permaculture

["Kelly Finigan" <kfinigan@spots.ca>]

Hi:


On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 10:53:41 EDT, Marimike6 wrote
> Hi again--
> 
> Plans for a permaculture apartment can run the gamut from a bean 
> sprouter placed in your sunny-side window to a radical new design 
> for living. One such is an ingenious adaptation of geothermal energy 
> based on the fact that ten feet below your floorboards, the ground 
> temperature is the average of your area's summer and winter 
> temperatures. That's why when they homesteaded the American Midwest, 
> the old sodbusters used to dig out their homes and put a roof over 
> the pit. It was just warmer in winter, cooler in summer down there 
> (not to mention being a handy retreat from tornados).
 

For earth sheltered housing with efficient design and passive solar gain 
this may be ok, but when (realtively) lots of heat is taken out every 
heating season, the overall ground temperature (the heat store in this case) 
becomes depleted. 

Around here, this technology (ground source heat pump) has started not 
performing well after as little as two heating seasons. Seems like asystem 
that could become useless (or at least of less use) long before the building 
is intended to be.

Maybe this is just occurring in climates like mine - high heating 
requirement (for "conventional" houses anyway!) and little summer cooling 
required (i.e. no need/opportunity to "fill" the earth-coolth battery 
[soil]). Maybe it works better in more temperate areas?

I expect the situation gets rapidly worse if large buildings / subdivisions 
adopt this method. Possible ways to lessen the impact - efficient (less heat 
demand) design, passive solar gain (recharge the battery)?

just my observation...

Kelly




--
Kelly Finigan, M.Sc. P.Eng. Permaculture Designer
Essential Elements Inc.
~ Sustainability services, Permaculture landscapes & buildings  -
workshops, designs & consulting ~
744 - 4 Street NW
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1P2
phone 403-283-7270