Interesting Things

This article is excellent news for those of us who live in this climate region. I was very excited to see this and have already started spreading the word to those who may be able to take advantage of such things in order to make our lives a bit more efficient in such uncertain times.

I’m grateful to see people sharing this information and as you browse this and other sites you can find a lot more information on energy efficient home building. One that really caught my eye a couple years ago was straw bale building. Some of these techniques can bring you close to underground home building efficiency.

Original text for posterity:

Why spend lots of money heating your house when nature can do it for you? Upstate New York resident John Kosmer has taken passive solar to a new level in his home, which only costs $2.50 a day to heat. That’s less than $1,000 a year of heating expenses in an area of the country that gets mauled with snow multiple times a year.

Kosmer worked with Building With Integrity and Adirondack Alternative Energy to construct his passive solar house. Four-inch thick rigid polyurethane is installed on the exterior walls and under the roof, while pre-finished concrete siding covers the exterior of the home.

But the real key to Kosmer’s low heating costs is his windows. 53 vinyl-framed Simonton windows are strategically placed throughout the house, letting sunlight into the white interior of the structure.

A wood stove also rises multiple stories into the atrium, where heated air is carried up into grilles in the attic ductwork. The air is then redistributed throughout the house, which stays at a temperature of 68 degrees.

A project of this magnitude may be out of your reach if you live in a 100 year-old poorly-insulated home, but it’s worth considering if you’re on the hunt for a new house.

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