All this week, the Eco Women will be investigating eco construction in the U.S. and abroad. How hard or easy is it to build green? What are some of the materials and techniques available?
The final post in this series.
By John Kosmer
Just by way of introduction, I am the Home Improvement Editor of Victorian Homes Magazine and have been for over 23 years. I thought my passive solar house project and website might be of interest to you and your blog.
Image courtesy of the author’s website.
A little over a year ago I built a new traditional style 4000 sq. ft. passive solar home for $125.00/sq. ft. that heats for $2.50 a day — $900-1,200 a year in the cold upstate New York region, with crude around $100 a barre). The website is: www.SolarHouseProject.com. The website explains how the home was built and how it functions. This home, heated by the sun, cost about the same as a comparable size new ENERGY STAR qualified home but uses less than 70% of the energy of that comparable new home. 80% is possible if this home was built in a comparably cold climate but was not in my snow belt area and had regular height ceilings.
When I owned my previous home, I was unaware that trying to save energy in an existing home was just playing in the margins of energy conservation. It became clear to me that existing 20th century homes are obsolete energy sieves that will take Herculean measures to bring up to speed in the 21st century. This passive solar home can become the model for 21 century home building and rekindle a housing boom in our collapsed building market into the foreseeable future.
An article on the Kosmer Solar House Project is in the current Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publication New Home annual and another article on it is in the current quarterly summer issue of New York State regional magazine Kaatskill Life.
Below is an hourly chart I made of the outside/inside temperature of the home on January 3, 2008 that shows that on a sunny cold single digit day the house was heated only by the sun for 10 hours. It was the acid test for the house and is amazing.
Fly Creek Kosmer Solar House
Project Day Heat Chart 1/3/08
Sunny all Day — No Heat used from 8 AM – 6 PM
Time Outside Temp Inside Temp Difference
8 AM -10 68.7 –
9 AM – 6 69.9 1.2
10 AM – 2 71.6 1.7
11 AM 2 73.5 1.9
NOON 5 75.5 2.0
1 PM 7 75.7 .2
2 PM 7.2 75.7 0.0
3 PM 7.7 75.0 – .7
4 PM 7.1 72.3 -2.7
5 PM 3.6 70.3 -2.0
6 PM – 0.4 68.7 -1.6
This concludes Eco Construction Week. If there’s a topic you’d like us to devote a week to, please email one of the Eco Women with your ideas.
