New to posting. Looking to share a home idea and get thoughts on it. Perhaps this should be in "greenhouses", not sure.
I live in central Saskatchewan - weather is anything between 90F in summer to -40 in winter. I've got the idea of a solar greenhouse, something like 30'x40'x18' high, with a glazed south wall, insulated roof, earth-bermed to ~12' high on north side (two-level retaining wall). Inside this, nestle about 250sqft living quarters, plus another 150sqft bedroom on second level. Room for future expansion of living quarters.
On the south side of the solarium, overhangs at the roof level and at about 9' high would provide summer shade, but winter sun. A few windows on the east/west walls and uphill patios on the north side provide balance of light and cross-ventilation. Also, I'd like to have some of the glazing on the south side removable, and replaceable with screens for the summer season.
Solarium/greenhouse construction would (likely) be timber frame with straw bale infill. My neighbors up the road run a sawmill, and there's grain fields for as far as the eye can see up here.
Whatever the living quarters, they will be insulated from the solarium to maintain comfortable temperatures. The solarium will be insulated to outside air, with a water-proof insulating skirt extending out at about ground level for several feet. The solarium will not be insulated against the earth berms.
The idea of the solarium is to provide a semi-conditioned space around the house.
This space will:
1. moderate the climate in which the house sits,
2. provide a greenhouse heated by the sun AND heat lost from the house,
3. provide space for growing plants and fish year round,
4. provide space for water storage,
5. provide a moderated climate for our composting toilet,
6. provide a moderated "yard" for the kids in winter,
7. provide moderated working area for temporary projects (a shop is definitely in the long-term plan)
8. provide a mosquito-free "yard" in the summer.
Back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that the solarium would stay above freezing on the coldest days of winter with about 2kW of heat loss from the house. This is based on average solar gain in Dec for our area and heat loss through all exposed wall/roof areas. It does assume some sort of nighttime curtain on the glazing to increase insulation. It doesn't factor in any heat gain from the huge thermal mass of earth below and around the solarium. I think the average yearly temperature here is about 5C.
We have two seasons in SK, and they are both fierce: Winter, and Mosquito. There is about a 2 week shoulder season between them, which is my favorite part of the year.
Some background on my wife and I: We've been living in a 200 sqft single-room cabin for 2 years. It has an attached, unheated, uninsulated garage that's a little bigger than the house, which we use for storage and (for part of the year) a workspace. We have an outhouse that we use year-round (yes, for real! another thread, anyone?), that composts about 4 months out of the year. No running water in the cabin - we run exclusively off rainwater and water hauled from town by the 50gal barrel. We have about 100 gallons of water storage inside the house.
We were both born and raised in climates without snow. I've got a background in engineering (and in "southern engineering").
One aspect of this plan is to use rougher building techniques in the solarium than we'd like in the house - cheap, salvage, somewhat experimental - AND have less demand on the house construction system than if it were exposed to the elements completely (no wind, no rain exposure). The first winter, living quarters might simply be an RV or a skid shack pulled inside the greenhouse.
Views in the living quarters would be by design. A strip of salvaged windows in the solarium's south wall at the right height would provide southern views. Similar height, judiciously placed windows in the east and west walls will provide similar views. Careful design of these and the living quarters' windows would hopefully allow us to mitigate the lack of outside views from the living quarters.
I've got lots more thoughts on the concept, but I think this gives the basic idea. Let me know if I've neglected some important information (likely).
Ideas? Comments? Obvious problems?
Thoughts on ways to insulate the roof of the solarium would be appreciated. I do like green roofs, and I've noticed the rafter spacings in Rob Roy's "Earth Sheltered Houses..." book would be the right size for decking it with wooden pallets.... perhaps rough lumber from the sawmill is a better idea.
Thank you for your thoughts in advance!
