[Greenbuilding] passive solar homes - floors

[Mike O'Brien]

Hi Kat--

Matt Bacon and Kristen Brenes house on NE 14th is passive solar. You  
could contact their designer Andre DeBar who has done some other PS  
houses as well. Ask Andre how their house is doing.

Kathryn Gray and her husband Steve have just finished a passive   
solar floating home at Tomahawk Island. It will be on the Build It  
Green home tour on September 15th. Her company is Urbansun.

The 'Net Zero' house that Eldon Haines and Linda Rose built on NE  
Ainsworth is passive solar. You could contact their builder Dave  
Heslam at Coho Construction about how it is doing.

There will be a number of passive solar houses on the solar tours in  
October. Contact Solar Oregon for details.

Our house has has some concrete floors, which are fine as far as  
temperature, but we laid cork over the concrete in the kitchen for  
some resiliency and clay in the living room for color and nice feel  
on bare feet.

Best,

MIke O'Brien


On Jun 10, 2007, at 9:17 PM, Kat wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I've got a client of my very own (my first!) and I'm trying to  
> convince
> them to go with the simplest passive solar system - that of direct
> gain.  I've got a few questions:
>
> 1) I'm reading _The Passive Solar Energy Book_, by Edward Mazria,
> copyright 1979.  Is this generally a good source?  Is there another
> source I should follow up with, to fill in holes, or find correct
> information?
>
> 2) Does anyone on the list live in a well-functioning direct-gain
> passive solar home that uses the floor as part of the system?  If  
> so, do
> you happen to live in a temperate climate like Portland, Oregon?   
> And if
> so, what do the floors feel like in the winter?  Are they warm, tepid,
> or cool on the feet?
>
> 3) Any suggestions for how to convince the client that they will  
> like a
> thermal-storage floor, when they are a die-hard fan of wood floors,  
> and
> think that concrete is going to be too hard?  Or is this going to  
> be an
> impossible task because concrete *is* too hard?  Is it nasty to live
> on?  These floors would be joisted - the concrete (or dirt, or  
> whatever
> I could convince them to use as thermal storage) would go on top of  
> the
> joists.
>
> Thanks!
>
> -Kathleen
>
> _______________________________________________
> Greenbuilding email list
> List info: http://listserv.repp.org/mailman/listinfo/ 
> greenbuilding_listserv.repp.org
> List email: Greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
> Managed by BuildingGreen, Inc. http://www.buildinggreen.com
>       publisher of Environmental Building News and GreenSpec(r)
> Hosted and archived by REPP / CREST http://www.crest.org
>

1905 N Alberta Street
Portland OR 97217
503-819-8991 mobile
503-823-5494 office
503-286-3316 home
obrien at hevanet.com