Hi all:
I have previously jumped in to discuss a bit here a few years ago, in 2011, in
this thread on earth-sheltered homes. The thread was started in 2005.
http://www.fieldlines.com/index.php/topic,130752.msg993260.html#msg993260Topic: Earth sheltered homes (Read 21767 times)
Earth sheltered homes
« on: September 20, 2005, 01:06:39 AM »I was this week mulling over status of a few things in my home after living here
about 11 years, and wanting to kind of summarize in a post in a spot or two, to
folks who might find it of slight use or interest, and realized maybe this would
be a good forum. One caveat that I also made back in my 2011 posts - I am not a
Do-it-yourself type, and did not build the home I live in, and won't be going in
the direction of DIY any time soon.
Instead of trying to make this perfect, I'm just going to blurt out various
bullet points that are on my mind:
This is the page for the company that is behind the type of house that I live in:
The company appears to have been started in '79 and to be located in the midwest
USA, and my own home was built in '83-84 in Arizona:
http://www.terra-dome.com/links.htmlHere are some pictures of my own house roughly from when I moved in (a couple of
them were from the previous homeowner, possibly from the 80s or 90s).
http://www.herecomesmongo.com/td/Terra.htmlVarious things that have come up:
- Someone remarked on the previous thread about the importance of decent
ventilation. I have found this to be true. When I had an energy audit, the home
kind of freaked the tester out a bit since there wasn't much they could do to
test or improve it, but they did a blower test, and the person remarked it was
one of the tightest homes they'd ever seen and if I had propane or natural gas,
it would be an immediate concern. As it was, I ordered a CO2 meter (I had put
this off when I first moved in because of the cost) and the meter alarm went off
a short time after I plugged it in. I definitely needed to be more aware of the
importance of ventilation.
- at the time of the energy audit, I was musing as to whether the insulation was
any good. I have kind of dropped this concern. However, I did replace the heat
pump with a modern high-SEER multi-zone unit. I wouldn't say that my energy use
has gone down, but the house is now far more comfortable in summer and winter.
The unit doesn't have a ventilation aspect though, so that still somewhat remains
to be done. At present I am cracking a few windows and there are one or two fans
when desired.
- I use a TED 5000 to monitor energy use on electric power. Since there is no
natural gas or propane, this is the entire use of my house, aside from one
circuit where I haven't been able to get someone to install it for me.
- My electric power seemed to bottom out at around 50 Watts or less years ago, but now seems to bottom out at around 95 Watts.
- The alarm system has added to the energy use (it includes a UPS).
- Aside from about 2.7 kW in panels, I recently added about 12 kWh of batteries and an inverter that can make smart decisions between the grid and battery power. This allows my home power to stay on during outages, and allows me to continue harvesting solar energy as well. It was expensive, I'm not sure it was worth it. The main drawback is that I now am severely limited in peak power (around 8-10 kW). Also, the system adds to the overall minimum energy use of the house (maybe about 30+ watts?)
- The solar hot water heater that came with the house gave out and I have replaced it with one that uses glycol and may be a bit less prone to decay. It also adds a small amount to the home energy use (there is a pump and some heat transfer).
Not sure how much this will be of interest to those here. I definitely did not have the home built, but bought it ready-made, so I don't really have any thoughts on building one. I have spoken with terra-dome a couple of times and they have been helpful on a couple of points. When I first moved in I called them to ask what to watch out for, and they said to make sure that the concrete was protected and that water didn't get into that area. Also, I think they do recommend certain ventilation equipment, so when the time comes I may go to them for this. (Noting that the roof is concrete, and there is no attic or hidden space, so when revising HVAC it is not an easy matter of drilling holes in a roof or hiding pipes or the like).