How to convert existing home in 6a Appalachia to passive heating/cooling configuration?

Hey folks! I'm very interested in the creative nature of what I see from you awesome people. I'm hoping you might have some creative and off the wall ideas about a problem I'm facing. We live in southern Ohio and it's a generally 6a zone. Our home's in a "holler" with a fairly low flow creek (depends mostly on rain) behind it and a hill in front (to the west) that blocks a lot of southerly and western sun. We have a hill to our east as well with a moderately thick forest on it that the neighbors have been harvesting some.

I have two concerns or goals:

First, I want to reduce our "necessity" elements of our electric bill to zero or near zero. Right now our electric bill is insane just due to heating and cooling alone. Even after doing about all that can be done with insulation, we're still stupid high on the electric bill.

Second, I want to be able to survive at any temperature in a passive manner without any active heating or cooling whatsoever. We care for some family with health considerations and we need to keep the temperature somewhat controlled.

I want to qualify this post to request that while I want to do things "on the cheap" - please do not limit ideas or suggestions based on potential cost. Imagine that cost is no limit, but I also can't afford to build a nuclear bunker to bury our house either.

I have a pretty big one story home. It's roughly 3400 sq ft. We have three "families" living in it. The water table is pretty high and we can only dig down about 1-3 feet (depending on the time of year) until we hit water.

We have contemplated various ideas, but can't seem to lock in on any single plan that feels right.

We've considered:

Greenhouses on the west and south sides. Sadly with a hill in front, we have pretty bad sun exposure during the winter. Also not sure if it will help improve cooling sufficiently without some kind of strong convection planning.

Creating a huge mass by bringing in a lot of dirt to "bury" the sides in ramps/mounds. Problem is vinyl siding and most of the home being a manufactured home with an addition fully attached to it. It seems we'd have to get creative with the plastic sheets or something to keep moisture out in a serious way.

Straw bale sides added with some kind of cover? We don't have good soil/resources to make our own cob, so that's probably not a good match unless we can use another more readily accessible material.

Combinations of the above.

I'm happy to provide photos and/or video for context if needed.

Any ideas to convert such a traditional ranch style home to passive heating and cooling - creative, "crazy" or otherwise?

My home was built with passive solar in mind.  Lots of windows to let in sun placed when it catches the benefit of wind to cool and heat.

Turning an existing traditional home into a passive heating/cooling configuration may present some challenges.

I am having a hard time visualizing some of your suggestions for cooling in the summer.

I like the idea of the Greenhouses on the west and south sides.  Do you have existing porches?  There is a thread here where one member made his front porch into a greenhouse using windows.  This worked well for him during the winter.

Have you heard of the Rocket Mass Heaters?

https://permies.com/f/260/rocket-mass-heaters

To me, this would be the way to "I want to reduce our "necessity" elements of our electric bill to zero or near zero" for the winter.

Entirely passive seems like it will be very tricky to do.
Most passive systems are built from the ground up.
The greenhouses would not only be a to way to gather  solar thermal heat, they could be a place to build a rocket stove, cure firewood and also be a wind barrier on the sides that they are covering.
Although compost heating is usually thought of as a way to heat green houses,  a compost pile could live in the green house and be used to heat the home.
During the summer, covering the plastic with shade cloth would be my go to move.
I grow grapevines along the western brick wall of my home, specifically for the shade.

It occurs to me that you have a lot of roof area.
Solar thermal  water heaters can be passive, and the water they heat could be used to heat the home.
White painted roofing can help lower heating needs.

I think in your second goal you've set yourself an impossible target in your circumstances. Here's where my own research into this began https://www.appropedia.org/Passive_annual_heat_storage  with John Hait's work on passive annual heat storage.

His approach won't work for you because of your very high water table. Otherwise it would be my first suggestion.

You say you've done all you can in terms of insulation, but doing more with regard to insulation is probably, still, your most effective move.

Your description of your solar exposure makes me think that passive solar systems are not going to be very effective for you because you just do not get enough sun.

The house I am building, in SW MI, uses passive annual heat storage, under the center of the house, with air tubes for heat transfer four feet deep in the ground. We have a wood cook stove that will supplement heating while preparing our meals. There will be a south facing attached greenhouse for solar gain. We're also going to have a rocket mass heater, in case we need more.  The house will be a round wood timber frame with strawbale infill and lime plaster. The strawbales provide substantial insulation, with the plaster representing an additional thermal mass for storing heat. We have good exposure to the southern and eastern sun and will be adding a reflecting pond to amplify the exposure.

Please note that despite being designed from the start for passive solar energy capture, including high insulation and thermal mass values, we're still planning to have back up heating systems.

After all of that negativity, let me offer something pretty easy to do that might give you a chance to test whether you are getting enough solar exposure to be worth taking advantage of it. This is one example of a "tin can solar heater" that might be a cost effective test case for you.

https://youtu.be/AQiopAGnY5c

If one of these is helpful, then you might consider the rooftop solar water heater suggested up thread. If there's enough sun, roof top water heating can be a very effective system.

Interesting replies so far. Thanks!

It is true, the roof surface area is enormous. By my calculations we'd need about $30-40k of solar panels to get to our energy level usage presently... but that's probably a pretty poor idea compared to more passive solar water heating.

Has anyone put any serious work into figuring out methods to use solar heated water systems such as this in the SUMMER to somehow pump cool water or create convection in some fashion to transfer cooler ground temperature on up into the house?

It would be pretty amazing if during the winter the solar water heaters could transfer heat into the house and then a valve flip in the summer could alter the "circuit" to facilitate cooling.

One thing is true, we don't get a lot of sun during the winter, but during the summer we end up getting direct sunlight from about noon to 7 or 8 pm on the front of the house which makes it ridiculously hot. We have started installing trellises and vines for summer shading as well similar to the grape vine suggestion.

Anne, yes, have heard of and have a couple small rocket heaters, but have yet to figure out the mass parts and where to put them. The greenhouse idea was to create shade and a thermal barrier where we could use convection to vent up and pull in cooler ground air either by having it half buried or with earth tubes. We do not really have any porches (a small one that's not appreciable and is "inline" with the external walls).

Peter I may have to look into that more. We might be able to use earth tubes as that is something we've talked about now for a while. We have a hill in front as I mentioned and we could in theory dig into that maybe somehow and use that.

Hmmmm.

Mate,

Gary over at builditsolar.com is about to become your best friend.  My gut says that passive is probably a bit of a stretch but, hell, what do I know?  Either way some of the projects over there - heating AND cooling - could go a long way to dropping your electric bill.

Solar electric collectors may be too expensive, but with your roof area, solar thermal (water) collectors make a lot of sense. There are DIY solutions (see builditsolar) that may not be as efficient as commercial units, but will work, and you might be able to space them off the roof and allow airflow between in summer, drastically cutting the cooling load, and closed off to drafts in winter reducing heating loads. Any roof not covered with collectors would be best painted or otherwise colored white to reduce heat gain. When my parents built our house in the late 50s/early 60s, the (ranch style) roof was black. When I helped reroof it with white roll roofing as a teenager, summers became significantly cooler inside.

In floor Raidant Heating, means that the floor will be 85F while it only heats the air to 62F thus savng money
Heat Pump powered by the 60F water table. You will get a COP of 4 or so year-round
ERV, so that you can extract the heat/coolth from the outgoing air,
Insulation. what is the insulation rating of your roof/walls/etc
Infiltration. a blower test can tell you where you need to focus your attention.
Green Roof. can help with the summer AC bill and even with the winter bills
Living Walls. this will help keep the house cool in the summer.
Hot Water Leaks check to see if there are any slow leaks around the house

Its normal to pay $3,600 per year for every 1,200sqft of house.
So if each of the three family chips in $300 per month. (even in the fall and spring), they will have a more normalized bill vs, one where the winter bill isn't 3x the spring/fall bill. Simetimes when folks have to chip in their share of the ultility bill they will make sure that the windows are properly closed and the showers they take aren't too long or that they wash their clothes with cold/tap water.

Living in a sun sheltered valley sounds like an interesting challenge for solar. Yes, I for one would love to see pictures to get more detail for sun exposure at different times in a typical winter day.
Passive solar can involve many small solutions cobbled together that add up to real savings. Lots of unusual ideas seem welcome here so here's one more.
How about a water tower? I attended a language school in a high altitude region of Guatemala that used passive solar to heat water with a couple of stacked 50 - 60 gal drums on a scaffold. The whole system was painted black to absorb the sun's heat all day. Showers in late afternoon were hot. Elevating a tank on a scaffold could allow a mini-tower to reach a place on your property where the sun breaks through. It could also save wear and tear on your roof since the weight of the tank would be substantial.

Some images would help a lot, and details of the temperature range we are looking at.

Some ideas I use everyday;
Hot water
- flat plate not evacuated tube solar water units on the roof, laid out as suggested to partially shade the roof,
 and fit an insulated tank on a tower near where most water is used and use thermosyphon principles to heat the water.
 Then pump water around the house as needed. It could all be drained for winter if need be.
Cooling
- If the humidity is low enough, evaporative coolers would be ideal for the summer, using solar electricity to run it.
- Consider a sprinkler system on the roof using the groundwater, I cooled a factory with a flat roof for years using such a system.
 I started it as the sun hit the roof each morning and left it running until the sun left the roof. I was very effective.
- Install a safari roof over your existing roof to provide shade, ask for details if interested.
Insulation
- Is the floor insulated?
- Are the windows double glazed even with rudimentary systems?
Heating
I am experimenting with solar air heaters, and you should look at them perhaps.
https://solair.com.au/

PS What are you doing for domestic water?