Dream house construction, continued. sticking it to the man.

Feeling better, but still sick and really bored. So here's some more random chatter about my house project.

I like the idea of clean energy, but since Mister Fusion isn't availeble yet (Back to the future reference) we'll have to settle for something a little more earthbound.
First off, what consumes energy in a house. Heating, both of the house itself and water, running of the house. such as light and ventilation (I want a house with ventilation) and your basic utilities.
All of this consumes power, on average. a family of four in a house use 5000 kwh a year on light, computers, the stove and so forth. add to that heat, depending on the house ranging from 100-200 kwh a year depending on the house insulation and finally roughly 750 kwh worth of hot water per person.
put that together and you get around 8000 kwh a year in energy consumption by four people. That's a pretty stiff energy bill ^^;
And if you calculate with there being about 10kwh in a liter of oil, that's a shitload of empty oil barrels in a year ^^;
SO. how do I intend to not destroy the enviorment with my fantasy house?


First off, limit the loss of energy.
In your typical house, that is the loss of heat due to bad insulation. and Danish houses, especially older ones, you barely have to bother closing the windows in the winter, doesn't make much difference. Take a thermal picture of a house from the eighties or older and it will glow red.
So first off, proper insulation. I've been reading up on some new insulation that I like the sound of. Paperwool, I know, sounds like I should invite the mice in and set my house on fire after the dinner. But supposedly, via impregnating the paper material with minerals, chiefly salt. insects and vermin can't eat, let alone live in it. futhermore, the stuff doesn't catch fire, at worst it smolders under flame. last but not least, it's made from old paper trash. so, recycled materials right here =3 And it being "organic" the wool absorbes and expels moisture, helping the house breath.
Last detail that really took me in, but doesn't really have any practical applications. the stuff doesn't itch and harrass your throat and eyes like most other isulations like glass and rockwool.
Secondly, proper triple glass, termo windows. These bad boys due to a special surface treatment and the gas Argon being sandwitched between the panes of glass, have a high insulation faktor. infact, the main temparture bridge is the frame. The window is constructed in such a way it lets heat in, but keeps it in. so during the winter, the sun will help heat up the house. nifty, right =3

So, there. That's the first round. limiting the loss of energy, but that still means we consuming it. heating the house and powering it.
There I turn to a combination of solutions, that individually arn't that much of a deal. but combined and under optimal conditions could make you energy independant.
First of, floorheat. mentioned it in an earlier post. I love a nice toasty floor =) but a warm floor automatically makes the room feel warmer and since you're not relying on a radiator in one side of the room, to warm up the whole room. You don't have to turn the heat up quite as much. which means you average have the heat setting 5 degrees lower with floor heat, than common radiators. 
There you already have cut back on your energy bill =)

Next, Earthheat.
The system is based on termo dynamics. using the ground as a large energy storage device. during the summer, large amounts of heat is stored in the ground, putting a network of pipes in the ground lets you draw on that energy, using it to heat your house and bathing water.
problem is it's a rather large procedure to install, you gotta plow a meter deep furrow network on an area roughly the size a tenniscoart. But the possibilities for self renewable energy is interesting.
Especially combined with an energy trap. An energy trap, is basicly a solar panal that works after the same principles as the earthheat. absorbing energy from the sunlight and air temperature. This in turn means that during winter, while you are drawing on the heat reserves in the ground, the energy trap will absorbe warmth from the sunlight, even during winter time and store it in the ground. effectively turning the ground heat system into a battery, that stores the heat of the day and lets you use it during the night.

Finally, wind power. A windtrap (loved the idea ever since I build my first in Dune II. nerd alert) anyways, found this one.

Helix wind corp. not only does their wind turbines look awesome, but as fare as I can gather, are very effective and quite useful for urban and sub-urban projects, as they arn't quite as space consuming, need to be as high as your regular windmills and don't make near the noise and more importantly, don't care from where the wind comes.
The one on the picture is their newest and biggest model. almost 5 meters tall. and has an estimated 3.3 kwh a year output.
That's more than half of the above mentioned 4 person family electricity use.
Now the real beauty of this baby (aside from the obvious, I think it's awesomely designed) it produce electricity as long as the wind blows, which certain places is pretty much constantly. 24/7, meaning that it produce electricity, when you're at work/school or sleeping. and the only energy consumers are the fridge, standby electronics and heat pumps. This thing comes with an inverter, so when it produce more than your home consumes, your electrical gauge starts running backwards. optimal conditions, your electrical company starts sending you checks instead of bills =3
Alternatly, you could just store the energy, if you had a heater element connected to the earth heat system, you could store the electrical energy as heat in the ground and use it later to heat your house or water.

Ofcause, most of this is new technology and rather considerat investments of time and materials, not to mention money. The helix turbine alone, would set you back 16.000 US dollars. All the solutions I've stated above, would take half a life time or more of saved electricity and heat bills, to pay for themselves. most are very maintanence light how ever, but possibly you'd go to your grave just breaking even.
But still it's an intesting thought, having a house nearly energy dependant.
Just sitting a lazy summer afternoon, listening to the birds and your wind turbines soft "chop chop chop" ticking the electrical gauge backwards in the hallway =3

I'd like that ^^