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Old 12-16-2012, 09:55 PM   #11 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arcosine View Post
Dirt is really not a good insulation, r value is about 0.5 per inch, so an r value of 20 need 40 inches of dirt, and and that dirt has to be warmed up.
Seems to work pretty good here:

http://www.springfieldunderground.com/

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Old 12-17-2012, 02:16 PM   #12 (permalink)
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In our area you would also have to deal with natural radon gas. Its not that hard, but it does add another expense, and something else to think about.
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Old 12-17-2012, 03:43 PM   #13 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drainoil View Post
Seems to work pretty good here:

http://www.springfieldunderground.com/
That's an old dolomite mine, not an earth covered shelter. If you want to live in a warehouse at 62 degrees year round with truck fumes, go ahead.
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Old 12-20-2012, 08:45 PM   #14 (permalink)
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This link has lots of specific technical data. This guy really seems to have put alot of work into building his earth home located in Illinois. If he included it, I missed it, but I'd like to know approximately what his total bill was for the finished house (sans the land)and how much (or little) his utility costs are per month throughout the year?


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Old 12-20-2012, 09:12 PM   #15 (permalink)
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My own house is above ground over a crawlspace, 1320 square feet, has no shade, no solar, and no woodstove. The heating system is a gas water heater that heats both the house and the domestic hot water. Three people living in it.

The utility useage for 2003 was as follows:
8890 heating degree days.
659 therms of natural gas.
3879 KwH electricity.

A high efficiency modulating condensing boiler with indirect hot water heater would reduce the gas useage by 15% or so.

I'd really like to see the numbers for some earth sheltered homes.
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Old 12-21-2012, 09:47 PM   #16 (permalink)
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Earth Sheltered = hard to find comparables

My uncle built an earth sheltered house in St. Paul, MN back in the early 80s and still lives there, but it's hard to find any kind of direct comparison to it for utility usage. Most houses that size that are above ground aren't made of concrete, for instance.

I can send him an email and ask.

Before you fantasize too much on earth sheltered houses, let me warn you that waterproofing gave him fits for the better part of a decade. For a while there, he had a guttering system inside his house and that, believe it or not, was the greatest success he had for quite some time before getting a better handle on it. Ultimately he wound up scraping all the overburden off to completely replace the membrane. I think some other stuff got done too, but I'm not sure.
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Old 12-21-2012, 11:26 PM   #17 (permalink)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by elhigh View Post
My uncle built an earth sheltered house in St. Paul, MN back in the early 80s and still lives there, but it's hard to find any kind of direct comparison to it for utility usage. Most houses that size that are above ground aren't made of concrete, for instance.

I can send him an email and ask.

Before you fantasize too much on earth sheltered houses, let me warn you that waterproofing gave him fits for the better part of a decade. For a while there, he had a guttering system inside his house and that, believe it or not, was the greatest success he had for quite some time before getting a better handle on it. Ultimately he wound up scraping all the overburden off to completely replace the membrane. I think some other stuff got done too, but I'm not sure.
Small world, thats where I am to but I haven't ever seen one here. Whatever info you care to post would be great or if your uncle is ok with it I can pm you my contact info to give to him. I'd just like to talk to someone thats actually "been there done that lol".
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Old 04-03-2013, 11:12 PM   #18 (permalink)
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I live in an earth home that was built in the early 80s. There are many pros and a few cons. My house was built 75 percent by professionals and 25 percent by the home owner that was a cobbler of sorts. My house is poured concrete on 3 sides with concrete precast roof that are about 10 inches thick with a 4 inch concrete cap poured on top of that. The structure itself is a tank. This design seems to be prevalent in this area. The south wall is built of 2x4 and insulated with fiber glass batt insulation with 1.5 inch blue board on the exterior of that. The concrete shell is insulated with 2 inch white foam that was placed inside the concrete forms, similar to modern day lite form. I fought water about 2 years after we moved in. I found that the original water proofing membrane was 3 layers of a heavy plastic material which ahd deteriorated after 25 years or so. This was a pretty simple fix. I used a rubber pond liner directly over the white foam insulation. It was cheaper to do than reroofing an equivelent sized asphault roof and it took about 3 days to do. Pond liner is the same stuff as rubber roofing but it is made to be in contact with dirt. I was able to order 2 large sheets and I only had to seam it one time. The house has always been heated with a wood stove and electric baseboard heaters in each of the south rooms. Cooling was provided by a hotel style ptac unit. Over all it is a pretty cozy house. We are in Iowa and the coldest months seem to be Jan and Feb the hottest being July. The biggest problem has alway been humidity. If the house is left unheated during the day the temp has never dipped below 62F. If left un cooled, temps never get above 79F. We are in the process of adding a forced air system right now mainly to help control the humidity levels. I would do many things differently if I were to build one. The house only has 8' ceilings. I would go taller and run the plumbing and electrical over head instead of in the slab. I would install an HVAC system whether you think you will need it or not. We have a toddler now so the wood stove is a saftey concern. Radon could be a problem so consider a mitigation system. For the most part we love the house but it does present certain challenges that must be considered before building. The house is pretty much sound proof. We live a quarter mile from a busy highway and cant hear it. Most of the problems with my house are due to the original owner cutting corners in certain areas. Hope this helps the OP.
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Old 04-04-2013, 12:12 AM   #19 (permalink)
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this may be old news but I had never seen it before, I saw a program the other day on a house build in Australia where they used hollow styrofoam blocks which they poured concrete into. I took them only a couple of days to put up the blocks and pour a very large foundation. Ended up with it soundproofed and insulated at the same time. Seemed like a very inexpensive way to build. I didn't see any reenforcing steel but maybe I missed some parts.
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Old 04-04-2013, 01:04 AM   #20 (permalink)
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The product you saw was lite form (or something similar). It is pretty big here in NW Iowa. It is blocks composed of 1.5" styrofoam on each side. It has a skeleton made of plastic and I don't think rebar is required. It is also DIY but I have seen it go terribly wrong when proper prep work is not done. If I were doing an earth home I would do it this way. There are also plastic strips built into the foam that allow for the attachment of drywall directly to the foam. I have wired many houses built with this stuff and routing wires is also pretty easy. We use an electric chainsaw to notch the foam and route the wiring. It is pretty slick stuff.

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