[Greenbuilding] passive solar homes - floors

[susannah]

At 09:17 PM 6/10/2007, Kat wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>I've got a client of my very own (my first!)

Congrats!  :).

>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?

I live in Eugene.  My solar concrete floors are very warm to bare 
feet where the sun hits them, lukewarm/coolish where it doesn't.  In 
our climate and IME concrete floors only get actually *cold* if they 
are uninsulated.


>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.

Bring them to visit some beautiful stained concrete floors.  They may 
like them when they see you're not proposing ugly warehouse-type 
concrete :).   I too was a die-hard wood person, but I love my concrete floor. 


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