“Check out how I heat my house with my greenhouse! It’s so easy to do and it gives us (almost) free heat and many other benefits too. This could easily be an off grid way to heat a house.”
solar design
OHOME Passive Solar Studies
“A visual description of passive solar design of the OHOME. Sun penetrates during the heating season, but is rejected during the cooling season, optimizing passive solar heating and cooling.
DIY Ferrocement Domes and Vaults
“The “Green” movement has its roots in the late 60’s with the “back-to-the land” movement—-when people really started to think not just about alternative life styles but different methods of building—-including sustainability. It could easily be argued that the father and mother of the back-to-the-land movement were Helen and Scott Nearing.
Algae Powered House
“In the context of the International Building Exhibition IBA 2013 in Hamburg, Germany, the first algae bioreactor house was build. Algae-filled solar panels are the center of the house’s energy cycle. One one hand, they produce heat by absorbing solar energy, which is used to heat the house and produce warm water.On the other hand they produce biomass for biogas production, which is used to provide electrical energy and more heat.”
Brilliant Newfoundlander Invents the Solution!
“Jim Meaney, owner of Cansolair Inc. displays how he converts pop cans into a powerful solar heating panel.”
Walk-out or Daylight Basements
Sloped building sites are usually less expensive than level sites, and offer one way to cut the cost of a new home. However, sloped sites are more challenging to build on. One solution is walk-out basements, where most sides of the house are below or partially below ground and one side is level with the ground. Homes with walk-out basements typically look like conventional homes on one side (often the front of the house). From the back of the house (often facing south for solar gain) you can see the basement windows and doors. The best orientation is usually with the long axis of the house east-west with a window wall and doors facing south. This orientation provides natural daylighting and helps heat the home in winter.