GBlist: About: Solar/Envelope Home

Dawnave Funk (Dawnave.Funk@trw.com)
18 Mar 1997 15:58:12 -0800

This is an inquiry if anyone has information about solar home designs, especially envelope home designs. A few years ago an article was published in Popular Mechanics (or Popular Science) about the method of building a home with a double wall on the north, and a greenhouse on the south, with space in the basement and attic for the air to flow around the house (and out the roof in the summer), heating it in the winter, and cooling in the summer. The particular home was in Lake Tahoe and the owners only used a wood burning stove as backup to the heat from the greenhouse. There was also a company that I wrote to a few years ago and received some of their sample plans. (I did not care for their plans as the lot we plan to build on was not compatible with their plans.) When I tried to call them recently, their phone had been disconnected. Our lot is next to the mountains and the way it is laid out, we will have to turn the house to face the corner of the front yard to have the side o
f the house facing true south. The back of the house will be facing west, the front east. We plan to use the sun as much as possible for heat, with a greenhouse added after the home is built. We plan to have two stories, with a basement. We are also thinking of having radiant heat in the basement cement floor if this is practical, to help keep the basement, and thus the rest of the house, warm, in the winter.

Thanks for any help.

Dawnave Funk Dawnave_Funk@out.trw.com

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