Passive Solar Heating/Cooling

I got bored...could you simplify into one sentence question?

OK - is there any way to change the parameters so that auxiliary heating is kept below a $100/month budget, and the same for auxiliary cooling?

The secret to small energy use is efficiency....In this case maxing out the insulation and heat loss/gain is a primary concern....secondary is producing a portion of your own energy...this can be anything from a few pv panels to an on-site hydro-generation facility or wind powered turbine generator , hydro-thermal, nuclear(for the advanced tech)....or any combination of these and/or other sources of energy....using natural gas for cooking and drying clothes when necessary, hot water, and heat, is a low cost strategy...

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1e8hs3/whats_the_smallest_nuclear_reactor_we_can_build/

Relocate?

I'm thinking you will spend more capital than the energy will be worth over several generations. Active thermal solar is a lot more flexible than trying to engineer a largely passive solution.

I believe incorporating passive elements in the overall design is a good move, I just think it can be very difficult to make it a major part of the energy design. Insulation, radiant barriers, and thermal mass can definitely improve comfort levels by limiting the slew rate of temperatures.

I'm lazy too. I tend to look at what other people have done in similar situations and learn from them, i.e. drive around and gawk at other people's houses. When you introduce yourself to them, you will find that they can be very candid about their experiences, both good and bad.

P.S. As for roof lines, you may also want to consider the possibility of retractable "awnings" of some sort to handle the seasonal changes.

It is all good. Good suggestions.

Check out the panels from post #7, then let's re-formulate: Suppose you use those panels for heat collection, that is straightforward enough, and they are apparently most effective.

Is there a way to utilize a similar panel (maybe with an inverted flow pattern) to cool an interior space by utilizing an exchange with cooler air induced from below ground (air induced from an outside plenum through an underground duct that exchanges heat, then have a second heat exchange with interior air, and exhaust the spent air, while retaining the now cooled interior air)? I think I will give myself a headache if I stay on this one.

I also found this web page: This guy knows his passive solar to the nth power.

http://www.iedu.com/Solar/Panels/

There's someone who's put a LOT of thought into this sort of thing.

When you do that, I'd love to see the results if you'd allow some creep from an anonymous engineering forum on your property.

Thanks. I have 40 acres there. About half is cleared, and most of the cleared land is used to grow hay. The "hay guy" cuts the grass and bales it and hauls it away for me.

That leaves me with about 5 acres, which my brother does for me. The rest is mostly Pine and Oak mixed.

It may be awhile. I'd probably want to sell one of our two current homes to finance it.

Cold and in a bottle.

Thanks.

Agreed...there is a good reason that animals make burrows!

Interesting "discussion", enough work here for an engineering class term project!

As far as passive home designs with a vertical heat absorbing/storage system, there is a body of knowledge on their design and construction using a Trombe Wall. I also found the link you provided very interesting, but of course that collector design competes with the glazed wall approach.

Before any serious design can be started, it's necessary for you to provide some more data. Is the house of traditional design except for the solar aspect? What are the LxWxH dimensions; Roof design, flat, pitched, angle, symmetry; provision for Domestic Hot Water (DHW), number of bathrooms, number of occupants; water supply, well, city water, cistern.

Then there's the ambient conditions near Devi's River State Natural Area in Texas. What are the ambient conditions, things like; vegetation, soil type, is the site flat, on a mesa, are there natural windbreaks like hills, cliffs, etc.; 5 year average and daily/hourly data on insolation, temperature, cloud cover, wind speed/direction; clear view of the sky, obstructions, any deviation off of north-south roof-line, local ponds/lakes?

There's probably more than 20 questions already, but you get the idea. Granted there's a whole host of assumptions that can be made, and some of the data is second or third order in importance; so if you would provide a more defined design base you'll get better answers (and we haven't even discussed a budget yet!).

Until then, it looks like if your house is in a desert, 75x40 ft aligned long side due south, with the southern wall fully glazed, some solar thermal panels (for DHW) mixed in with skylights on a pitched roof; then you probably won't incur much heating expense. If the ambient conditions support it, you may be able to design in some passive cooling features to substantially lower your cooling costs, and solar PV might justify off-grid operation if the nearest utility pole is miles away.

Right now, this is a purely hypothetical project, mostly composed of brain flatulence. Sorry if that part was misleading. I am just thinking about what to do when I win the lottery .

If I could retire right now, I would like to find a place near Gail, TX, not too far south of here, with an overlook off the Llano Estacado at the escarpment. I would probably nestle the whole thing into the side of the cliff by clever excavations, saving the limestone rock layer from the escarpment for part of the construction. I would put the shop/garage at grade level, probably northwest of the house. Only one area of the house would have a second floor, and the north facing windows of this floor would allow one to see out in that direction. One would also not want to block views of the sunrises and sunsets at such a location, as this would one of the main attractions.

Basically, this is one area that is owned by ranchers who have had the land for generations, so getting even a small parcel of this may not be all that likely. Another option might be east of Lubbock, out by Crosbyton, as long as the site was not some sort of dinosaur dig, as I think they still have active digs over there.

As a variation to the Trombe Wall add lower and upper opening slots to the outside of the building. Label all the slots; IL(inside lower), IU, OL, OU. Draw a truth table for every combination of open and closed slots and the heating consequences of each option. Using convection from the heated Trombe Wall as the passive driver you can get heating, cooling and forced ventilation. I looked at this some time ago but I don't have a plot to implement it and my wife now considers me too old to start building a new house.