The House

The single story 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2700 square feet house was built in the mid 80’s and designed specifically for passive solar heating. The south-facing roof was designed with the correct pitch at this latitude for photovoltaic panels enabling a future upgrade to go fully solar. The key to success with passive solar is good insulation, a large expanse of south facing glass, and a large amount of thermal mass. This house has six sliding glass doors along the pool, two picture windows in the great room, and four large skylights, all facing south. Thermal mass consists of insulated concrete floors and a 20,000 gallon 16’ x 38’ x 8’ deep enclosed swimming pool. The passive solar heating has been extremely effective. The first winter the house was closed in and even before the pool was filled, a min-max thermometer recorded a low temperature of 57 degrees with no other heat source than solar--and that was during a severe winter that has not been seen here in many years. Temperatures inside would never fall anywhere near freezing even if the house were left unheated through the winter. This performance is usually found only in an earth-sheltered house. The house also stays around 10 degrees cooler in summer than outside. Thanks to the large thermal mass, it coasts right through warm days and cool nights with just a few degrees of temperature change. The walls are 10 inches thick with six inches of fiberglass insulation, Tyvek air infiltration barrier, and two 1.5” dead air spaces. The attic has six inches of insulation and more could be added. There is 2” thick rigid foam 16” deep around the perimeter of the concrete slab keeping the floors a comfortable and stable temperature year round. The primary back-up heat is a small wood stove (Waterford Stanley model) that has burned 1-2 cords of wood per winter, most of it prunings, windfalls, and thinnings from the property. There are radiant electric wall heaters in the bathrooms but they have never been used. Another source of heating is a reversible heat pump that uses a heat exchanger to move heat from the outside air during warmer days to the pool water. It could also be reversed to cool the pool water, but this has never been needed. A second air-conditioning heat pump cools and de-humidifies the inside air and heats the pool during the summer. The heat pumps are more or less experimental and used only as needed rather than as an automatic system. During the summer the air conditioning heat pump has been used during two-week stretches of prolonged hot humid weather and would raise the temperature of the pool up to 10 degrees during that period. Without heating, the pool maxes out at 80-85 through the summer and fall, The heat pump is used to bring it up to comfortable temperature in early spring and late fall. The pool could also be heated during deep winter but we just give it a three-month rest. The house tends to want to stay at whatever temperature the pool is. If the pool is not heated in the summer it keeps the house cooler and less humid than the outside air.

Electric service is 200 amp via copper, not aluminum, entrance cable. Outlets outside, in the baths, and along the pool are on a GFI circuit breaker. Each bedroom has a separate 20-amp circuit so that room sized heaters/air-conditioners could be used if desired. There is 220V 50A power to the garage, 115V 30 amp to the pier, and 115V 20 amp to the barn and root cellar. The pool pump is 220V ¾ HP and the filter is a diatomaceous earth type. There is a large attic ventilation fan (seldom used) and 3-way switches in the entrance and bedrooms. There is an electric range, refrigerator, and dishwasher. There is a washing machine and laundry sink in the pantry/laundry room. A dryer could be installed next to the washing machine. There is also power for an electric dryer in the garage, but we have always used the clothesline. There are ceiling fans in the bedrooms and great room. The domestic water is from a deep 4” well with submersible pump. The pressure tank is in the root cellar, and water is piped to the pier and the barn. Sewer is a septic tank that has been pumped at county mandated intervals. There has never been a problem with the well, septic tank, or drain field.

The kitchen has custom designed indestructible stainless steel counter tops which have been unaffected by cutting, denting, hot pans, or stains and still look the same after 22 years. There is capacious built-in shelving in the pantry/laundry room and extensive built-in IKEA cabinetry in the great room and the hobby area at the far end of the pool.

One bath has a cast-iron insulated tub and the other bath has a shower. The three bedrooms each have sliding glass doors opening onto a hallway along the pool. The kitchen and each bedroom have a crank-out 3 x 4 awning window that won’t admit rain when open. There is a combination covered-porch and carport. The porch is set up for a porch swing. Sliding glass doors along the pool open onto a 10’ x 40’ deck. All along the deck is a raised-bed planter that has been used as a cold frame for winter lettuce and salad greens. Outside the picture windows is a Koi pool and rock garden with mature Japanese Maple and white hibiscus. Beyond the Koi pool at the edge of the woods are lilac, strawberry bush, rose, and mock orange for scenting the southern summer breezes.

The oval vinyl liner pool is enclosed by aluminum and tempered glass walls with tempered glass doors at the four corners. There are ladders in two of the corners, one in the deep end and one in the shallow. The pool overhead is replaceable 6mil clear plastic supported by PVC arches under the three pool skylights.

The house is not in any way traditional. Although totally unique, it might best be described as rustic-contemporary. It is a pole building with more than fifty 6” square posts treated at highest retention and embedded over 3’ into the ground. With this construction there has been essentially no settling of the structure. The inside walls are drywall and the outside walls are 5/8 T-111 siding that was pressure treated at highest retention. With all the skylights and the 10’ high aluminum ceiling in the great room and over the pool, the house is almost as bright and airy as being outdoors. The concrete floors are sectioned into 4’ x 4’ squares. The concrete was etched and finished with dark gray silicone concrete stain. There is no problem with dampness or sweating if rugs or carpets are used over the concrete. A high cement ratio concrete mix was used to make the concrete impervious to moisture and the concrete was poured on a sand substrate for good drainage. Drainage is excellent since the house is on the highest point of the property and runoff readily goes to the much lower creek and pond. The new Energy-Star 26 gauge steel roof with polycarbonate skylights was installed in September of 2009. The house has always been smoke-free.