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The design of this house includes both passive and active elements. Passive elements include the house orientation, shading louvers on the front (south)
eaves, extra insulation, and tile floors in the rooms exposed to solar gain. The active elements include forced air to transfer heat from the greenhouse and rooftop solar collectors into an insulated cement box filled with
3/4" rock, a pump to circulate water for domestic use through a heat exchanger in the air from the rooftop solar collectors, dampers to control the transfer of heat throughout the house, a heat pump to provide supplemental
space heating and cooling, four standard programmable setback thermostats to manage the temperature in four household temperature zones, and a dedicated control computer with temperature sensors to coordinate these active elements
automatically. |
