[Greenbuilding] Solar House passes the Test

[Lawrence Lile]

Well the house I am building passed a tough test this weekend.  
 
The house is sheetrocked, insulated, all the windows are in, the shell is basically there.  There is no heat, no electrical devices anywhere int he house.  A couple of outlets are live for the Contractor's saws. 
 
Missouri, as you may have heard, had a record snow followed by bitter cold weather the last week.  I measured 16"of snow in front of my house. The mercury had dropped to 13F overnight.  
 
After several days of this, I finally dug my way out and went to the new house.  At 8AM it was 55Finside, and at 1PM it was 65F inside.  The only heating device in the house was a radio I was listening to, producing maybe a watt of power.  I was worried about whether I needed to back up the heating circuit with solar electric and batteries- Ha!  if the power goes out, I'll have to put on an extra pair of socks, that's about it.  Glass and Mass, folks, it is amazing stuff!  
 
--Lawrence Lile