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Posted by greenbroke on September 4, 2007, 11:54 pm
Don:
>> Hello and good day to all,
>> I am writing here today because I am looking for ideas. I am
currently
>> designing a new house to be built here in upstate New York in the
>> spring. I am looking for ideas to make this house as efficient and
>> cost effective as possible. Ideas to keep my energy usage to a
minimum
>> and make the most of the energy products that I do use. This will be
a
>> ranch house approximately 2000 square feet built basically in the
>> middle of a 4 acre field. any help or ideas that anyone could give
>> would be greatly appreciated.
>> Thanks
>> JJ
>
> Cut the size in half.3
I live in a house designed by a Taliesin architect. It is built into
the rock of a hill with 10 ft windows in the front. The architect used
a verticle "baffle" which runs along the entire length of the front at
the roofline - It is hard to describe, but is about 3 feet tall and
suspended about 4 feet from the house. In the winter the sun comes in
all the way to the back of the house, but in the summer it doesn't enter
at all. It is set on an exact east/west axis. The floor is dark
porcelain tile to absorb the heat in winter. I have radiant floor heat
and bills are extememly low in super cold Wisconsin winters. What I
love is that there is a huge water tank set into the fireplace...when
there is a fire the water heats, travels above to a storage container
and then down into the radiant floor tubes...the thermostat turns off
the heated floor lasts much of the night. It is ingenious..and the
fireplace is a "Kozy Heat" which has cast iron doors ceramic tiles on
the floor and an electric fan which pushes heat through vents in the
fireplace.
In the summer we often question whether or not we turned the AC
on...because the house stays cool most of the day. And we don't have
mold problems...but if we are gone for a week and return there is a
basement smell..so we keep an air cleaner going when that happens. Good
luck on your project! Will
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