How passive solar foundations are different

October 30, 2014November 14, 2016 / Laura Lee Carter / Leave a comment

I bet you were wondering when my husband Mike was going to contribute to this effort. Here is his explanation of how changes in the floor and foundation in our new home in southern Colorado will help to maintain a warm, even temperature in the winter:

Our new house will be passive solar with a direct gain system. This means that in winter, the sun will shine in through our south-facing windows, directly heating our well-insulated concrete floors.

The concrete floors will be 6 inches thick and covered with ceramic tile. The tile will be a dark color to absorb the heat from the sun.

While 4 inches is the optimum thickness for the concrete, additional thickness will add some extra heat storage capacity. We thickened our floor to 6 inches to accommodate a few thermal storage water tubes. You can put colored water in them and they look GREAT, but they can be quite heavy. Please see blue examples at right… more about these later!

The concrete floor is where the light from the sun is converted to heat and is absorbed into the concrete. The floor moderates the house temperature by its mass, which gives off heat when the house air temperature is low and absorbs heat when the house air temperature is high.

The concrete floor will be insulated from the ground with foam insulation, seen in blue in this photo. It is insulated underneath and around the edges. In addition to this, the foundation walls will be insulated on the inside. This creates a longer path for the heat to escape the house, making the ground under the floor warmer, thus cutting down on heat loss into the earth.

Delays and Over-Budget Items!

October 15, 2014December 7, 2014 / Laura Lee Carter / 2 Comments

As you all must know, construction is not for the weak of heart or stomach! I’m new to this game. I have never been involved in a major construction project, especially in a rural area. So far I am reminded of that famous movie quote from Betty Davis:

“Fasten your seat belts… It’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

Once we had our blue prints together with full engineer approval, we had a month and a half delay just to procure our building permit!

This was because the ONLY INSPECTOR IN THIS ENTIRE COUNTY had ten building projects ahead of ours. Yes, this county is getting more popular, probably because of the amazing natural beauty in combination with quite reasonable land prices.

Then we got some bad news about road set-backs on our property, leading to the need to spend $10,000 extra on backfill materials. We chalked that up to no use building a home on a less than solid foundation!

Then it seemed like we were making some great progress… for a while. We got the footers in quickly and then the foundation. The plumbing was going in and the slab looked imminent.

That was until Mike realized the builder has forgotten about the foundation insulation. This is essential in a passive solar home. The heat that gets absorbed into the slab floor must be retained by insulation under the slab and at the foundation walls.

That meant another week delay to get the insulation here. Now we’re waiting to get the excavator back up there to install it and finish the slab so the actual home construction can begin.

In the meantime we have been living in a 1,000 square foot rental in Walsenburg built in 1911. For the past four months we have been waiting to get this show on the road! With half of our stuff in storage, we are constantly saying, “Yeah we have one of those. We just don’t know where it is!”

We are so anxious to get out on our land and I can assure you, I am NOT a patient person! Luckily Mike is a master at calming me down when I go off the deep end…

Our solar home is FINALLY taking shape!

October 14, 2014December 27, 2022 / Laura Lee Carter / 4 Comments

For those who are new here, my husband Mike and I sold our perfectly good suburban home in Fort Collins Colorado four months ago, to move 225 miles south and build the home we have always dreamed of.

When I first met Mike at age 49 in early 2005, we fell in love quite quickly. He told me then that he wasn’t moving again unless he got a great view, and could design and build a passive solar home outside the city. Nine years later that dream is coming true!

This is the view from our foothills land three hours south of Denver, a fantastic view of Spanish Peaks! A few weeks ago we got the trenching done, and watched them put in the footers… We are ecstatic!

This process has been painfully slow! But we know it will all be worth it in the end. The silence, the views, and the many different birds and wildlife up there, this looks like the perfect place for us… and check out our future commute home!

Adventures of the NEW??? Old Farts

Beauty is the garden where hope grows

Building a solar home

How passive solar foundations are different

I bet you were wondering when my husband Mike was going to contribute to this effort. Here is his explanation of how changes in the floor and foundation in our new home in southern Colorado will help to maintain a warm, even temperature in the winter:

Our new house will be passive solar with a direct gain system. This means that in winter, the sun will shine in through our south-facing windows, directly heating our well-insulated concrete floors.

The concrete floors will be 6 inches thick and covered with ceramic tile. The tile will be a dark color to absorb the heat from the sun.

The concrete floor is where the light from the sun is converted to heat and is absorbed into the concrete. The floor moderates the house temperature by its mass, which gives off heat when the house air temperature is low and absorbs heat when the house air temperature is high.

Delays and Over-Budget Items!

As you all must know, construction is not for the weak of heart or stomach! I’m new to this game. I have never been involved in a major construction project, especially in a rural area. So far I am reminded of that famous movie quote from Betty Davis:

“Fasten your seat belts… It’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

Once we had our blue prints together with full engineer approval, we had a month and a half delay just to procure our building permit!

This was because the ONLY INSPECTOR IN THIS ENTIRE COUNTY had ten building projects ahead of ours. Yes, this county is getting more popular, probably because of the amazing natural beauty in combination with quite reasonable land prices.

Then we got some bad news about road set-backs on our property, leading to the need to spend $10,000 extra on backfill materials. We chalked that up to no use building a home on a less than solid foundation!

Then it seemed like we were making some great progress… for a while. We got the footers in quickly and then the foundation. The plumbing was going in and the slab looked imminent.

That was until Mike realized the builder has forgotten about the foundation insulation. This is essential in a passive solar home. The heat that gets absorbed into the slab floor must be retained by insulation under the slab and at the foundation walls.

That meant another week delay to get the insulation here. Now we’re waiting to get the excavator back up there to install it and finish the slab so the actual home construction can begin.

In the meantime we have been living in a 1,000 square foot rental in Walsenburg built in 1911. For the past four months we have been waiting to get this show on the road! With half of our stuff in storage, we are constantly saying, “Yeah we have one of those. We just don’t know where it is!”

We are so anxious to get out on our land and I can assure you, I am NOT a patient person! Luckily Mike is a master at calming me down when I go off the deep end…

Our solar home is FINALLY taking shape!

For those who are new here, my husband Mike and I sold our perfectly good suburban home in Fort Collins Colorado four months ago, to move 225 miles south and build the home we have always dreamed of.

When I first met Mike at age 49 in early 2005, we fell in love quite quickly. He told me then that he wasn’t moving again unless he got a great view, and could design and build a passive solar home outside the city. Nine years later that dream is coming true!

This is the view from our foothills land three hours south of Denver, a fantastic view of Spanish Peaks! A few weeks ago we got the trenching done, and watched them put in the footers… We are ecstatic!

This process has been painfully slow! But we know it will all be worth it in the end. The silence, the views, and the many different birds and wildlife up there, this looks like the perfect place for us… and check out our future commute home!