As we move from each part of the earthship and start to get it closed in, Chris and I have been occasionally tossing concerns and ideas back and forth for aspects of the house that will confront us in the upcoming 2 weeks to 6 months. One of the issues we’ve been fussing away at periodically is how to retain heat in the house after a day’s worth of solar gain, especially in winter.
We’ve read that earthships can lose 10-15 degrees Celsius in a night to heat loss through the front, south facing sloped windows. We hadn’t really come to any conclusions or decided on solutions, although a vague notion that we would have roll up blinds of some kind has always floated around in my head.
Our friend Shane McGrath told us about a book last week called “Movable Insulation”.
Shane bought a log home from my father many years ago and when Chris and I took over the business in 1998 he was one of our first customers, buying another package from us that he and wife, Siobhan, turned into a guest chalet on the outskirts of Wells Gray Park. They became instant friends. We spent a fair bit of time with the McGraths in the early years when a few of our kids were infants and toddlers together. Since then the McGrath’s have grown up and their passion became mountain biking, where ours became kayaking. I’ve yet to see a floating bike or a kayak on wheels, so we don’t see our Irish friends much these days when the weather is good!
However, we were delighted to show Shane the earthship.
Shane promised to find the book and drop it off. However, we weren’t sure when that would be so we started looking it up at the library. Chris managed to track down a copy in Vancouver, which he put on hold.
But even better, Shane dropped by today with his copy. And I’m proud to say, that I do believe he bought it second hand. I can see the original sticker from WH Smith with a price of $10.99. It’s a Rodale book which means it’s a real DIY read. It was published in 1980 and is quite thick. Chris and are looking forward to reading it..it even explains quilted window covers!
Hi Sandra,
When Ann and Gord put up a facebook link, I clicked over to here and found another yet exciting natural building project to follow! When they were in the midst of building, I must have checked their blog every day.
Despite some setbacks, I’m about halfway to completing my cob house on Mayne Island. Needless to say, it’s been a quite a learning curve! One thing I wanted to share with you about building with curved walls is the importance of having the walls curve in (rather than out) where there are interior walls, so as to avoid creating dark corners — which is what you get when the corner is less than 90 degrees, looking like this: (- as opposed to this: )-
I don’t know if that makes sense, or if it even matters to you. Nevertheless, I wanted to mention it because when I looked at your house plans, I couldn’t help but notice a few “dark corners” in some of the interior rooms at the back of the house. It’s something I found out about by accident.
Happy building!
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer, it kind of makes sense…but it is too late now if we they curve out. Our home is bermed on three sides, and although it will have a skylight in each room, dark corners will be an issue at certain times of the year. Congratulations on your project. It is a huge undertaking, sometimes only others who are doing it can really understand! I’m curious what your setbacks were…
Hi Again,
“but it is too late now if we they curve out. Our home is bermed on three sides, and although it will have a skylight in each room, dark corners will be an issue at certain times of the year.”
I was referring to the interior wall that runs between the two bedrooms and joins the interior wall where the bedroom doors are. If you can’t widen the corners, then the skylights might compensate, depending on where they are placed.
As for my setbacks, whew! Where do I begin? Because the excavator kept digging, down, down, down, to find hardpan, I had to have a huge retaining wall built — which I decided to use as part of my house, so I guess I’m what you’d call “partially bermed” (but not exactly!). To make matters worse, the contactor (a well known cob builder on Mayne) didn’t put any drainrock down on the weeping tile before backfilling (which he did without first having a proper inspection), and he used the wrong kind of membrane on the wall. So I had to have another excavation so the weeping tile could be redone (by my brother, a hydraulics specialist, lucky for that). It brought the whole project to a halt, which did give me the opportunity to rethink some design concerns I had. After this all went down last summer, I’m now about to start building again.
It’s really difficult (and expensive) to get effective insulation going on sloped windows, everything tends to drop down at the bottom and let the heat rise up behind it. Would it be possible instead to attach a heavy curtain at the ceiling (or a few feet further up the slope from the windows) and let it drop straight down to the floor?
Sounds like you’ve thought more about it than I have so far! We have seen photos of roll up blinds/curtains that match the slope of the front windows, both to keep out sun during hot days, and to keep in heat at night. I have not seen a system in operation and have not had timet to really look through Movable Insulation yet. Flipping through the book and looking at the illustrations leads me to believe there is a solution somewhere!
Hi Sandy & family,
I found this site (http://www.manytracks.com/Homesteading/winquilt.htm) when I was looking for an economical way to keep the heat in our house during blustery eastern winters. I don’t know how it would work on your front windows, but might be worth a look. I think they would have to hang straight down or condensation would soon them and render them useless.
Cheryl in Nova Scotia
I had a quick look at it,Cheryl. Very pretty. The girls and I quilt when we have time, and it is my intention to have quilts all over the place, perhaps even on the windows!