Soil Experiment
My soil temperature experiment is on going. I recently collected my 15th month of data and updated the charts on that page. Now that we have more than a years worth of data, it is clear that the deeper probes are in more a more thermally stable environment. Specifically, the 10 ft deep probe shows that soil temperatures at that depth peak (max or min temp) nearly 3 months behind the air temperature peak. In other words, the heat of June takes until September to reach that depth. The amplitude of the temperature variation at 10 ft depth is similar to the 9 month average air temperature, which is a small fraction of the air temperature variation.
Temp Profiles of all the probes… Notice the difference between the “dry” and “control” probes is slight and may actually be due to slight variations in the depth.
These results are interesting because they contradict a lot of the oversimplified and unsupported statements that you find in many earth sheltered home books.
The Storm Room Design
We just finished that fantastic period between semesters. That means that I am headed back to work on my MBA. I am just taking one course this semester, and will probably take off the rest of the year if construction starts in the spring. While I was off I did a few things around our current house, watched some movies, played with my kids, researched some house related stuff, started a non-house related book (1491), etc.
Meanwhile, my architects assistant also had time off and the house seemed to leap forward again. Without school to keep him busy, the architects assistant has played with rendering portions of the house in 3D. This lead to design questions in certain areas, which lead to me generating some new 3D models in response. This lead to the designs of the storm room, entry, green house and even my duct work taking a step forward.
As I expected, the architect has done the majority of his work in 2D. When looking for an architect, I actually counted this as a good thing. 3D models are fun, but my geometry is complicated/difficult by CAD standards (Shotcrete is very liberating when it come to actually building these shapes) and I didn’t want the architects either spending too much of their effort on the CAD (rather than the design) or dumbing down the design to make it easier to CAD. In the end, the homes are always built from 2D blueprints anyway.
We also had a fun collaborative session after trading some models back and forth. At least it was fun for me, I hope it was pleasant enough for the architects assistant ;). I think we pretty much figured out the storm room by the end of that.
While most people think of a “Storm Room” as a cellar where you hide from storms, the “Storm Room” in my design is a concrete room on the top of my house that gives me 360 degree views. I am looking forward to sitting up there and watching the storms roll by.
Now the assistant architect’s classes are starting back up, so we are not sure if this pace will continue or not, but I definitely feel like we have crossed a hump… Still no word from the engineer though. ;^(
Here are some renderings of some of the 3D models we passed back and forth…
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- A faint scan of the storm room sketch I gave the architect. I also included sketches of the underlying structure…
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- Here is an early version of the 3D model that I was sent… I had some rendering issues, but you can still see the architects version of my storm room… The architect cited structural reasons for the changes from my sketch.
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- This is a 3D model of the underlying structure that I sent the architect to help him understand how it would be built.
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- The architect took it further and found some issues with my design. We worked together to solve the geometry issues, reduced the size of the skylights, etc. almost there…
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- This is a view from inside the architect’s 3D model. I needed some changes for the function of the solar chimney, but I think the change in proportion will also help the look of the outer surface.
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- This incomplete rendering was just to show me the proportion and placement of the chimney coming out of the entry cottage… The wall on the left should be arched, windows are missing, etc. but it is a good way to see how the chimney fits in…
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- This is a rendering of the inside (living room)… It is missing windows, doors, wood stove, etc. but it may help some of you understand how the ribs and vaults come together. When I saw this, I told the architect that these structural features came from the need to carry the earth above in an efficient way and we didn’t want it to look too fancy… He just said “good luck with that”.