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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Energy-efficient, low maintenance, durable building design.
  • Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 21:36:11 -0400

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As with residential home construction so with institutional, commercial and industrial - architectural energy efficiency is easy to achieve when using many of the currently available, refined, high-quality building materials, some new, some traditional, in the design specs.

Consider FL Wright's Prairie House, earth-bermed structures, simple in design, using a lot of concrete, all on one level and very stable and durable. Houses can be built on multi-level (to accomodate changes in existing grade) monolithic
slabs or grade beam slabs of 6000 PSI fiber/rebar/wire-reinforced outdoor concrete. On this lay an exterior wall of heavy ornamental or architectural 8" concrete block, "split-face" has one side that looks like stone; this is your structural, load-bearing wall. These kind of blocks are often available as overruns for $.75-$1.00 each, less delivery. Prior to laying this wall you can embed threaded anchor bolts in the slab so that tension rods can be inserted through the wall cores and connected to these bolts; the tension rods are then connected to rebar or some other steel bar or beam running horizontally along the top of the wall. Premanufactured steel trusses can be mounted along the top of the wall and tied to these tension rods. Steel studs can be screwed or welded across the trusses as purlins and heavy gauge prepainted steel roofing can then be attached to trusses and purlins. Allow a 2" air space then lay a core wall of AAC block (Aerated Autoclaved Concrete available from Aercon in Florida and Hebel in Georgia) next to the exterior block wall for insulation, the thicker the block, the higher the R-Value - they start at 8" and go to 16", maybe 20". An interior wall, also of heavy ornamental 8" block, is laid next to the AAC block wall. A finished wall of this sort can be as much as 42" thick. As for the floor, 8" AAC block is laid across the entire floor area leaving 4-8" gaps along the walls and within the interior of the floor on a grid of channels for support beams for the finshed floor. Interior-grade concrete, 6000 PSI strength, wire and rebar-reinforced, 6-8" thick is poured over the entire floor area. The roof can be insulated with 12" to 16" of high-density hard-forming plastic foam insulation. Reinforced AAC curtain walls are available from the suppliers 4' wide to as much as 20' long and 4-6" thick. These prefab units can be used as floors or room dividers. Apply stucco or paint and you have a nice looking ceiling or wall. They are also used as integrated roofing and insulation and for this application they are offered T&G, as far as I know. As for heating and cooling, a house built this way will have lots of thermal mass to recycle heat from solar or heater and cooling by closing doors and windows during days and open sometimes at night. I expect annual energy costs to keep inhabitatants confortable would be very low. As far as active cooling and heating is concerned I hear that hydronic cooling systems, hydronic heat pumps and conventional heat pumps have gained in efficiency and might be worth considering, especially underground piping circulating 50 degree water through a heat exchanger. H.S. Tarm, a Danish wood stove manufacturer makes several units that are the best in their class. The simplest is a wood-fired boiler that delivers very hot water to a large insulated storage tank with heat exchangers that deliver DHW and hot water for a zone-type radiator system throughout the house. Preheat your cold water input with solar and you add to system efficiency. The huge windowsills in this house, one to last hundreds of years almost maintenance-free, can be used to grow flowers, house plants, fruits, vegetables and herbs as well as for starting seedlings for Spring planting in the gardens.

LL
--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lfl@intrex.net
info@market-farming.com
http://market-farming.com
Venaura Farm, sustainably-grown produce & garden handtools
http://market-farming.com/venaurafarm
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  • [permaculture] Energy-efficient, low maintenance, durable building design., Lawrence F. London, Jr., 10/01/2006

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