously look into.
The most important idea that I took from reading the magazine was the fact that building didn't necessarily have to be expensive. They showcased a series of beautiful and expensive houses, but they also covered several houses that had been built with a definite budget in mind. I looked at the cost/sqft values listed in the magazine and began to wonder if I couldn't afford that myself.
Once the idea was in my head the real reading began. I have this bad habit of buying book after book based solely on positive Amazon reviews, so I went through a lot of junk at first. At some point I came across a reference to Susanka as one of the most vocal voices for the small but growing "quality over quantity" dialog in home building. I ended up buying 3 of her books and they're really the inspiration behind this entire thing. She was able to formalize and clearly describe some of the ideas that had been kicking around in my head about housing in general and cost/value relationships in particular. At that point I decided this was an idea I was going to seriously look into.
Introduction
My first foray into blogging. The purpose of this site will be to track my progress in exploring passive solar home design in the context of Sarah Susanka's Not So Big House concept.
At this point in the process I'm still in the very early stages of research, which for me, means there's a long way to go. I'm a pretty conservative guy so I need to be really comfortable about any serious decisions in my life. Upside of this approach is that I pretty much never regret the big decisions I make. Downside is that a lot of big decisions tend to pass me by as I'm thinking about them. C'est la vie, but perhaps self-recognition really is the first step to self-improvement.
Anyway, given the thought of building a home is about as serious as it gets (financially speaking -- I'm a romantic at heart), I'm thinking this is going to be a multi-year process with a significant chance of stagnation. Still, you've got to start somewhere...
At this point in the process I'm still in the very early stages of research, which for me, means there's a long way to go. I'm a pretty conservative guy so I need to be really comfortable about any serious decisions in my life. Upside of this approach is that I pretty much never regret the big decisions I make. Downside is that a lot of big decisions tend to pass me by as I'm thinking about them. C'est la vie, but perhaps self-recognition really is the first step to self-improvement.
Anyway, given the thought of building a home is about as serious as it gets (financially speaking -- I'm a romantic at heart), I'm thinking this is going to be a multi-year process with a significant chance of stagnation. Still, you've got to start somewhere...
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