Earth sheltered buildings

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Is this a topic that interests anyone? I am very much fascinated with anything relating to this topic and would like to discuss it with anyone else who is interested.

Sort of. Not so much that I'd want to discuss it at length with someone.

But, you know those vast tunnels dug into the sides of mountains where they keep records or munitions or labs and such? I's love to have a home deep in one of them places. Just in case the bombs do fall or something horrendous like that took place, me and my loved ones would be able to be safe and survive.

earth sheltered buildings?

subterrainian?

troglodites?

earth insulated roofs?

more detail pls.

Buildings where you can mow your roof.

think Hobbit house in the Shire.

Ok, so they are cool, literaly cool.

The physical mass ensures that the temp’ gradient is maintained within a narrower range. Therefore less energy require for heating and cooling.

Earth insulated roofs require no manufacturing energy input, lessen environmental visual impact and are ecologicaly sound. Guess you could use the grass as animal feed.

Totally brilliant.

Hi WaterWater---I am interested. My dream home, which I have blueprints for, is an earth-bermed house that is also passive solar heated. Some day I want to build it. I have loved that house for around 25 years and used to obsess over it. My favorite feature of it would be the greenhouse that provides half of the heating, but the earth berming in the rear of the house also holds a fascination for me---very cozy. So yes, you can talk to me about it.

While heating and cooling costs would be dramatically lower, there is still the problem of keeping moisture out of one.

Excellent!

glider, I would love to hear more about your blueprints.

Fogman, are you knowledgeable in the realm of water-resistant materials?

I really like the shape of this design and the natural lighting but these kinds of projects require moving a lot of soil and, in my opinion, are not the best for utilizing solar energy:
http://www.williamlishman.com/underground.htm

I think that the best application of earth sheltering is in stepped hillside development of 15% or greater slope. This would allow for more stable residential housing to be built in areas not appropriate for conventional housing.

Hi WaterWater, thanks for being interested in these blueprints. I will try to get a link for you to the house plan company I got them from---hopefully with the floorplan. I bought them from Garlinghouse within the past 10 years. It was an award winning house in the early 1980s. I will try to get you more information later as I find it.

There is a link to what the house looks like on the architect's website. It is house number C10 at the bottom of the page.

http://www.architectur-rugs.com/architec/prcoarc.htm

This is an interesting design, glider. When I looked at it the first thing that came to mind was solar power shingles!
Here is a link:
http://hubpages.com/hub/SolarPowerShingles

I like the greenhouse - I am just wondering about how it will be heated during periods of low insolation...water tanks? I have seen designs where a greenhouse is placed on the roof of the house and is heated from a chimney flue. Another style is to have an atrium with a greenhouse type cover.

The passive solar capabilities of the house are meant to provide it with 50% of its heat, so therefore there must be another system in place to provide the other 50%---electric/fuel pump?

The greenhouse is suppose to have a bunch of cylinders filled with a substance that stores and releases heat---it is a cylinder/tube no longer made that had a substance that went from a solid to a liquid as the temperature changed, therefore releasing the heat. I think today those tubes would be filled with water? Also, the greenhouse masonry on the floor (bricks) was meant to store heat. This house is also supposed to cool itself. The chimney on it is not really a chimney but a plenum. I will try to get the floorplan for you when I can get the link. It has a foyer, living room, den, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, and bath on the first floor, and two bedrooms and a bath on the second floor. From the first floor you step down into the greenhouse. And there is the option for a full basement. I think the square footage is around 1500 without the greenhouse, and 1800 with the greenhouse.

The link to the solar shingles is great---I hadn't heard of those before. Those would work well on this house.