Earth Sheltering With Solar Heating
Earth sheltering is often combined with solar heating systems. Most commonly, the utilization of passive solar design techniques is used in earth shelters. A south facing structure with the north, east, and west sides covered with earth, is the most effective application for passive solar systems. A large double glazed window, triple glazed or Zomeworks beadwall (vacuum/blower pumps that filled your double pane solar windows with styrofoam balls at night for extra insulation and vacuumed the beads out in the morning, patent now expired), spanning most of the length of the south wall is critical for solar heat gain. It is helpful to accompany the window with insulated drapes to protect against heat loss at night. Also, during the summer months, providing an overhang, or some sort of shading device, is useful to block out excess solar gain. Combining solar heating with earth sheltering is referred to as "annualized geo solar design", "Passive annual heat storage", or sometimes as an "Umbrella house." (See Nick Pine's posting on usenet alt.homepower and alt.solar.thermal groups about this type of house.) In the umbrella house, Polystyrene insulation extends around 23 feet (7.0 m) radius from underground walls. A plastic film covers the insulation (for waterproofing), and soil is layer on top. The materials slope downward, like an umbrella. It sheds excess water while keeping the soil temperature warm and dry.
Passive cooling which pulls air with a fan or convection from a near constant temperature air into buried Earth cooling tubes and then into the house living space. This also provides fresh air to occupants and the air exchange required by ASHRAE.
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Famous quotes containing the words earth, sheltering, solar and/or heating:
“All deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars,
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.”
—Georgia Douglas Johnson (1886–1966)
“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“If the factory people outside the colleges live under the discipline of narrow means, the people inside live under almost every other kind of discipline except that of narrow means—from the fruity austerities of learning, through the iron rations of English gentlemanhood, down to the modest disadvantages of occupying cold stone buildings without central heating and having to cross two or three quadrangles to take a bath.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)