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home page » passive solar design chapter » HTM floorplan detail page ... you are here
HTMs can be built totally above ground or bermed (backfilled to the top of the first floor) like the home pictured throughout this website. In most climates, a bermed home is more of an aesthetic choice than a sustainable design necessity, but wrapping your home with earth certainly helps moderate the indoor environment. Sustainable architecture seeks to maintain comfortable room temperatures without the need for any mechanical devices. With high thermal mass homes, the key is to always be standing within eight feet of a radiant heat / cooling source, ie: the thick concrete block walls. This design parameter tends to limit HTM rooms to eighteen feet wide for maximum passive solar radiant comfort. The depth of an HTM tends to be less than forty feet, but can change to better suit your climate and desire for natural light and heat.
Passive solar designs are naturally geared more towards heating than cooling performance, but the principles and design features of an HTM are much the same in a hot climate: moderate indoor air temperatures by allowing the home's thermal mass to store cooling energy. In a cooling climate you concentrate on venting when temperatures fall at night instead of gaining sunshine when during the day in a heating climate. Design changes are very site specific in hot climates, involving properly sized overhangs, possible use of vertical glass, adapting the exterior for shade cloth, and shifting windows to the view or north side.
Extremes of climate often need supplemental energy to maintain optimum comfort levels, but the super-large thermal mass moderates that need. For instance, in a very hot and humid climate, a de-humidifier may suffice instead of central air conditioning. Humidity is one thing you can't change passively, but just keeping the air moving in a HTM design can make it tolerable. In very cold & cloudy climates, we recommended in-floor radiant heat tubing for the same reason: the possible need for supplimental energy in a specific area. FYI - your ankles are the body's main sensors for comfort level (second only to the wrists). Cover you ankles with a wool sock and the room instantly feels warmer. Roll an ice cube between your wrists and the room instantly feels much cooler. In practice that translates to radiant heat concrete floor rooms feeling warmer. The thermal mass of the house is constantly storing and releasing energy - smoothly moderating indoor temperature. Perceived temperature goes down below your comfort level? ... Put some socks on. Radiant in-floor heat tubing will likely not be necessary in the whole house, but the tubing is relatively "cheap" to install and greatly protects resale value. If the building department will allow, wait to install the boiler. After living in an HTM for a while (first year or two is spent "charging" the thermal mass) you will normally find that a full scale boiler was over-kill. Using your hot water heater as a boiler for just a bathroom zone or two is always an interim option.
Developing good passive ventilation goes hand-in-hand with enhancing optimal traffic/flow and the overall health of the home. Constant ventilation of all rooms (especially closet style bathrooms) is something that needs to be examined closely in all climates. In a conventional, high insulation (High "R"), airtight home, the house can't afford to ventilate out stale air because all of the heating or cooling effect is stored only in the air temperature. Open up a conventional High R home in the middle of the winter and you've lost all your heat. Open the conventional High R home up during a hot summer day and you lose all your conditioned air. Without a tight seal, a conventional home's indoor and outdoor temperatures are soon the same, because the home's materials don't store any of the air conditioning and nighttime ventilation cooling effect. High thermal mass homes store coolness and/or heat in their building materials, not just the indoor air, so you're able to continuously ventilate without "losing" energy. This is a huge factor because well ventilated houses are healthy houses!
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Rectangular floorplans are the most economical to build because of their ease of construction.
The following sketches outline a standard HTM layout with identical sections ("stalls").
If you need extra bedrooms, just envision a fourth stall at either end. |
We'll personalize your floorplan, adding bedrooms and re-arranging living areas until it best suits your lifestyle, property, and climate.
Because of its proven sustainability, we do try to stay as close as possible to this standard HTM format, though.
As you make floorplan changes, the ability of your high thermal mass home to passively heat or cool itself is affected to some degree.
We do our best to help you understand the reasoning behind all of the choices you'll be faced with and the effect those choices will have upon the home's overall sustainability.
Comfortable, free radiant heating and cooling is only the beginning, though.
Full length fixed glass along the south face allows natural light to pour into every corner of the home, while the clerestory windows above illuminate the rear closets and bathrooms.
This arrangement allows your HTM to entirely avoid windows along the north (rear) and side walls for berming.
Please note that your design can have windows and doors on all four sides, if you wish, but added time, loss of energy, and cost are the main drawbacks.
Block walls are easier and alot faster to build without having to stop and install lintels for the openings every few feet.
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The following sketches are just examples of the standard HTM layout.
We encourage our clients to arrange partition walls within the stalls to meet their personal taste.
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This next image is the same two bedroom layout with a "home office" up front. We work closely with our clients to design a floorplan that works for them and functions correctly. This is very important for the homeowner-builder because small changes can have big effects on the overall project cost and future sustainability. Drapes are a good example of an easy design addition that provides privacy while not sacrificing the open floorplan and sustainable heating potential of an HTM.
Here's another three stall, HTM floorplan with more of a conventional, boxed-in layout. Please note that the bedrooms will now require egress windows. When you have to pass through more than one door to get outside of the home, that room is considered "land-locked" and is required by code to have a properly sized, operable egress window.
Here's the same three stall earthhome arrangement without the planterbed and with vertical glass. Anything is possible - it is your home .... just keep in mind that vertical glass produces at least 30% less solar gain. You can always shade during the summer, but getting maximum gain during the winter is important to maintain healthy ventilation levels.
Good flow is important in open floorplans. The following sketches illustrate unique ways of avoiding hallways and related wasted space in a smaller home. By widening the middle stall, the home's living area gains a sense of spaciousness. Radiant heating and cooling is compromised to some extent, but such are the choices made in the design phase. For instance, keeping all plumbing fixtures backed against wooden "wet" walls is important in any floorplan. We'll work with you to help create a personalized layout that functions and is easily constructed (no cutting blocks).
Design choices are relatively endless - here's a look at having the interior stall walls not line up with the rear walls. Creating a walk-around through the kitchen ties the home's living areas together while still maintaining some privacy. Please note that all HTM floorplan sketches have left out door swings to keep the images uncluttered - 3 foot doors are common throughout for handicapped accessibility.
This next image is a good example of how a larger, more complex layout might look with the same basic stall arrangement. Here the spare bedrooms are boxed-in for placement in the end stall where they create an entrance / front hallway / trombe wall. The guiding design factor in this floorplan is the fully "bermable" rear wall with no windows or doors (upper clerestory windows bring in the natural light for these "hidden" rooms. Design choices are endless, that's why we don't have "stock" floorplans for sale, preferring to personalize your HTM passive solar house plans to fit your site's needs and your family's lifestyle and budget. Please note that the patio door shown in this floorplan is not recommended for a cold climate where you don't wish to lose any solar gain. Compared to building a full-length planterbed, a patio door on the south face is fairly difficult to construct, too.
Smaller designs have their limitations, naturally, but without hallways the home opens up and functions as if much larger. Hallways in conventional design are simply a means to get from point A to point B. By turning the "hallway" into a functional area (bathroom sink, kitchen counter, mud room, etc) you gain a lot of space from otherwise wasted square footage. This floorplan sketch also illustrates the concept of enclosing bedrooms with closets, thus keeping the block walls (red) open for radiant heating and cooling efficiency.
Creating a block layout, like the one pictured below, is part of our consultation service, as is a floorplan and help with site layout. We just don't provide any custom blueprinting or engineering services. As your consultant, our job is to create a custom design to fit your lifestyle through a holistic approach while saving you more money on the project than you spend on our services. On a project the size and duration of a custom home, saving you a lot of money is a very easy goal.
HTMs are built with concrete (block or poured-in-place) for a conventional "appearance" to bankers and mortgage agents. In terms of strength, other materials pale in comparison, so the "mortgageable lifespan" of an HTM exceeds that of a stick framed home. Add a metal roof and you're suddenly the fire insurance agent's favorite client! There is nothing unconventional about HTM construction methods. In fact, the techniques are more commercial than anything.
Planterbeds along the south face are an important part of any HTM (shadowed in the following images). Interior planterbeds store an amazing amount of heat in the moist soil while providing a rewarding hobby. The planterbed can stop at the floor slab or extend all the way down to the bottom of the footer for an even larger thermal storage mass in a home with frsotwalls. We do our best to incorporate planterbeds with sloped glass into your design while taking care to avoid overheating the home with such details as shade fabric and roof overhangs.
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Here's a look at a south face design sketch which incorporates a shed roof and a full overhang past the sloped glass.
Overhang designs still manage to generate full solar gain during the peak heating months while providing generous amounts of shade in the summer.
One advantage of this particular overhang design is that the shade cloth can now be hung vertically across the front of the posts instead of horizontally, awning style, out in front of the home.
This is another good example of the type of design choices you will have with your HTM.
Don't be lead to believe that the home you see on this site is the only design we can provide, there is very little limit to your choices.
For example, you'll notice that the roof shown here is sketched as being built with standard BCI joists instead of T&G planks and logs.
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Here's the same south face of an HTM sketched as a monolithic slab.
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Multi story buildings can be built with dry stack block, but it will dramatically affect your energy independence. Plus, the relative difficulty in construction makes it very difficult for the average homeowner-builder.
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Here's some maximum glazing figures possible:
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$95* initial design consultation
Whether regarding HTMs specifically or passive solar in general, our initial consultation will address your concerns.
After reviewing the material, we encourage you to drop us an email with your questions.
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First, we email an extended outline of tips, tricks, and technical details, many not found on the website.
Then, we ship you a two inch binder jam-packed with the following printed information:
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$9* DVD only
One hour long video on universal DVD format |
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First half hour walks you through the sustainable design, HTM passive solar earthhome featured on our website. While not a How-To video, the second half does include detailed Infiltrator chamber leach field septic system installation and Sun-Mar composting toilet footage. |
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