Hi Folks,
First, I changed the wording on my house page at PESWiki under Renewable Energy to "In addition to solar and wind, we hope to do some beta testing of more exotic clean energy technologies."
Below are some updated floor plans and a sketch of the proposed home design. The primary objective in these plans was to come up with a smaller Phase I dwelling that could pass occupancy permitting and allow us to move in and be livable. Phase II could be done later. One major change from the first draft is that I turned the "half pipe" into an gradual arch shape to help resist the back-fill pressure. Tim Hall recommends that we go with the parabolic shape (called "caternary vault") using 20-inch earth bags. He's going to be building the world's first structure of this sort this coming Feb. in Hawaii -- a 30-foot-long one --so he will have that experience to draw upon when he comes to help us build our home.
I'm guessing that most of our budget and time will be gobbled up in Phase I, so Phase II may have to wait a while.
These plans are drawn to scale (2 mm = 1 foot in the original). We'll probably make the utility room smaller and use an external building wired in to the home. The utility room will also need to fit our main cistern, water heater, radiant flooring control. The batteries can be located in the external building.
Cheri generally doesn't like the bee-hive earthbag look, so we went with a more traditional shape for our kitchen and living area. However, she did like the architecture shown on the cover of Earthbag Building. Both of us like the coloration and the framing of the windows.
If it weren't for this find today (thanks to Renee), the Phase II master bedroom would be shaped the same as the kitchen/living room area. We would like to do this kind of thing with all external windows, and maybe even the doors and windows that will run through the solarium.Now that I've pared down the plans, I'd like to ask my question again of Tim and Owen: Do you think Phase I is doable in the 180-day time-frame given per the 1031 roll-over constraints (I'm not yet sure when that begins/began; signing was on Oct. 30).Our tentative work force presently consists of:
- Sterling: FT, owner- Tim Hall: FT, foreman/instructor
- Torg: FT, SHV member
- Aaron: FT, SHV member- people that will trade labor for dental work from John- volunteers/interns that Torg can drum up- a few other SHV members/associates here and there.
As for the electrical considerations:
- I plan to go with DC for most major appliances, but we will want to have GFC circuits in the kitchen for things like Vitamix, Food Processor, etc.
- We'll want to have 2-3 AC outlets in the living room
- I would like to have at least one AC outlet in each room for things like radios, etc. that require it.
- I'm not sure what code requires when DC is being used predominantly
- all lighting can be DC
Here are the updated plans and sketch. I think it looks like a hot dog, so I'm afraid we're going to have the not-so-sexy name of "Hot Dog House".
(Click on image for enlarged view.)
First, I changed the wording on my house page at PESWiki under Renewable Energy to "In addition to solar and wind, we hope to do some beta testing of more exotic clean energy technologies."
Below are some updated floor plans and a sketch of the proposed home design. The primary objective in these plans was to come up with a smaller Phase I dwelling that could pass occupancy permitting and allow us to move in and be livable. Phase II could be done later. One major change from the first draft is that I turned the "half pipe" into an gradual arch shape to help resist the back-fill pressure. Tim Hall recommends that we go with the parabolic shape (called "caternary vault") using 20-inch earth bags. He's going to be building the world's first structure of this sort this coming Feb. in Hawaii -- a 30-foot-long one --so he will have that experience to draw upon when he comes to help us build our home.
I'm guessing that most of our budget and time will be gobbled up in Phase I, so Phase II may have to wait a while.
These plans are drawn to scale (2 mm = 1 foot in the original). We'll probably make the utility room smaller and use an external building wired in to the home. The utility room will also need to fit our main cistern, water heater, radiant flooring control. The batteries can be located in the external building.
Cheri generally doesn't like the bee-hive earthbag look, so we went with a more traditional shape for our kitchen and living area. However, she did like the architecture shown on the cover of Earthbag Building. Both of us like the coloration and the framing of the windows.
If it weren't for this find today (thanks to Renee), the Phase II master bedroom would be shaped the same as the kitchen/living room area. We would like to do this kind of thing with all external windows, and maybe even the doors and windows that will run through the solarium.Now that I've pared down the plans, I'd like to ask my question again of Tim and Owen: Do you think Phase I is doable in the 180-day time-frame given per the 1031 roll-over constraints (I'm not yet sure when that begins/began; signing was on Oct. 30).Our tentative work force presently consists of:
- Sterling: FT, owner- Tim Hall: FT, foreman/instructor
- Torg: FT, SHV member
- Aaron: FT, SHV member- people that will trade labor for dental work from John- volunteers/interns that Torg can drum up- a few other SHV members/associates here and there.
As for the electrical considerations:
- I plan to go with DC for most major appliances, but we will want to have GFC circuits in the kitchen for things like Vitamix, Food Processor, etc.
- We'll want to have 2-3 AC outlets in the living room
- I would like to have at least one AC outlet in each room for things like radios, etc. that require it.
- I'm not sure what code requires when DC is being used predominantly
- all lighting can be DC
Here are the updated plans and sketch. I think it looks like a hot dog, so I'm afraid we're going to have the not-so-sexy name of "Hot Dog House".
(Click on image for enlarged view.)
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