permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

> > David Glober wrote:
> > This is so functional X beautiful X inspiring - thanks so much Lawrence for 
> > posting!

> It does seem to be the epitome of ...
> everything energy-logical about a dwelling, with water catchment and storage 
> for reuse also to moderate
> interior house temperature year round. As for winter I wonder if it has passive solar collectors feeding heat into the 
> storage unit & is the tank well insulated along exterior surfaces?

You could build this with standard materials. Picture a cap on a chantarelle 
mushroom with sides of cone at less steep
an angle. Reproduce this with a plywood form, painted then coated with 12" of 
spray weatherproof insulating foam;
cover this with EPDM rubber or similar material for UV resistant and puncture-resistant durability. Bottom of funnel 
allows rainwater to pass through an insulated door/valve then through a filtration unit and into the storage unit.
On warm days water could be pumped/circulated through a solar thermal collector then back into the tank to radiate heat 
to the dweling interior. Actually the solar collector could be a Trombe wall at floor lwvel and tank water could 
thermosyphon through it and back to the tank. In summer the stored water could be circulated through a network of water 
lines buried underground (under the concrete pad the house sits on) for cooling. Moving small amounts of water slowly
continuously through the day and night could provide consistent cooling. A 
small solar panel and a small windmill,
charging a battery, could generate enough power for a 12VDC pump to do its work. The tank could consist of a cluster of 
five or nine tall large diameter reinforced concrete culvert pipes sealed at their bottoms and waterproofed. The 
funnel-shaped roof would deliver rainwater to these vertical tube-shaped tanks.

FERROCEMENT. A ferrocement roof, insulated with 12" spray foam. Or a 
lightweight roof of EPDM on foam sprayed over
a lightweight steel frame covered with galvanized reinforcing mesh (chicken 
wire over hog wire).