[Greenbuilding] Insulating a slab

[Ward Edwards]

That is pretty much how I built my house.  We used 3" of blue styrofoam 
under the slab and have pipes in the concrete for infloor heat. The 
walls are double stud wall with R40 insulation. On a sunny day the house 
will get up to about 22-23C and will drop down to about 20C by about 
10pm when the temp outside is about -10C.  At this point either I build 
a fire which will burn for a few hour, or let the infloor heat kick in. 
  Over the last year we used about 1600 liters of propane and 3/4 of a 
cord of wood. You can look at my very badly out of date website at 
www.ownerbuilder.ca

Ward Edwards
ward at buildgreen.ca

Lynelle Hamilton wrote:
>    I'm certain this has been covered before, but I am looking for the "best"
>    way to insulate a concrete slab for a slab on grade home.  I have some
>    questions:
>    I'm considering building a passive solar home with an insulated slab on
>    grade (no crawl space).  The home would have a partial upper floor for two
>    bedrooms and a bath, but all main living areas would be on the lower level.
>    The north side of the home would be placed into a hill that gradually rises
>    to the upper level, so that I have on grade access to the upper level from
>    the north and on grade access to the south/east/west for the lower level.
>    The lot is sand/sandy loam and slopes to the south.
>    I have a home with concrete floors now, so am somewhat used to not being
>    able to move things around easily when they are embedded in concrete.  I do
>    want a warm environment and don't want to be heating the ground below the
>    slab to the extent that I can avoid it.
>    Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to do this?
>    Thanks for any ideas!
>    Lynelle Hamilton
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