Site-Specific Resource Reclamation

• Maximizing utility of available sun, wind, and thermal massing
• Sunlight provides daylight, electricity
• Solar thermal energy heats water, enhances geo-exchange system, and heats tactically placed interior and exterior thermal massses
• Earth tube cools home in summer and warms it in winter
• Home collects, stores & purifies rainwater to support all domestic water uses, and gray water system to support irrigation, laundry, WC.
• Main building warm living/green roof and garage green roofs
• “Engineering without engines” – Parametric window placement to maximize heat gain in winter, shading in summer

Eco-Luxury / Creative Thermodynamics

• Indoor air is purified with biowall, MERV 13 filtration, and UV-light air santitizers
• Outdoor water elements reject heat from home cooling system
• Snowmelt system is assisted by geothermal heat pump
• Wine cellar is cooled by geothermal heat pump
• Garage heating via solar transpired air process
• Re-claiming heat rejected from the wine cellar and other refrigeration processes to warm the hot tub (virtually free exchange)

Grid Independence / Calamity Resistance

H2O		Collected rainwater and snowmelt are purified onsite
Solar PV		Grid-connected 7.5 kW Solar PV Array,
Solar Thermal		200,000 BTU solar heat collectors, working in conjunction with solar drainback system to meet 100% of DHW load in spring, summer and fall and supplement during winter. Use of solar thermal energy with a proprietary solar/geo combi design during other times
Ground-Source Heating & Cooling		Building relies largely on the earth below- and not the power company- to meet primary heating and cooling demand
Wind		Wind Turbine, with low kick-in speed (planned)
Standby Power		Renewables connected to battery backup system, electric car inverter, in-room battery backup, and augmented by natgas standby generator.
Biophelia & Permaculture		Indoor biowall and 4-season heated outdoor gardening (in progress)

Minimizing Energy Demand

• Superior Envelope – Thermal-bridge-free construction, superior airtightness, super-insulated walls are “sealed for freshness”
• Windows as part of unbroken thermal and airtight layer
• Pre-heating DHW with solar collectors and reclaimed heat from drainage
• Central Ventilation energy recovery ventilator of 95% efficiency
• Seasonal kitchen exhaust heat recovery
• Strategic placement of indoor thermal mass

Cradle-to-Cradle Structure

• C2C insulated reinforced concrete
• Re-claimed 2×6, double-stud wall with staggered studs formed from existing home floor joists further reinforced by third stud wall.
• Full steel structure built within thermal envelope braces triple stud walls
• Temporary steel truss system allowed construction of C2C concrete flooring system.

“Tread Lightly” Operation

• Geothermal, wind, and solar systems over burning fuel
• Indoor biowall naturally swaps fresh oxygen with carbon dioxide and purifies air (planned)
• Flat roofgardens and biowall provide year-round food bounty (planned)
• Onsite water filtration nearly eliminates demand on municipal water supply
• Rain water and snowmelt is collected from all permeable & non-permeable surfaces, stores and purifies 20,000 gallons onsite
• Over flow is released, after irrigation, into the municipal stormwater system slowly and when the system can handle it better.