Concept Buildings and Alternative Energy

Check out Other Homes and Garbage by Jim Leckie et. al. It's a great source for energy efficient home designs, passive and active solar, composting toilets, and so on.

Why don't you use a heat exchanger under the ground, under the house? The temperature difference between 3M down and above ground should give you enough heat to heat the house.

Ground water is a wonderful source of heating cooling. In many areas just ten feet or so down remains a constant 56 Degrees F. I think with proper sizing and pitch of the tubing convection could be used for circulation. Be advised, that is just an unproven theory of mine. For what its worth.

My response is directed towards efficient power utilization since geographic location will determine dominant factors for heating and cooling. That said , my recommendation would be to consider the boating and marine industry for low voltage systems that can be engineered into your plans. High efficiency flourescent lighting,12vdc refrigerators, cooling and circulating fans, entertainment centers, and more. Low gassing battery banks coupled with inverters can provide reliable ac power for cooking. Waste from toilets can be rendered inert by using a Marine Sanitation Device and sprayed harmlessly onto lawns or recycled by sedimentary settling and RO purification. The dried sediment can be scattered on to the lawn with fertilizer for very good results. Just some possibilities, good luck!

Building design considerations: orientation related to the sun, building shape and heigth(better if half buried or attached to a hill), walls thermal insolation, double glass windows, vent openings for cooling, glass shaped walls, water filled walls exposed to the sun, roof inclination, automatic or double doors, energy saving shower and taps (low consumption) automatic WC valves. Heating and cooling source: any of more or less constant temperature and enough volume to absorb unusual weather conditions to affect building and system thermal inertia. A heat pump migth be required based on temperature requirements. Electricity: Photovoltaic panels, biogas from garbage (for kitchen also), do not forget the wind. Review the degre-day method for sizing heating and cooling. Sources available: NASA databases, ASHRAE.

Hi,
I have a number of efficient and viable ideas for the generation and storage of alternative energy.
However, most of the NEW concepts that I have to bring forward are for larger scale projects:
- A viable energy storage system for wind farms.
- A 'small scale community' that is totally enclosed and VERY energy efficient.
- Integrates and uses a variety a closed differentials for energy generation and storage
- Includes a large scale solar heat plant and energy storage system.

Popular Science featured an article a few years ago about someone that developed a much more compact and therefore affordable residential GeoThermal energy installation:
Instead of having to put long lengths of small diameter tubing through a large area of (relatively shallow) ground and the significant costs associated with it, he developed a system that instead uses a large deep pipe. Think of a well 3'~8' in diameter and 20'~80' long sunk in below the center of your basement. Within this another smaller diameter pipe is located. The inner pipe is almost as big across as the outer pipe or 'well'. A convection current starts within the liquid in the system: as the fluid warms around the outside of the base, it gets less dense and starts to rise between the two pipe walls. Thus there is a natural circulation of water within the well. It gets and stays hotter at the top, and then drops back down the middle of the inner pipe as it cools again. An appreciable amount of energy can be harvested and stored given the large (thermal) mass of the fluid and the Earth that it is coupled to. Down there the temperature of the Earth is stable and warm. Not to hot, not to cold (< 8 This system lends it self to either a closed or open cycle, and even a combination of both. It gives an excellent and free constant heat sink for a heat pump. The warm water can be used for both radiative heating and consumption as well. The inner pipe could be made out of concrete mixed with polystyrene beads added to it to give it some insulation and improve the heat differential, convection and efficiency. Perhaps the inner pipe could just be a cast or molded polystyrene pipe by itself. Insulating the top portion of the well might allow for higher temperatures to be achieved. Though I'm unsure if just leaving the top thermally coupled to the earth and the basement floor wouldn't be as good or better. A bonus would be a basement floor with some built in passive heating.
This one is a winner, on any scale.

I'm interested in developing and commercializing this.
Interested parties please contact me.