it's all wrong!
for my birthday i picked up two excellent books. ^_^ one is called, "The Hand Sculpted House" and it's all about building with cob. cob is made of straw, sand, clay, and water. it's a material i've been investigating for a few months. the second book is called, "Building Green" and it's about different building methods. it's a much larger book because it's FULL of pictures to explain the techniques.
i got the "Building Green" book first and so i've been devouring it for about a week now. and i'm still not through with it. @_@ so much information...
anywho, before they even begin to cover the building methods, they go over the basic principles of siting, drainage, foundations, and structure. siting is CRUCIAL when building (or buying) a home. careful siting will take advantage of passive solar heating and keep your energy bills lower.
now, how does the title of this entry apply? well, the house that i'm in right now is an oven in the summer and a freezer in the winter. it's better in the basement because most of it is built under ground, which means we can take advantage of the earth's natural 50-60 degree temperature year round. but upstairs... it's horrible. and i was trying to figure out why.
to start things out, the back of the house faces south. this contains their living room and kitchen which has HUGE beautiful windows. generally you want your south walls to have the most windows, but you still need to consider the landscape and the roofing. in the summer when the sun is higher in the sky, there are NO trees blocking it's rays. the roof doesn't create enough of an overhang to provide any shade either, so that living room becomes a veritable oven. in the winter when the sun is lower and you WANT the rays to reach inside, well.. it's path is blocked by the neighbors house and their evergreen privacy bush. these southwall rooms still get light in the winter, but it's not enough heat to make up for what they lose through the glass.
now on the northern side you want evergreens to help cut down on the wind. though in truth, i'm not certain how important wind is in a suberb. i'm sure it's path is dramatically changed as it blows between houses. at any rate, here the north side faces the street, and there are no trees or bushes to provide windbreaks.
i used to think that the heating and cooling issues of this house stemmed from the vaulted ceiling in the living room. i thought it was just a lot of air space to heat and cool (which it is.) but now that i know more about passive solar heating, i see how this house isn't utilizing the sun properly at all. i wish it was possible to plant a leafy tree near the living room.. i may mention it to smalley and see what she thinks. we probably wouldn't be here long enough to reap the benefits, but it might help add to the backyard appeal as well.
trees make such an incredible difference. my parents have a large house and mom said that their heating and cooling bills have always been much lower compared to their friends. my grandmother helped them figure out how to situate the house on the land to take advantage of the sun and surrounding trees. i know my dad gets tired of raking the leaves each year, but those beautiful oak trees provide wonderful shade in the summer and evaporative cooling to keep the air temp lower as well. and in the winter when the leaves all drop, more sunlight can reach the roof. ^_^ it's brilliant.
what's my point in all of this? if you've purchased your home already, look at what rooms the sun shines in and plan ways to utilize it. you can't move the sun, but you can add plants to soften lighting and add shade, or add ceramic tiles to hold heat in the floor.
if you haven't purchased a home yet, read up on passive solar heating and design. most "modern" homes don't even try to take advantage of it, and thus they're energy ineffecient.
or... look into building with cob. it's a lot of work, but very inexpensive compared to a "modern" home. last night i found pictures of people mixing cob with a bobcat and using the same bobcat to raise cob to the wall levels. that's the first time i've seen that and i think it's genius. with most cob homes you have to shape the material into overgrown potatos and then reform them into the wall. but that's only to make the cobs easier to move. a bobcat is a perfect idea if only a few people are available for working on the home.
i've had lots of ideas of how i want my house to be. i'll write them out in another entry one day. this is probably enough for now. ^_^
~mia
i got the "Building Green" book first and so i've been devouring it for about a week now. and i'm still not through with it. @_@ so much information...
anywho, before they even begin to cover the building methods, they go over the basic principles of siting, drainage, foundations, and structure. siting is CRUCIAL when building (or buying) a home. careful siting will take advantage of passive solar heating and keep your energy bills lower.
now, how does the title of this entry apply? well, the house that i'm in right now is an oven in the summer and a freezer in the winter. it's better in the basement because most of it is built under ground, which means we can take advantage of the earth's natural 50-60 degree temperature year round. but upstairs... it's horrible. and i was trying to figure out why.
to start things out, the back of the house faces south. this contains their living room and kitchen which has HUGE beautiful windows. generally you want your south walls to have the most windows, but you still need to consider the landscape and the roofing. in the summer when the sun is higher in the sky, there are NO trees blocking it's rays. the roof doesn't create enough of an overhang to provide any shade either, so that living room becomes a veritable oven. in the winter when the sun is lower and you WANT the rays to reach inside, well.. it's path is blocked by the neighbors house and their evergreen privacy bush. these southwall rooms still get light in the winter, but it's not enough heat to make up for what they lose through the glass.
now on the northern side you want evergreens to help cut down on the wind. though in truth, i'm not certain how important wind is in a suberb. i'm sure it's path is dramatically changed as it blows between houses. at any rate, here the north side faces the street, and there are no trees or bushes to provide windbreaks.
i used to think that the heating and cooling issues of this house stemmed from the vaulted ceiling in the living room. i thought it was just a lot of air space to heat and cool (which it is.) but now that i know more about passive solar heating, i see how this house isn't utilizing the sun properly at all. i wish it was possible to plant a leafy tree near the living room.. i may mention it to smalley and see what she thinks. we probably wouldn't be here long enough to reap the benefits, but it might help add to the backyard appeal as well.
trees make such an incredible difference. my parents have a large house and mom said that their heating and cooling bills have always been much lower compared to their friends. my grandmother helped them figure out how to situate the house on the land to take advantage of the sun and surrounding trees. i know my dad gets tired of raking the leaves each year, but those beautiful oak trees provide wonderful shade in the summer and evaporative cooling to keep the air temp lower as well. and in the winter when the leaves all drop, more sunlight can reach the roof. ^_^ it's brilliant.
what's my point in all of this? if you've purchased your home already, look at what rooms the sun shines in and plan ways to utilize it. you can't move the sun, but you can add plants to soften lighting and add shade, or add ceramic tiles to hold heat in the floor.
if you haven't purchased a home yet, read up on passive solar heating and design. most "modern" homes don't even try to take advantage of it, and thus they're energy ineffecient.
or... look into building with cob. it's a lot of work, but very inexpensive compared to a "modern" home. last night i found pictures of people mixing cob with a bobcat and using the same bobcat to raise cob to the wall levels. that's the first time i've seen that and i think it's genius. with most cob homes you have to shape the material into overgrown potatos and then reform them into the wall. but that's only to make the cobs easier to move. a bobcat is a perfect idea if only a few people are available for working on the home.
i've had lots of ideas of how i want my house to be. i'll write them out in another entry one day. this is probably enough for now. ^_^
~mia