Ideas to build a green masonry home?

[Who]

To explain...

"Thermal bridging" is just the different points where heat transfer has an easier path across part of a building's outside envelope. For example, think of a standard stick frame wall (I know you don't want wood) with R14 insulation in between the studs. The R value is 14 for the 14½" wide batts but then the next 1½" of stud has only the R value of 4.4. So the wall as a system isn't R14 because of the studs allow heat to transfer easier than the rest of the wall - heat energy will always take the easiest path to get to something cooler. You can see thermal bridging clearly when taking an IR photo of a place.

[PA Prius]

Have you considered strawbale? We are very happy with ours. I'd also strongly encourage you in your consideration of passive solar.

PA Prius

[Christ]

I'm actually looking at strawbale for the exterior wall covering, mixed with mud and used for "stucco" of sorts.

Who - Thanks for the explanation on that.

Now, after building a block wall and back filling it with packed earth, then adding to the exterior a ~1" thick layer of packed earth "stucco", and a living roof/buried wall (just one, for the ramp to the roof), how do you think I'll fare with an average NE PA climate?

(Winters seldom get subzero, average temps around 20-30F, I believe, and Summer average is 70-80F.)

The house plan previously seen will probably get scaled down to about 40x60, and the roof should be concrete (ish).

It doesn't necessarily have to be concrete, but the rules say no wood. (For the house itself... cabinets, interior stuff, etc... that's a different story.. those are probably all recycled from old remodels and such.)

Where can I find more information on slab roofs?

PS - anyone from near this area knows about the shale content of the hills around here... I intend to salvage/use as much as we can from whatever gets dug out of the hill to serve our purposes. Some of it will be used for landscaping, some larger pieces will probably be sold, and smaller "chips" may get used for pave in the driveway area.

[Christ]

Building a Concrete Block Roof | eHow.com

I like this... however, I'm not sure about the cost of the steel truss-beams. They could be a problem in doing this.

[Christ]

Oh - in the spirit of building green - I got a free Reel Mower! It works great too, just gonna have to oil it up!

[Christ]

Going on the advice of several of you, and of course, common sense, I've decided a few things:

1. The North and East faces of the home will be "built in" to the hill, which will allow access to the:
2. Green Roof. It's a necessity, allowing for a larger yard with less actual acreage (we're cutting trees to make this lot...)
3. The Southern-most face will probably have WINDOWS! all over it, in two planes across it's face, so that we can let out the heat in the summer.
4. Solar-Thermal Coolant Circulation - of course, being dug in, this might actually heat the house alone, provided the circuit is large enough. As an added benefit, the energy of the heated coolant can make hot water for showers, and any excess coolant that is diverted into the cooling coils (so as not to overheat the house/water) can be used to help generate electricity, keeping the house as off-grid as I can without spending too much money!
5. The sun doesn't actually hit the southern face of the "shadow house" that I built in my head until about mid-morning, which is nice for my 2nd shift personal schedule.
6. Instead of backfilling with mortar, though it will take longer, the walls will be packed with small rocks and mud, helping with thermal mass and insulating better than UltraTouch*.

[zjrog]

I like your #4 above. I've given a great deal of thought towards how I would build my retirement home. Geo-thermal recirc is a great way to cool/heat the house, but lots of drilling required for that. I've always considered building into the side of a hill. Perhaps, someday, I can afford to build what I want where I want and be able to

I don't know how much it would help your situation, but there is a group in Taos, NM that uses old tires and rammed earth methods of creating heat mass storage. And they also have some unique methods of managing their water too. Hey, just cause I'm a jeep guy doesn't keep me from watching the green Planet channel...

Regardless, I am guessing from the green, you get plenty of rainfall on the property so managing the runoff and rainwater will need to be addressed with your block wall construction. I'm not sure what sort of "green" or chemical free sealant would work best to minimize water damage to your blocks. (as an aside, where I lived in California, the desert, we had excellent water wells and limited treatment of the water. But after 10 years or so of lawn sprinklers running, there were block walls with serious water damage...) The only block walled building I remember living in was in Hawaii, but the block was on top of concrete slab, not in contact with the soil.

I'm watching this thread to see how it comes along...

[Christ]

ZJ - Solar Thermal Heat Conduction is different from Geo-Thermal.

Geo = Earth, Solar = Sun. I'm going to be using a big tank full of coils with a glass cover pointed directly at the Sun, which will heat the water. Since the tank is downhill from me, once the water is heated, it will begin to circulate on it's own (thermal conduction). The hot water will rise up the hill into the floor (or bypass valve), and the cooled water will flow back down into the tank to be reheated. (It's not actually water, it's an eco-friendly coolant material that I haven't found yet.)

As far as waterproofing, I'm going to use liquid membrane on the buried walls of the house, with drainage stone and sluice pipes at the lowest point of the foundation.

This stuff is the first thing that comes to mind:
Rubber waterproofing for foundations: ICF and standard concrete

[zjrog]

Cool. Yes i know the difference. But I didn't separate my posting...

Should have looked like this..

"I like your #4 above.

I've given a great deal of thought towards how I would build my retirement home. Geo-thermal recirc is a great way to cool/heat the house, but lots of drilling required for that."

But that still doesn't seem like I understood what you were doing (I did though!!)...

Interesting waterproofing.

[Christ]

Understood.

So, I don't know how to calculate the size of generator I would be able to use on the bypass loop of the solar-thermal circuit.

Anyone care to share a few formulae?