Award-Winning Home Design Requires No Heating, Cooling Equipment
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 06.13.07
Even for treehuggers, the idea of home without any kind of heating or cooling system -- no furnace, air conditioner, swamp cooler or heat pump -- might seem a bit primitive. Yet the History Channel's Modern Marvels Invent Now Challenge awarded just such a house the title of "Modern Marvel of the Year 2007" last month. In the Enertia Building System, according to the company's website,
...solid Energy-Engineered(tm) wood walls replace siding, framing, insulation, and paneling. An air flow and access channel, or Envelope, runs around the building, just inside the walls - creating a miniature biosphere. Here solar heated air circulates, pumping and boosting geothermal energy from beneath the house, storing it in the massive wood walls. Thermal inertia causes the house to "float" between the cycles of night and day, and even between the seasons.In its press release, the History Channel noted that "The system also uses milled wooden blocks to eliminate the many materials and labor-intensive steps of house wall construction, replacing them with simple screwed-into-place units."
While news of inventor Mike Sykes building system has been floating around the web for at least six months, and he's been awarded a patent for the design, MSNBC notes "No major homebuilders have yet shown interest in Enertia but Sykes' goal is to usher the technology into mass production."
Quite frankly, we're a little surprised at the lack of takers on this concept: Enertia's overview of its various models demonstrates that the homes are spacious and conventional-looking. They're also sold in kits, which should make for easy construction. The all-wood walls might scare away some developers or buyers working and living in areas prone to wildfires, but if that's not a major concern, it's hard to believe that buyers wouldn't snap these up if offered.
For another take on the science behind the Enertia concept, take a look at this video on YouTube. ::MSNBC, PRNewswire and Enertia
Photo credit: Jason Decrow / The History Channel via AP
holy moley! sign me up for one of these bad-boys! how could there not be a market for this! i can understand that people might be hesitant to want a house where they're not really "in control", but for a cleaner environment... i'll make the leap of faith.
this is fantastic.
How can we merge this structural concept with Michele Kaufman's Glidehouse esthetics?!?
While the concept sounds cool, their customer service is not. A recent query on the serviceability of the design to the Canada (possibility of modifications needed for a cold climate) was met with an extremely cold reception in a one line: "We do not serve Canada,, and you cannot retrofit."
This type of response may explain the lack of buyers.
The response implies a lack of interest and negativity that does not sit well with me and doesn't make me a supporter.
You might want to take a closer look at Enertia before you sign your construction loan. I'm not saying it won't outperform the average new home, because it appears to, but if you believe the headline of this article, that no heating or cooling equipment is required, you're not reading past the headlines on the Enertia site. Both heating and cooling equipment, and associated energy consumption, are standard are Enertia homes, depending on climate. I'm currently looking at this home for Environmental Building News -- we may do an article.
Definitely needs a 3rd party review before I'd consider it. There is no hard science on the web site- under "science" there is a list of publications they referred to! That, my friends, is not science. I see a lot of repetition and motherhood statements about sustainability.
If these were widespread there would be a huge demand for timber. If it's FSC, then good. If not...
And what about the glue in the glulams?
I see a bit of information on an interesting idea with a lot of marketing deflecting attention away from the hard science.
The house is actually less prone to fires than a regular house because the thick hardwood is less flamable than drywall and insulation in a regular house.
treehugger.com celebrating a house made entirely out of trees. this seems strange and ironic to me. sure, heating and cooling costs are significant, and the energy they use, if non-renewable, contributes to pollution which leads to, among other things, global warming. but, isn't the selection of materials crucial to building considerations too? i think this all wooden building idea would just further the extent of deforestation and endangerment of rare species of trees. i think it might be overlooked that health and diversity of tree populations is an important factor too.
An additional tag for this would be "passive solar heating & cooling"... not the newest concept on the block (since the 70's I believe, if you don't count prior unofficial uses via various cultures). Regardless, it's definitely noteworthy that someone is attempting to mass market it beyond the level of selling floor plans; seems to have been stuck at that point for a while. Kudos.
Looks like the envelope house of the 1970's reborn, with the same issues. Here are just a few examples.
It is really a house inside a house, so it requires more materials for the same floor area and as someone pointed out that is mostly wood.
There is a serious fire potential and in Oregon at least fire-resistant drywall, sprinklers and fire dampers in the plenum would be required.
You do realize you have no direct view out a window on the double-walled sides of the house?
The passive loop only works when the sun is out otherwise needs mechanical air circulation.
Where the plenum space is in contact with the ground there is a potential for radon entry unless a rat slab is poured.
Folks,
this is not a new idea.
This is based on the work of Lee Porter Butler from
the 1960's-1970's
http://www.visionmagazine.com/2_06/viewpoint.htm
My father, Scott Winfield, built a thermal envelop
house on Silver Dollar Road in Barnesville, Georgia in
the early 1980's
His comment about the thermal envelop, which had
boulder sized rocks to store the heat, were that he
would replace the double north wall with heat ducting
and have a few fans in the ducting to help the air
movement and keep air stagnation in the envelop down.
His house looked very similar to the Popular Science
cover except he did not have the decks and had a wider
south facing greenhouse
robert winfield
I've been investigating Enertia for a while and plan to build one. Yes, it is a lot of wood, but it is all replanted wood sustainably grown. With all the pine forests in the southern US, the wood for my house will regrow while I type this email. The home will last for many generations, sequestering many tons of carbon. You can get heat from your wood WiTHOUT burning it.
Yes, there is backup heating. Every building site is not perfect, and some level of mechanical boost may be needed. Also, it is radiant floor heat and without it at least installed most banks won't make a loan anyway. I'll run mine with solar panels and off-peak electric for backup.
When you are inside an Enertia home, you do not realize you are looking through two windows on the North wall. And, you can have as many windows as you want (except for structural considerations) if you have a great view to the North, East or West.
The Enertia website lists times for a Science Channel show where they can be seen next week - Check it out. Like everything, it may not be rigjt for everyone, but, it's a great idea and a beautifully engineered product and I'm excited.
I just bought an Ekosea thermal envelope home, I will be spending my first night there tonight. The house has been vacant for almost 2 years and there is no musty odor, or any problems that some have listed above. As for fire resistance ANY home unless its all concrete or steel is succeptible to fire. THere is a simple ventilation system with some ceiling fans to help it along in the warm months, and a small woodburner for extremely cold weather.I purchased it from the original owner and got alot of information about it from her. THe highest electric bill she could remember from 26 years of living there was $150 this is a 2600 to 2700 sq ft house. I hope to have many happy years there raising my children!!
First night went well the dogs are totally confused, and so are the cats. The humidity level was high, %80 but it was pouring down raining, so at the end of the day , with the ceiling fans running I will check it again. I plan on giving Lee Butler a call and chatting with him about how to make best use of his design. The temperature in the main part of the house was 62 degrees this morning, but with the high humidity it wasnt that chilly. Back in the late 70s there was alot of press about these type of homes but Reaganomics kind of killed the green movement, and eliminated the tax credit for these homes
After a week the humidity has stabilized, had to remove some plastic in the crawlspace, I am now happy to report 70 degrees and 55% humidity for 4 nights now with seemingly no fluctuation, the nights outside have been in the high 40s and the days have been in the high 60s low 70s. So far so good and the comfort level in the house is phenomenal, and the best part my electric meter barely moves!!
Addressing humidity in a crawl space will definitely make a home more energy efficient, by making it easier to heat or cool. We all know that drier air holds less moisture than damp air, thus reducing the load on HVAC units.
Sealing a crawl space by putting in a vapor barrier, closing the vents, and conditioning the space will make it much more energy efficient.
-Richard