Tag: passive solar heating
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My off-grid homestead ideas (1): construction and design
Starting with this post, I wanted to share with you my ideas on my off-grid house and homestead. I’ll begin with the general ideas on design and house construction, used materials, techniques, etc. The very first draft of my house design is ready, but some details need to be corrected. It looks like typical small […]
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5 ways to harness solar thermal energy
Today I wanted to show you in brief 5 good ways to use solar energy to produce useful heat. Most people probably at this moment think about solar thermal collectors for domestic hot water, but there are many other possibilities. Of course I will write about solar collectors, though it’s not a device I suggest […]
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Garbage warrior
This week I watched the “Garbage warrior”, a film about american architect, Mike Reynolds. This documentary shows several buildings and subdivisions built by Reynolds, starting with the Thumb House, and the Earthship, of course. This film was highly motivating and inspiring for me. I am wondering if I could add some tires with rammed earth […]
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Off-grid heating, ventilation and cooling
Off-grid house should not get any energy input from outside. It should use only energy generated on-site. Because of that, in my opinion a house that’s powered by propane (for genset, cooking and heating) is not off the grid. But in cool climates most of the energy is required for heating and domestic hot water. […]
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Only a homestead may be fully autonomous, not a single house
In terms of energy independence, or energy autonomy, it is very difficult (and probably not possible at all) to make a single house fully autonomous. While it’s easy to produce your own electrical energy, it’s much more difficult to provide your house with enough energy to heat and cool it. Wikipedia says, that typical US […]