[Greenbuilding] Fw: Trying to maximize passive solar gain without investing too much....

[Christa Carpenter]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Christa Carpenter 
To: greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org 
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 10:59 AM
Subject: Trying to maximize passive solar gain without investing too much....


Dear Green Building List,

I am a long time lurker and rarely a question asker.  This summer I find myself building a conventional stick home as a temporary home until we can better design and build our dream - earth sheltered, passive solar home.  We are in a hurry because I am due to have a baby in mid-October.  We have chosen a location in a subdivision where we are likely to get our investment back and have chosen to go with conventional building to minimize headaches and also maximize return on our investment in a very conventional community.  We have also been able to get a lot that slopes to the South East and we can do a bit better than that in terms of Solar gain by turning the house slightly toward the South.  We have decided to build an end split with attached garage.  I tried to attach the plans and a pic, but this is not possible on the list serve I guess.   Anyway, the main living space is on the top floor.  A large, open kitchen, dinning, living room space is the full depth of the house.  Two bedrooms are on the south side and one bedroom and two baths are on the north.  The basement will have a large family room across entire front section (south facing with large windows) with a coldroom, laundry room and storage room along the back (north).  We are trying to decide which end to put the garage on - end that faces West south west or the end that faces Eeast south east.  The west end would probably look better.


We plan to insulate the slab and foundation and maximize windows facing south - especially in the basement.  We also plan to finish the basement floor with dark polished concrete and are considering doubling up on gyproc in some of the upstairs rooms so that there is extra thermal mass up there too.  We will have an air exchanger and vented fans in the baths as well as a fan on the vaulted (9ft) ceiling in the living room and plan to keep the doors leading to the stairs on both floors open most of the time.  The home will be insulated to the Energuide 80 spec - here in New Brunswick, Canada.  

A few questions:

Can you have too much thermal mass?  I have a book that gives minimum numbers corresponding to the area of southfacing glazing, but they don't mention whether or not you can have too much.

Do you think it is worth it to do this for a conventional house that we will try to sell to conventional people in a few years time or am I banging my head against a wall unnecessarily?

Do I appear to have the right idea in terms of maximizing the return from the sun while minimizing long term investment?

Do you have any suggestions for how to heat this house in addition to the passive solar gain?  We get rebates here for using forced air, but I am loath to use furnace oil again.  

Is there any other advice you might give?

Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Christa Carpenter