In my area we have cold cloudy winter. I can only dream of such solar gains :( Anyway. Great house and thx for time you put in to share all of this with us. Happy living 🙂
Dark brown works pretty well too. It's interesting that the temperature reading on the gray rug is several degrees hotter than the reading on the floor. 🌞
Thanks! 😄 I wish more people realized how easy and awesome it is to have free heat, and stable temperatures all winter! Passive solar works amazingly well in the desert! 🌞
Thanks for sharing. It is nice to see how the solar heating is working so well in the new home. We had grid tied solar panels installed on our Colorado home in April and it has been really interesting to see how much the power generation varies from summer to winter. Fortunately we get credit for the summer over production to be used to offset our winter electric bills. The one drawback to the roof panels is snow coverage. I am way too old to try to remove the snow from the panels. We hope you guys have a wonderful holiday season.
Yes, it is really nice that we don't get much snow here. Clearing the panels would be a hassle! Winter definitely isn't as productive, but most days are sunny, and we don't have trees blocking the sun, so we still get almost 10 hours of sun even in the winter. Thanks! You too, stay warm! 😊🎄
Neat. Most buildings in South Africa, where ingrew up, incorporate passive heating (North facing), however your insulation is next level. Since all houses are double skin brick built, only additional roof insulation is needed. Every house where weve added loads of ceiling void insulation has almost nullified the need for heating and cooling. I grew up on the plains, high at 1600m asl, near Pretoria. The last place i lived in was terrible, South facing and uninsulated wood floors, cold in winter, hot in summer. My basement workshop was pleasant most year luckily.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! 😎 The roof overhang keeps the sun off of the south side of the house in the summer because the sun is high in the sky. In the winter, the sun comes in the windows and heats the house. It has worked a lot better than we expected. We thought we might need to add a wood burning stove, but are glad we don't need it. We use the evaporative cooler for a couple of hours in the evening, and the house is staying very comfortable so far this summer. 🌞🏜️
It stayed pretty nice last summer, even before it was insulated on the inside. The evaporative cooler works great when it's hot and dry. During the monsoon season we are planning to run a dehumidifier instead of the evaporative cooler, but still use the fan on the cooler to bring in the cool night air. We'll plan to do an update on how it works out.
Good morning you guys hope you guys already have a great day keep up the good work and have a great Christmas morning I'll see you guys be careful out there
You doing a great job in keeping the world out of pollution Heat water with concave mirror / dish shining concentrated sun rays on a 200 liter metal drum having oil. And then pass water pipes Mash in it Just a suggestion
Thanks for the video, very informative. I have a new battery as of March 2022 in my Xterra. It went dead this week. That is how manufacturing is going!
I lived in Palm Springs California in the '80s for 10 years. My car battery never did last more than 2 years I was told it was just the heat that it had to endure. Love your thoughts on thermal mass and passive solar energy.
Interesting! Yes, maybe it's just part of living in a somewhat extreme climate. The passive design concept is really amazing, and it works much better than we expected!
FANTASTIC VIDEO!! I have 12 acres in Cochise County and I am planning to build a home that is very similar to yours. Right now, I am sitting in a 100 year old 2750 sq. ft. Victorian with ZERO insulation and its negative 20 degrees outside.
I built a house using similar design principles as yours in southern Idaho about 12 years ago. When the sun shines it heats up the house even when it is well below O deg F. Problem is, most of our winters are cloudy here; consequently the heat pump runs most days in the winter. I keep it at 65 deg F for the winter.
Yes, clouds make it much less effective. Three days is the longest stretch of cloudy weather we got this winter, so the coldest it got in the house all winter was 62°. It typically stayed in the 70°s. I bet your house stays nice in the summer. We'll probably need to use an evaporative cooler in the summer. 🌞
Thank you so much for sharing this! We’re building a solar gain house here in Oklahoma. Looking forward to seeing how cool your home stays in the summer, without other cooling mechanisms !!! 😊
Awesome! It has worked much better than we expected, definitely worth doing! The temperatures inside stayed pretty nice last summer, even before it was insulated on the inside. The evaporative cooler works great when it's hot and dry. During the monsoon season we are planning to run a dehumidifier instead of the evaporative cooler, but still use the fan on the cooler to bring in the cool night air. We'll plan to do an update on how it works out. Best wishes on your build!
For your well pump, I would place the largest holding tank I could fit in the well house and use a DC pump from it to your pressure tanks for household line pressure. That will take a lot of load off of the well pump since it essentially functions only as a lift pump and allows it to run for longer periods with less start/stops, which is what normally kills a motor.
UV coating is not a thermal factor in passive solar, BUT coatings in general are a huge factor. What you are looking for is glass with a high SHGC (Solar Heat Gain Coefficient). This glass will allow through more of the spectrum that actually heats things up.
Hi yall! It’s incredible how awesome this works! This morning it was 21 outside and 60 inside the house. It’s so nice! The RV was 31 when we went in! 😮 🥶 Happy holidays!!!
Awesome! Yes, it's so nice! We got down to 13° last night and our house was 65° this morning. Once you finish and insulate your floor, your house will probably do even better. Our floor has the majority of the thermal mass so insulating it was well worth it. The days have been so warm we have been keeping most of our curtains closed during the day, and opening a window. Thanks! Happy Holidays to y'all too! 🦃🌲❤️😊
Funny you mention how the change of day length changes through the year. I was chatting with my nephew about this exact thing at the beginning of this week. He's in a calculus class and i was explaining to him how this rate of change can be explained and calculated using calculus.
It is pretty interesting and happens much faster than we expected. Within a couple of weeks we go from a little sun coming in through the lower windows to complete shade on the whole front of the house.
Battery: I have also had my first ever 2.2 years car battery fail. Ive been a fleet owner and fleet manager over 20+ years. Ive had one warranty replacement.
Thank you for sharing you have saved my sanity. I knew there had to be another way. I just don't understand why when I live in Portugal where there is lots of sun I am cold and miserable in the house unless I burn money running dehumidifiers and heaters. Outside is always warmer than inside and inside. So much inappropriate house design it drives my crazy!!
Red And , April . Have You Always Known Of The Passive Solar Design Of A House Or Was It Tons Of Research ? Have , Very Merry Christmas And Happy New Year . Thank You For Sharing Your Knowledge On The Matter.
A few years ago, we saw a video by the channel Handeeman about how a passive design home works. That was the first we had heard of it. We also got a book by Brad Lancaster. We haven't read much of it, but happened to see where he mentioned the UV coating on glass. Passive heating works a lot better than we expected. We figured we would still need a wood stove, but it's really nice we don't. Thanks so much! Wishing you a wonderful holiday season as well! 😊🎄
Always great to see these updates. I'm thinking the UV vs non UV comparison might not be very accurate in the way you did it. It seems that the cooler side is in a location that might not have had as much sun on it throughout the day, and the warmer side was "preheated" by light coming through the uv treated window in the previous hours. It seems you'll get a better idea of the actual difference by measuring the ground temperature directly in front of each panel (maybe 6" to 1' from the glass), and do it morning, mid day, and night, and see the average temperature difference. Maybe that's more work than the effort is worth, but it would be interesting for us nerds to see who are planning such details for our future homes. :)
Yes, it's hard to do because of the rugs and furniture and, the windows are higher, so the sun doesn't hit the floor close to the window like it does by the door. There is a definite difference in how hot it feels standing in the sun coming through the uncoated windows. We are glad we got the UV coating on the doors. The house is staying plenty warm and comfortable.
Yes, that's what we did when were living in the RV. As long as we had plenty of sun, we would run a little electric heater. It helped some, but RVs don't have much insulation and it was always so cold!
The real test having a comfortable temp inside is when the sun is missing for several days in winter. We have a fireplace for backup heat in S. Co. @ 6850' earth ship! Have a Merry holiday with your family. 🌲😎
We don't get very many cloudy days here, but when it is cloudy, it is also quite a bit warmer outside, so it somewhat evens out. Turning the oven on to bake something for an hour raises the temperature a couple of degrees, so that can help too. We lived in northern NM, for many years, and it's definitely much colder there. Here it gets cold at night, but it warms up more during the day, which really helps. Thanks! Merry Christmas! 😊
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid Excellent videos. Before building, did you compare the construction cost (materials and labor) of concrete walls to 16x8x8 concrete (cinder) blocks filled with concrete? I'm thinking about a very similar build, but possibly using the cinder blocks instead? Approximately what is the altitude where you live? Anywhere near Sierra Vista?
@@glennhansel9411 No, we wanted something with more insulation value, and this has worked out perfectly. This house has very stable temperatures, and is completely passive and comfortable in the winter. We are in Cochise County at around 4,000 elevation. 🌞🏜️
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid As you are aware, concrete has little insulation value, it works through thermal mass. I figured 8 inch concrete blocks filled with concrete would have approximately the same thermal mass as an 8 inch concrete wall. Thanks for your response!
Wow! Thanks for sharing the details (rvalues, costs, materials, and temp readings). While this shares many of the earthship design principles I imagine it was quite a bit less expensive and easier to permit, yes? How is the summertime performance? Would a buried air vent work to cool the house or is the insulation and eave shading sufficient? Do you use anything mechanical for air exchanging or dehumidification? Just curious. Great design! Good looking, too!!
Thanks! This house is so comfortable to live in and was MUCH faster and easier to build than an earthship, but probably cost a little more. We had 4 or 5 mornings, where the inside temperature was down to 62°, but that's the coldest it got all winter, and typically it was much warmer. We are very impressed with how nice the temperature stayed this winter. In the summer, based on last year, I expect the highest temperatures inside to get into the mid 80s°. We plan to use an evaporative cooler when it's hot and dry, and possibly just a fan and dehumidifier during the monsoon season. At night, by opening a window, the high vents in the bedrooms should draw in plenty of cool desert air. The general design would be easy to permit, but not sure about some of the specifics like: exterior insulation, metal beams, earthen floors, and uncoated windows. Our county has an opt-out of inspections permit, so we take on the responsibility of building a good and safe home.
@RedandAprilOff-Grid Thanks. Did you use and architect or structural engineer? Or were you able to figure out much from code guides, TH-cam, and other references? How much building experience would you recommend someone have before embarking on a project of this scale?
It's Low-e coating, as in low emissivity coating. Not UV coating. The Low-e coating on windows mostly block infrared as well as UV radiation to reduce the solar heat gain.
I lived in Phoenix for 11 years. Car batteries only last at the most 2 years in Arizona. The Sun and heat kill them. If you garage your car continually you may get a little more time. So everyone got the 5 year guarantee batteries and simply brought them back when they went dead and paid the discounted pro-rate for the new battery.
Thank You for the valuable information on house performance. Do you add sun screens to those windows w/o the Uv protection during the summer months ? I’d be. Curious to see if your able keep the sun out as well? My observation is people who run a ground level water storages, say5 k gallon, seem to have allot better reliability from the deep well pump, and it makes a pressure pump do the bulk of the work. The solar driven pumps, like you replaced seem to last allot longer when allowed run continuously, or when cycle ing minimized. As for the car battery they seem to have about a year lifespan here in Arizona.
Glad it's helpful! The passive design works amazingly well here. Yes, the overhang is such that the sun doesn't hit the front of the house in the summer. The well guy said this isn't how this pump is typically used, which probably contributed to its early failure. The desert is pretty harsh on many things, but we still love it. 🏜️
Hi guys, a few questions, could you suggest any books you used for your thermal walls for reference -- as well as , books used during the whole project, for reference, I think that would make a great video, of you showing the reference material used to make your house, that’s at least a thirty minute video. - I am thinking of building a thermal wall After watching this , I looked through your channel and found the video on the building of that thermal wall. After taking a few , heat pump classes of air to water systems , and hydronic classes , I think thermal walls, will be used more often in remodeling and new construction, in the upcoming years. The demonstration using the temperature gun really helped and gives an understanding of LOW E and non low e windows- 6-7 degrees difference, thanks this is good information, and will now consider this . again thank you for documenting your hard hard work, it can become very draining, mentally, physically, and financially on a project that long, stay tough great job -
Here is the link to a couple of books we looked at that were helpful regarding passive design. www.harvestingrainwater.com/ The books go into great detail about permaculture and other things, but also have some info about passive design homes. We skimmed through and saw where the book mentioned the importance of the windows on the south side being uncoated. We used concrete for our thermal mass walls because we had the materials, thought it would look cool, and figure it would also have some practical value. We did a lot of guessing and figuring things out as we went, but didn't know for sure how well the house would heat itself, but in the end, this design has worked out great for this area. 🌞🏜️
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid thank you - nice insight, he did a good job explaining much, I have my work cut out for me, proper planning, will be getting his recommended book . The TH-cam community on this subject is very supportive and helpful.
We have the sticker somewhere but I'm not sure. We got the least expensive double pane windows they had at The Window Depot, so definitely nothing special. I'm sure the thermal blackout curtains we have help too.
@@scorpio6587 It definitely would be better, but our goal was also to build a very affordable home. The passive design is working way better than we expected! The last few days, we have been opening windows to keep it from getting too warm.
Our area gets well below freezing almost every night in the winter. In the few years we have lived here, we have seen temperatures range from 5°F to 105°F. The exterior reflective insulation layer as well as the interior thermal mass has been very effective in keeping the inside temperatures stable and nice year round. It has performed way better than we expected. In the summer we open windows at night, because the desert cools down, and we use an evaporative cooler, because it's typically dry. The desert is an extreme environment but it's a great place to live off the grid in a solar passive design home. 🌞🏜️
We get large temperature swings here in the desert which makes passive heating and cooling very effective. It gets well below freezing every night in the winter and sometimes as cold as -15 C. Lots of sunshine is a huge advantage to living in the desert.
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid Greetings from another planet. We have only 3 sunny days a month in Irkutsk in winter. The temperature in winter at night reaches -47 C. The cost of an installation for heat storage will be comparable to the cost of another house. On the contrary, summer is very hot and sunny - 24 sunny days. The cost of one kilowatt* hour of electricity is 1 ruble (1 cent).
Southern side of house make walls out off Sun baked Mud bricks would increase heat transfer at night in winter and cooler in summers. Just my experience in the hottest places on earth.
No nonsense and far more energy-effective than anything else available. Think about it: for nearly zero cost one gets free energy from the sun for years on end. Can't think of a better return on investment: it tends to infinity.
We are putting our weekly video out a day early. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas! 😊🎄
❤merry Christmas!🎄
@@bondpaz Thanks! Hope y'all have a wonderful New Year! ❤️🎊
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid thanks 😊
In my area we have cold cloudy winter.
I can only dream of such solar gains :(
Anyway. Great house and thx for time you put in to share all of this with us. Happy living 🙂
The abundant sunshine is one of our favorite things about living in the desert. 🌞Appreciate it, thanks for watching! 😊🏜️
Wow! Such a well thought out design. It's absolutely amazing how energy efficient your home is. Merry Christmas 🎄⛄🎄⛄🎄
Thanks! It has worked out much better than we expected! Merry Christmas! 😊🎄
VERY important dokumentation......so much first hand info....thanks a lot
Black floor is best!
Dark brown works pretty well too. It's interesting that the temperature reading on the gray rug is several degrees hotter than the reading on the floor. 🌞
It is amazing how well your house is performing! It is staying in a very comfortable temperature range all by itself, well done!
Thanks! Yes, it's so nice not having a hot, dry furnace kicking on all the time, and it's free!
Red n April, What can i say but , wow you Amaze me on just how Smart you designed a d Built your oasis !! SO IMPRESSED
It all worked out better than we expected! Thanks! 😊
I commented before...but WOW Talk about aA Smart Home!! How Awesomely Awesome is your design!!
Thanks! 😄 I wish more people realized how easy and awesome it is to have free heat, and stable temperatures all winter! Passive solar works amazingly well in the desert! 🌞
Wow 14 degrees and 64 inside with no heater? That’s impressive! Awesome chair. ❤
It is really amazing, much better than we expected! Thanks! ❤️
Thanks for sharing. It is nice to see how the solar heating is working so well in the new home. We had grid tied solar panels installed on our Colorado home in April and it has been really interesting to see how much the power generation varies from summer to winter. Fortunately we get credit for the summer over production to be used to offset our winter electric bills. The one drawback to the roof panels is snow coverage. I am way too old to try to remove the snow from the panels. We hope you guys have a wonderful holiday season.
Yes, it is really nice that we don't get much snow here. Clearing the panels would be a hassle! Winter definitely isn't as productive, but most days are sunny, and we don't have trees blocking the sun, so we still get almost 10 hours of sun even in the winter. Thanks! You too, stay warm! 😊🎄
Neat. Most buildings in South Africa, where ingrew up, incorporate passive heating (North facing), however your insulation is next level.
Since all houses are double skin brick built, only additional roof insulation is needed. Every house where weve added loads of ceiling void insulation has almost nullified the need for heating and cooling. I grew up on the plains, high at 1600m asl, near Pretoria. The last place i lived in was terrible, South facing and uninsulated wood floors, cold in winter, hot in summer. My basement workshop was pleasant most year luckily.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! 😎 The roof overhang keeps the sun off of the south side of the house in the summer because the sun is high in the sky. In the winter, the sun comes in the windows and heats the house. It has worked a lot better than we expected. We thought we might need to add a wood burning stove, but are glad we don't need it.
We use the evaporative cooler for a couple of hours in the evening, and the house is staying very comfortable so far this summer. 🌞🏜️
Excellent video. Lot to learns. Now you have lots of experience, How to build good house
We have learned a lot. Thanks! 🌞🏜️
I look forward to the summer update and seeing how well your house stays cool.
It stayed pretty nice last summer, even before it was insulated on the inside. The evaporative cooler works great when it's hot and dry. During the monsoon season we are planning to run a dehumidifier instead of the evaporative cooler, but still use the fan on the cooler to bring in the cool night air. We'll plan to do an update on how it works out.
Good morning you guys hope you guys already have a great day keep up the good work and have a great Christmas morning I'll see you guys be careful out there
Thanks so much! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas too! 😊🎄
Nice finishing touches. Looks good. Sorry to hear your pump dies. Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas!
Thanks so much! 😊
You doing a great job in keeping the world out of pollution
Heat water with concave mirror / dish shining concentrated sun rays on a 200 liter metal drum having oil. And then pass water pipes Mash in it
Just a suggestion
Thanks for the video, very informative. I have a new battery as of March 2022 in my Xterra. It went dead this week. That is how manufacturing is going!
Thanks for watching!
Bummer! We just got the cheapest ones they had at Walmart this time, we'll see how they do.
Merry Christmas to you guys
❄️🤶🎄🎅❄️
Thanks! Merry Christmas! 😊🎄
I lived in Palm Springs California in the '80s for 10 years. My car battery never did last more than 2 years I was told it was just the heat that it had to endure. Love your thoughts on thermal mass and passive solar energy.
Interesting! Yes, maybe it's just part of living in a somewhat extreme climate.
The passive design concept is really amazing, and it works much better than we expected!
And a very Merry Christmas to you!
Thanks! Merry Christmas! 😊🎄
Thank you.Merry Christmas!🎄🎅🥂🙋♀️
Thanks! 😊🎄
Pets are the best at finding the warmest part of the floor for the most solar gain.
Very true! 😺🐕
Merry Christmas to you. Greetings from north of Sweden.
Thanks so much, 😊 happy holidays!
Love your house, the design and flow of it. Love the passive solar heat also.
Thanks! Yes, the passive solar works amazingly well!
Passive Solar! Good video guys!
Passive solar is pretty awesome! Thanks!
FANTASTIC VIDEO!! I have 12 acres in Cochise County and I am planning to build a home that is very similar to yours. Right now, I am sitting in a 100 year old 2750 sq. ft. Victorian with ZERO insulation and its negative 20 degrees outside.
Thanks! Congrats, sounds like a good move! 🥶 Stay warm!
Happy Christmas.
We had a wonderful Christmas, thanks! 😊
I built a house using similar design principles as yours in southern Idaho about 12 years ago. When the sun shines it heats up the house even when it is well below O deg F. Problem is, most of our winters are cloudy here; consequently the heat pump runs most days in the winter. I keep it at 65 deg F for the winter.
Yes, clouds make it much less effective. Three days is the longest stretch of cloudy weather we got this winter, so the coldest it got in the house all winter was 62°. It typically stayed in the 70°s. I bet your house stays nice in the summer. We'll probably need to use an evaporative cooler in the summer. 🌞
I am very impressed with what you guys have going on. Keep up the great work.
Thanks so much! Wishing you and your family a happy new year!
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid yes happy New Year’s to your family as well!
Merry Christmas!
Thanks, we had a wonderful Christmas! 😊
Thank you so much for sharing this! We’re building a solar gain house here in Oklahoma.
Looking forward to seeing how cool your home stays in the summer, without other cooling mechanisms !!! 😊
Awesome! It has worked much better than we expected, definitely worth doing!
The temperatures inside stayed pretty nice last summer, even before it was insulated on the inside. The evaporative cooler works great when it's hot and dry. During the monsoon season we are planning to run a dehumidifier instead of the evaporative cooler, but still use the fan on the cooler to bring in the cool night air. We'll plan to do an update on how it works out. Best wishes on your build!
Merry Christmas to you as well! Have enjoyed following along your build and great vids :)
We had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks for watching! 😊
Is it possible to do a Hyper-Adobe home update, from your sons build? Thx! Merry Christmas!
Yes, probably some time in January we'll up there helping him. Thanks, we had a wonderful Christmas!
For your well pump, I would place the largest holding tank I could fit in the well house and use a DC pump from it to your pressure tanks for household line pressure. That will take a lot of load off of the well pump since it essentially functions only as a lift pump and allows it to run for longer periods with less start/stops, which is what normally kills a motor.
We have 2 pressure tanks, but with 3 houses using the well, it's a bit hard on the pump. Thanks
Great video, thank you!
Passive design with exterior insulation and interior thermal mass, really makes an amazingly comfortable house to live in! Thanks! 🌞
UV coating is not a thermal factor in passive solar, BUT coatings in general are a huge factor. What you are looking for is glass with a high SHGC (Solar Heat Gain Coefficient). This glass will allow through more of the spectrum that actually heats things up.
👍
Thank you
You're welcome 😊
Hi yall! It’s incredible how awesome this works! This morning it was 21 outside and 60 inside the house. It’s so nice! The RV was 31 when we went in! 😮 🥶 Happy holidays!!!
Awesome! Yes, it's so nice! We got down to 13° last night and our house was 65° this morning. Once you finish and insulate your floor, your house will probably do even better. Our floor has the majority of the thermal mass so insulating it was well worth it. The days have been so warm we have been keeping most of our curtains closed during the day, and opening a window.
Thanks! Happy Holidays to y'all too! 🦃🌲❤️😊
@ 13!! Wow. That’s cold!🥶
Funny you mention how the change of day length changes through the year. I was chatting with my nephew about this exact thing at the beginning of this week. He's in a calculus class and i was explaining to him how this rate of change can be explained and calculated using calculus.
It is pretty interesting and happens much faster than we expected. Within a couple of weeks we go from a little sun coming in through the lower windows to complete shade on the whole front of the house.
Battery: I have also had my first ever 2.2 years car battery fail. Ive been a fleet owner and fleet manager over 20+ years. Ive had one warranty replacement.
Thank you for sharing you have saved my sanity. I knew there had to be another way. I just don't understand why when I live in Portugal where there is lots of sun I am cold and miserable in the house unless I burn money running dehumidifiers and heaters. Outside is always warmer than inside and inside. So much inappropriate house design it drives my crazy!!
Glad it was helpful! Passive solar design really is amazing! Our house is always comfortable all winter long. 🌞
Red And , April . Have You Always Known Of The Passive Solar Design Of A House Or Was It Tons Of Research ? Have , Very Merry Christmas And Happy New Year . Thank You For Sharing Your Knowledge On The Matter.
A few years ago, we saw a video by the channel Handeeman about how a passive design home works. That was the first we had heard of it. We also got a book by Brad Lancaster. We haven't read much of it, but happened to see where he mentioned the UV coating on glass. Passive heating works a lot better than we expected. We figured we would still need a wood stove, but it's really nice we don't. Thanks so much! Wishing you a wonderful holiday season as well! 😊🎄
Always great to see these updates. I'm thinking the UV vs non UV comparison might not be very accurate in the way you did it. It seems that the cooler side is in a location that might not have had as much sun on it throughout the day, and the warmer side was "preheated" by light coming through the uv treated window in the previous hours.
It seems you'll get a better idea of the actual difference by measuring the ground temperature directly in front of each panel (maybe 6" to 1' from the glass), and do it morning, mid day, and night, and see the average temperature difference.
Maybe that's more work than the effort is worth, but it would be interesting for us nerds to see who are planning such details for our future homes. :)
Yes, it's hard to do because of the rugs and furniture and, the windows are higher, so the sun doesn't hit the floor close to the window like it does by the door. There is a definite difference in how hot it feels standing in the sun coming through the uncoated windows. We are glad we got the UV coating on the doors. The house is staying plenty warm and comfortable.
all that sun power I would use a space heater a bit in the am hours.
Yes, that's what we did when were living in the RV. As long as we had plenty of sun, we would run a little electric heater. It helped some, but RVs don't have much insulation and it was always so cold!
The real test having a comfortable temp inside is when the sun is missing for several days in winter. We have a fireplace
for backup heat in S. Co. @ 6850' earth ship! Have a Merry holiday with your family. 🌲😎
We don't get very many cloudy days here, but when it is cloudy, it is also quite a bit warmer outside, so it somewhat evens out. Turning the oven on to bake something for an hour raises the temperature a couple of degrees, so that can help too. We lived in northern NM, for many years, and it's definitely much colder there. Here it gets cold at night, but it warms up more during the day, which really helps. Thanks! Merry Christmas! 😊
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid Excellent videos. Before building, did you compare the construction cost (materials and labor) of concrete walls to 16x8x8 concrete (cinder) blocks filled with concrete? I'm thinking about a very similar build, but possibly using the cinder blocks instead? Approximately what is the altitude where you live? Anywhere near Sierra Vista?
@@glennhansel9411 No, we wanted something with more insulation value, and this has worked out perfectly. This house has very stable temperatures, and is completely passive and comfortable in the winter. We are in Cochise County at around 4,000 elevation. 🌞🏜️
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid As you are aware, concrete has little insulation value, it works through thermal mass. I figured 8 inch concrete blocks filled with concrete would have approximately the same thermal mass as an 8 inch concrete wall. Thanks for your response!
Wow! Thanks for sharing the details (rvalues, costs, materials, and temp readings). While this shares many of the earthship design principles I imagine it was quite a bit less expensive and easier to permit, yes? How is the summertime performance? Would a buried air vent work to cool the house or is the insulation and eave shading sufficient? Do you use anything mechanical for air exchanging or dehumidification? Just curious. Great design! Good looking, too!!
Thanks! This house is so comfortable to live in and was MUCH faster and easier to build than an earthship, but probably cost a little more. We had 4 or 5 mornings, where the inside temperature was down to 62°, but that's the coldest it got all winter, and typically it was much warmer. We are very impressed with how nice the temperature stayed this winter. In the summer, based on last year, I expect the highest temperatures inside to get into the mid 80s°. We plan to use an evaporative cooler when it's hot and dry, and possibly just a fan and dehumidifier during the monsoon season. At night, by opening a window, the high vents in the bedrooms should draw in plenty of cool desert air. The general design would be easy to permit, but not sure about some of the specifics like: exterior insulation, metal beams, earthen floors, and uncoated windows. Our county has an opt-out of inspections permit, so we take on the responsibility of building a good and safe home.
@RedandAprilOff-Grid Thanks. Did you use and architect or structural engineer? Or were you able to figure out much from code guides, TH-cam, and other references? How much building experience would you recommend someone have before embarking on a project of this scale?
It's Low-e coating, as in low emissivity coating. Not UV coating. The Low-e coating on windows mostly block infrared as well as UV radiation to reduce the solar heat gain.
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I lived in Phoenix for 11 years. Car batteries only last at the most 2 years in Arizona. The Sun and heat kill them. If you garage your car continually you may get a little more time. So everyone got the 5 year guarantee batteries and simply brought them back when they went dead and paid the discounted pro-rate for the new battery.
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2 years on a car battery in Arizona sounds normal if the car is always outdoors.
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Thank You for the valuable information on house performance. Do you add sun screens to those windows w/o the Uv protection during the summer months ? I’d be. Curious to see if your able keep the sun out as well?
My observation is people who run a ground level water storages, say5 k gallon, seem to have allot better reliability from the deep well pump, and it makes a pressure pump do the bulk of the work.
The solar driven pumps, like you replaced seem to last allot longer when allowed run continuously, or when cycle ing minimized.
As for the car battery they seem to have about a year lifespan here in Arizona.
They have a roof overhang that blocks most (or all) the direct sunlight in the summer months.
Glad it's helpful! The passive design works amazingly well here. Yes, the overhang is such that the sun doesn't hit the front of the house in the summer.
The well guy said this isn't how this pump is typically used, which probably contributed to its early failure.
The desert is pretty harsh on many things, but we still love it. 🏜️
Hi guys, a few questions, could you suggest any books you used for your thermal walls for reference -- as well as , books used during the whole project, for reference, I think that would make a great video, of you showing the reference material used to make your house, that’s at least a thirty minute video.
- I am thinking of building a thermal wall After watching this , I looked through your channel and found the video on the building of that thermal wall.
After taking a few , heat pump classes of air to water systems , and hydronic classes , I think thermal walls, will be used more often in remodeling and new construction, in the upcoming years.
The demonstration using the temperature gun really helped and gives an understanding of LOW E and non low e windows- 6-7 degrees difference, thanks this is good information, and will now consider this .
again thank you for documenting your hard hard work, it can become very draining, mentally, physically, and financially on a project that long, stay tough great job -
Here is the link to a couple of books we looked at that were helpful regarding passive design. www.harvestingrainwater.com/
The books go into great detail about permaculture and other things, but also have some info about passive design homes. We skimmed through and saw where the book mentioned the importance of the windows on the south side being uncoated.
We used concrete for our thermal mass walls because we had the materials, thought it would look cool, and figure it would also have some practical value.
We did a lot of guessing and figuring things out as we went, but didn't know for sure how well the house would heat itself, but in the end, this design has worked out great for this area. 🌞🏜️
And, here is the video we saw a few years ago that first inspired our passive design th-cam.com/video/stL8GS1ME_E/w-d-xo.html 🌞
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid thank you - nice insight, he did a good job explaining much, I have my work cut out for me, proper planning, will be getting his recommended book . The TH-cam community on this subject is very supportive and helpful.
I forget: did you put insulation down under the floor?
We have 1 to 1.5 inches of foam board under all of the floor.
Awesome achievement! Question: What is the SHGC on those windows?
We have the sticker somewhere but I'm not sure. We got the least expensive double pane windows they had at The Window Depot, so definitely nothing special. I'm sure the thermal blackout curtains we have help too.
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid I was thinking that with your design, a higher than average SHGC would be a good thing. I hope to do something similar someday.
@@scorpio6587 It definitely would be better, but our goal was also to build a very affordable home. The passive design is working way better than we expected! The last few days, we have been opening windows to keep it from getting too warm.
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid Awesome!
how about summer? do you need to turn on ac all day?
We have an evaporative cooler that we just run for a couple of hours in the morning and in the evening.
The answer to everything is
It depends
Um yeah,it's Arizona...isn't A/C more of a concern than heat?.
Our area gets well below freezing almost every night in the winter. In the few years we have lived here, we have seen temperatures range from 5°F to 105°F. The exterior reflective insulation layer as well as the interior thermal mass has been very effective in keeping the inside temperatures stable and nice year round. It has performed way better than we expected. In the summer we open windows at night, because the desert cools down, and we use an evaporative cooler, because it's typically dry. The desert is an extreme environment but it's a great place to live off the grid in a solar passive design home. 🌞🏜️
так там Турция, там тепло (с)
We get large temperature swings here in the desert which makes passive heating and cooling very effective. It gets well below freezing every night in the winter and sometimes as cold as -15 C. Lots of sunshine is a huge advantage to living in the desert.
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid
Greetings from another planet. We have only 3 sunny days a month in Irkutsk in winter. The temperature in winter at night reaches -47 C. The cost of an installation for heat storage will be comparable to the cost of another house. On the contrary, summer is very hot and sunny - 24 sunny days. The cost of one kilowatt* hour of electricity is 1 ruble (1 cent).
@@СергейПетров-б8сInteresting! Yes passive heating would not work well there. Sounds challenging!
The cost for electricity in our state is 13¢ per kWh, 1¢ is awesome! Thankfully we don't have an electric bill. 🌞
@@RedandAprilOff-Grid
shall we exchange citizenship? 🙃
Southern side of house make walls out off
Sun baked Mud bricks would increase heat transfer at night in winter and cooler in summers.
Just my experience in the hottest places on earth.
Interesting 😎 This design has worked amazingly well, the temperatures are stable and nice year round.
No nonsense and far more energy-effective than anything else available. Think about it: for nearly zero cost one gets free energy from the sun for years on end. Can't think of a better return on investment: it tends to infinity.
Yes, it's amazing, no work and it's free! It works much better than we expected, such a comfortable house to live in! 🌞