Designing a Solar Home

As time goes on, changing circumstances and life intrude on dreams, and some dreams must either be abandoned or modified to more closely match with reality.

As I said in the last post, I had grown interested in Enertia homes. Enertia homes are hybrid solar homes that incorporate many of the features I was looking for in a home. Enertia homes use a technology called double envelope homes. These homes are made of southern yellow pine, which is a fast growing tree that is easily renewable. I have been concerned about the use of pine for the home, since we live in an area prone to wildfires. I suggested to Enertia that they use their designs in concrete homes. They weren’t particularly interested.

When we were looking for a homesite in New Mexico, we were looking for a site that conformed to the requirements for an Enertia home. The home site we found was perfect.

When we started talking to our architect/builder, though, she pointed out a couple things. The climate in New Mexico was not so severe that having a basement was particularly economical. She also pointed out that if we plan to retire at this site, and we do, we might want to avoid a three story house, which is essentially what most of the Enertia homes are. I still had nagging doubts about fire and termite susceptibility of the Enertia homes too, so I was pretty receptive to the idea of a one story home that was not extensively bermed.

We decided to start designing a one story home that would incorporate hybrid solar as the primary means of heating, cooling, and powering our home.

All homes start with a dream, probably, and our home is no exception. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to have a house built into a mountainside. Now this mountain is one that I would own outright. It also has to have an underground river running through it, and extensive caves. This dream home would be built into the mountain cave system, with just a small frontage area to provide solar heating of the interior. The mass of the mountain and the constant temperature are from deep within the mountain would make the home easy to heat and cool. The river would provide water and hydro-electric power. I would also install a photovoltaic array on the mountain, with wind generators. A small shooting range and a runway with an underground hanger would round out the ammenities. If anyone knows of a mountain like that, please let me know. So far, I haven’t found one, and if I did, I wouldn’t be able to afford it. But that isn’t what dreams are about. Dreams, faced with realities, change.

Accepting that I probably would never get a mountain like that, I started looking for other options. My next find was Enertia Homes. I really like these homes, and they meet my dream of a house that heats and cools itself. I have been looking at these homes for years. Until recently, I was hoping to build one of these homes. Again, reality has a way of intruding into dreams. As I post more of these, I will explore the issues and decisions that led us away from the Enertia homes and toward other options.