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The wood-shed of Oz
Step-by-step account of a low cost off-grid set-up in a warm climate. All you need to know to do it yourself.…
February 9, 2008
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Step-by-step account of a low cost off-grid set-up in a warm climate. All you need to know to do it yourself.…
Anything massive, once warmed, tends to stay warm. The Earth maintains a habitatable environment in the minus 459 degree cold of space because our atmosphere allows the planet to capture, distribute, and store energy from the Sun. The atmosphere, like the glass skin of a greenhouse, contains this energy, and thermal currents – the wind, the jet streams, and ocean currents distribute it over the Earth. This system is an example of thermal inertia.
The thermal inertia of Earth is best visualized by using the analogy of the flywheel. A flywheel takes a lot of energy to get up to speed, but once moving only a small thump on a regular basis is needed to keep it going. Each day’s sunshine is the thump that keeps the thermal flywheel going. In twenty-four hour rotation, the planet takes this one-sided blast of solar energy and distributes it through thermal currents, to create our solar system’s only habitable environment.
All that natural energy gave builder Michael Sykes an idea- “What if a house could store and release energy through convection currents, just like the Earth?” So, Sykes set out to design a house which has a miniature atmosphere surrounding a massive structure that can store energy
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Since the late 1980’s, his company —Enertia Building Systems, INC. — has been producing homes that heat and cool by design, rather than through mechanical systems like furnaces and air conditioners. Sykes makes his Enertia homes available nationwide as pre-cut, numbered kits.
The thermal performance of solid timber homes is well known to their owners. Once heated, they stay warm- far longer than a conventional stick frame house. Once cooled, they remain cool. These thermal storage properties, along with proper southerly orientation, allow an Enertia home to heat and cool itself through its design, rather by mechanical system.
Instead of being a tight box to contain heated air- like a conventional home- an Enertia house stores energy in its massive walls. Air that has been warmed through passive solar gain is confined to the outer envelop, and is used for moving energy into the massive internal walls. The heat experienced by occupants is radiant: warm walls and floor.
The thermal current that distributes the warmth is created by both convection and geothermal cooling. Three feet below the surface of the Earth, the temperature is a steady 50 to 55 Fahrenheit, so the basement is always cooler than the heated air above it. Warm air rises in the south of the house. As the warm air reaches the attic, it travels towards the cooler air on the north side of the house (since this side of the house receives no direct sunlight). This completes the loop and distributes heat to the north side of the home.
In the summer, the air that is heated in the outer envelope rises, and is allowed to escape …
As more homes are repossessed, the off-grid alternative becomes ever more attractive…
Super-rich publishing magnate,Felix Dennis, calls himself an environmentalist, but opposes the building of an eco-town near his country mansion.…
You are working hard to make your home energy efficient, comfortable and self-sufficient what more can you do? How about making sure that the environment inside your house is not as bad or worse then that of a major city industrial zone.
It has been shown that because of building materials, furniture, carpet, animals and so on that the indoor air quality can be much worse then your outdoor one. On top of that unless you have some test done you don’t know what is polluting your home. If you have the time and knowledge you can research each product already in your home to see what could be released from each item into your home environment.
Then there are those products that claim to be friendly and not harm you interior air quality, but how to research their claims can be mystery in itself. If you want to make sure that all new products you want to use in your home are safe ask if they are GreenGuard Certified. You can follow this link to search products and find out for yourself about products you own or are thinking of buying.
GreenGuard is an independent tester of products that will not harm the inside environment. Since they are a third party entity this certification is one that can be trusted. GreenGuard has three certification levels, GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified®, GREENGUARD for Children & SchoolsSM, and GREENGUARD for Building Construction. As stringent as their indoor air quality certification is they added the level for children and school as children are exposed to more toxins then adults, by eating, drinking and breathing more then adults along with their bodies additional sensitivities. They have used a correction of 0.43 in their standard test to make sure products carrying this certification are also safe to our youth. You can find listing and more detailed information through each of the links provided.
Since we are building our homes to improve the environments we live in, it just make since to make sure that we include indoor air quality in that equation.…
Scottish Crofting has not been so popular for 1000 years. Its a combination of ancient land rights and modern technology to create the ultimate off-grid life, and the waiting list is a mile long.…
LEED®, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating Systems™, has taken the important step of creating a third party certification that is a separate entity.
The Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) has been established as a separately incorporated entity and is supported by U.S. Green Building Council. GBCI will be administering the credentialing programs related to green building. These practices must use applications of proven strategies for increasing and measuring the performance of buildings and communities as defined by industry systems, such as LEED.
The U.S. Green Building Council will still handle the development of the LEED Rating System and offer LEED-based education programs. Now the LEED Professional Accreditation program is independently administered under the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI) to allow for balanced, objective management of the credential. GBCI will manage all the aspects of LEED Professional Accreditation program including the exam development, registration, and delivery. With this separation into two organizations it brings the credentialing program closer toward meeting the standard for program excellence put forth by the American National Standards Institute.
GBCI is still a new entity and has just begun to operate as a separate entity, this being said it already has helpful information for us the layman as well. You can visit GBCI and findLEED Aproved Professionals to help you in whatever stage you find yourself in. You are able to search their directory by name, area, area of practice and affiliation. That means that you can also check the accreditation of ones you may already have dealings with.
Being able to check accreditations easily is an important thing for those of us looking to find professionals who understand how we wish to remodel, improve, or build our homes.…
Yes that’s right now you can get blue jeans for your home. Okay so they’re recycled blue jeans made into insulation batting.
This insulation is made from the trimmings that are usually disposed of into landfills from manufactures. So not only are you making your home nice and cozy you are using material that would have been left to fill up a landfill. Also as it is a natural fiber insulation you need not worry about the negative health impact using this can have on you, your family, or even your insulators.
Cotton also is a great at absorbing sound so it not only insulates against weather but the noise of living near heavy traffic, airports, trains, etc. Making your home not only comfortable but quite as well. It can absorb up to 15% moisture also, which as long as there is a drying cycle it does not harm the insulation.
The R-value of this insulation is 3-4 per inch which is less then standard fiberglass, but that can be improved by adding layers. Also cotton is still more expensive then your standard fiberglass insulation. Though cotton has some detractors it is more common then wool or straw insulation so the ability to see it in action is also higher. Where with the wool and straw you may not have that ability.…
With hard work, and a little money, anyone can launch an eco-resort, just about anywhere.…
If want to move to get off gird and don’t want a fixer upper then try Listed Green Homes. It is a real estate listing site that includes only green and sustainable homes. On top of that it is uses a solar powered internet hosting platform.
It just came to our notice as we are researching the next insulation article but thought it so wonderful we had to share. Of course looking through the listings was fun too. Though of course we’ll only admit to research not dreaming of living in them. So we encourage you to check them out.
Some wonderful ideas are shown for how to become more green and energy self-sufficient. Also knowing that if you need to move there is a place to sell and hopefully buy a new home that is inline with your wants is great to know. Since they vet all homes that wish to be included you can be assured that the home already has some green/energy resources in practice.
Another thing to consider is that if going off-grid buying a green/energy efficient home means only adding your chosen alternative energy to it. So if you are not the type to love fixing up an old home or have the time a patience to build your dream home then buying one already on its way can be a good choice.…
Okay we couldn’t help using ewe in the title. But how can you write about wool insulation and not use it?
Every insulation has benefits that make us love it, so making the choice will have to depend on what your needs are. So for the third in our series on insulation we are going to be highlighting wool insulation.
Wool insulation brings to your home the same ability to adapt to the environment that sheep have. Living in hot, cold and wet environments and still be protected is a major advantage inherit in wool. As a building insulator wool can retain these properties to create and maintain a healthy, safe, and environmentally responsible haven in your home.
Another advantage to wool is it’s ability to absorb and release moisture. So in wet and cold conditions removes the water and in doing so actually release heat. If the air is saturated with water vapor wool can absorb up to 40% of its dry weight and produce 960 kilojoules of heat energy kilogram of wool. This warmth will not be felt inside the building but this acts to prevent condensation in cavities by keeping the tempature above the dew point.
In warm conditions this insulation will actually release moisture into the air helping to slow and cool the flow of heat into the home. This has a major impact on the internal temperature of a building.
Wool insulation has also been shown to absorb and breakdown the harmful chemical formaldehyde. Formaldehyde has been classified as a carcinogenic, cancer causing agent, and many building products emit this throughout the home. Products such as timber, glass, glues, and even upholstery has been shown to release this dangerous chemical
Wool has been long know to break down formaldehyde into safe molecules. This ability is also inherent in Sheep Wool Insulation, this reducing the formaldehyde threat to building occupants. The Central Testing Facility in Tokyo, Japan found that when formaldehyde was released into a chamber wool insulation was able to absorb 96% of it within seven hours. Imagine that working within your home making your interior environment free of harmful chemicals.
It’s durability is another plus as it is able to adjust to fit. So an air tight fit will be achieved as it fills in cracks and crevices. It also has a life expectancy of over 50 years. Wool also has a higher fire resistance than cellulose/cellular plastic insulations, it melts rather then burns. It melts away from the source of ignition source and extinguishes itself, making it extremely fire safe.
Last but not least, is the fact that it takes less energy to manufacture wool insulation then glass fiber insulation.
So wool making your list of to look at for insulating your home is a definite must. Each type of insulation we highlight all have something we love about them but for open …
If you are thinking of going off-grid or even just trying to cut your current energy cost then an important key is insulation.
You can change all your appliance to energy star, replace old drafty windows, change lighting to fluorescence, unplug what is not in use and still be using way more energy then needed if you have little or no insulation. Insulation should also not be something you only think about for your roofs and walls. Insulating pipes, duct work and water heaters also make a dent in your energy consumption.
Today we are lucky enough to have many options for insulation that is not only good for the environment, works on par or better then synthetics/man-made products, but has long life and cost close to conventional methods. Some of the choices we will be highlighting are cellulose, wool, straw, and cotton.
All of these organic and environmentally friendly types of insulation have benefits that make them truly lovable. So choosing the right one comes down to what your individual needs are. Cellulose can be blown into enclosed walls, wool can breakdown and absorb formaldehyde, cotton is made from recyclable jeans, and straw in a bountiful organic product.
Just how much insulation you need can be found through the Department of Energy insulation program. This website will help you determine what R value you really need to insulate the different areas of your home. As each environment has different needs so does each area of your home. To the left a picture of where insulation is needed to make your home comfortable and energy efficient. Since homes that are older tend to not have insulation in walls and floors these spaces will usually need a blown in type since opening a wall to add insulation is to expensive if you’re not planning on major renovating.…
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