EnviroLink Forum

Hello everyone.

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Potato chip enthusiast.

Welcome. I love your nick but then I also love bananas. Maybe some day I can be like Amory Lovins and grow bananas here in the frozen north of Saskatchewan. Your profile does not say much, tell us about yourself.

http://www.solaripedia.com/13/220/2286/amory_lovins_banana_farm.html

Hi Banana....
TG fan by any chance?

Amory isn't that far from me, and uses Earthship type gardens for the miniature banana trees. I could grow them, too, but don't have the 4000 square feet he has. He is 800 feet lower than me, too. I'm still a member of RMI, and get the reports.
There are some Earthships in Canada. Use a higher percentage of insulated glass to the square footage, super insulate with straw bales, and have insulated rolling steel shutters with a supplemental heat system for winter. Make sure the garden ceiling where you want to grow miniature bananas has 9-12 feet of height above the garden.

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”
― Chief Seattle

yeah it is a bit more challenging to rely on high thermal mass up here which is why the passivhaus movement started (the basics of passivhaus were designed by Amory Lovins too) but Germany really took it home. Less sun and more cold begs a different strategy and that is the extra insulation route (including less windows ... unless they can justify the extra solar gains).

High thermal mass and super insulation work with any for of heat. Passive solar is nice, where available, because it is free. The data I have read on super insulated straw bale homes is that they use 1/4 to 1/3 the energy to heat. Like you say, depending on heat losing windows. That is why the expensive (R-7) insulated steel shutters are nice, plus they add security(very difficult to break in) and can be automatic (on a timer or thermal switch + or -). In Arizona I built some million dollar+ homes with them(in the 1980s). There they were used to stop thermal solar gain! Earthships there face north! Ground temp is 70*F year around (why do they build on the surface, except for quick profit? and flash floods to non-waterproof basements, so even basements there are rare)
Thermal mass it good because it mitigates and stabilizes the indoor climate, and adds insulation (but not as well as straw bales.
Plastic foam is also used for super insulation, but is a petro chemical product and not re-used/recycled like rammed earth tires or straw bales. I did use R-8 foam on the outside of my rammed earth tire walls to insulate against the 50*F ground temperature, straw bales were just too big (I could only over-dig a foot because of tree roots).

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"With every decision, think seven generations ahead of the consequences of your actions" Ute rule of life.
“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”
― Chief Seattle

The temperature need cycles are annual rather then daily which is the difference. If it uses passive solar then yes, you have a daily cycle as we try to store the day's heating for night use and high mass is the key. If you are not using passive solar due to a lack of an unshaded southern side (remember February sun up here only gets 15 degrees above the horizon... that's half a block of no buildings and trees to the south... not going to happen in a city), then you use upwards of R-50 for walls... that's a lot of straw (and tested R-value is a lot lower then they hype due to moisture levels rising in the cold straw). Several successful strawbale houses have achieved the better R-value by adding other forms of insulation on the outside to keep the straw parts above freezingSome new forms of insulation are made from vegetable sources (soybeans specifically). PassivHaus suggests R-60 for under the basement or slab-on-grade floor... that kind of requires foam (although my plan is to have a crawl space under the basement floor and use regular fiber insulation like for the walls). I want to go further then PassivHaus and try for R-60 walls using 3 forms of insulation: outside and inside have a layer of mineral wool (Roxul brand sold here) because it does not melt in fire like glass, an unbroken layer of foam insulation over the inside of the outside framing for sealing (but it is expensive so less of it) and a thin "SIP" (Structural Insulated Panel) to eliminate bridging on the inside walls... they use a cheaper form of foam insulation with an inside gypsum layer and an outside layer of fiberglass material (one form of SIP I found). This is for retrofits using the original outside of the house untouched. The inside layer of mineral wool can be continuous sheets glued to the sprayed on foam and can include a layer of "house wrap" air barrier (not vapor barrier... that is in the SIP). I will likely build a few of my own buildings as well and they will likely be either earthbag construction for structural or strawbale... but still only for structural strength... then insulate the outside with other forms of insulation (likely a combination of spray on foam, mineral wool, and a outside SIP panel (finished outside siding) then build an inside wall of gypsum board for thermal storage and use air between the structural material (earthbag or straw bale) to heat the gypsum for a delayed delivery to the room (heated with solar or annually stored heat below the basement... but only in the coldest parts of the winter will any heating be needed).

oh, and I will use daily solar on the roof but only for PV (fans, lights, pumps) and thermal solar (heat for the fresh air from the heat recovery ventilation unit and for hot water)

Welcome to the forum!

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It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness, that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com