[Greenbuilding] was Barra system--kachadorian passive solar

[Alan Abrams]

FWIW, a guy came up to my booth at the DC Greenfest last weekend, just
bursting to tell me about the house he designed for himself, 25 years ago,
on the Rhode Island coast.  25 years of zero heat load and cooling by sea
breezes, and one moving part (a damper).  The design is based on circulating
air through two-core CMU's laid sideways with cores aligned and slab poured
on top, a la Kach's system.  

First question (after, when can I visit?) was--as Keith's (and my own)
anxiety presupposes--are the blocks below natural grade?  Well, it's bermed
along the north to within two feet of the roofline (with 18" awning windows
above grade).  So the block is likely subject to ground water, if not high
levels of humidity.

Not sure if this is really reassuring to Keith--the guy looked to be in his
late 50's--so if there was a mold problem, it did not seem to be
particularly lethal.

-AA  





<he second link you provide is for the Kachadorian book. I don't 
particularly care for it, but I also noticed the seeming parallel with 
the Barra system (I don't know details of Barra to know if they're the 
same). I do have two copies I'd be happy to sell however. Oh, I mean, 
gee it's an excellent book, worth a fortune... Seriously though, it has 
some interesting things in it. However, as I've noted before, I think 
any system that has your house air flowing through an uncleanable and 
uninspectable is flawed.>