SOLAR HEATED HOUSE LOCATED AT ROSSBURN MB.
contact email for more information contact: Keith Dixon
kdixon24@hotmail.com
email

The solar heated house is located on a 157 acre parcel of land 2 miles
south of the south border of riding mountain national park. The land is
rolling hills with 50 acres of aspen/poplar woods with the balance
planted to alfalfa and brome grass. The house is built facing due south and is built into the side of a hill , the top of the hill extends over
the roof with grass growing on the roof.

The solar system is known as passive solar. The sun heats up the
structure by shinning in large south facing windows and heats up the
interior. For a solar house to be efficient there must be a heat
storage system that stores the large heat supply of mid-day and
releases this heat when the sun heat is not sufficent. Some systems use
large water tanks as heat storage units, this house is built of
reinforced concrete which is designed to be the heat storage system.
The house contains 280,000 lbs of concrete which heats up slowly and
then releases this heat when it is needed. The concrete is insulated
on the outside. The outside of the whole concrete structure is made
totaly air tight and moisture tight with a bonded cover of laminated
plastic and asphalt bonded to the concrete and all joints sealed, the
insulation is 2" of rigid extruded polystyrene (R factor of 10) the
roof insulation is 4 inch(R=10). Over the insulation is 1/2 " of
plywood, then plastic siding on the exposed surfaces. On the roof over
the 4" of insulation is another moisture barier of 5 mil poly with
joints sealed, then 2" of sand and 8" of earth. The roof has a 4" slope
to the north where excess water will drain into a "french well". This
is an 18"thick gravel bed running the full length of the north wall and
the full height of the wall with a weeping tile along the footing to
drain away any water. The purpose is to make an easy access for any
water to get away rather than to try to soak thru the wall into the
house.

The house is 47' by 24' with the long dimension facing the south. On
the south side are 5 rooms (entrance vestabule, living, office,
bedroom#1, bedroom#2). On the north side are 5 rooms (utility, dining,
kitchen, bathroom, bedroom#3). The living + dining + kitchen is one
open L shaped room. Except for the vestibule and utility room the rooms
are 10' x 10'. There is a central hall for access to the rooms.

There are 4 large 4' x 8' windows in each of the main rooms on the
south side where the sun shines in and heats up the structure. The
walls on the south side of the central hall are of concrete block to
add as additional heat storage. The windows are manufacture by Willmar
Windows of winnipeg. They are sealed double glazed with argon gas in
between the 2 glasses. The design was a comprimise between the
insulation value (R=4) and the solar heat gain value (SHG=0.63).
Outside the windows are rolling shutters which are hollow plastic
segments riding in an insulated track and wind up into a box over the
top of the windows on the outside. These are controlled by a nylon
tape or rope from the inside. These shutters add an addition R=5
insulation factor when they are closed. They are white which also
reflects the radiant heat from the inside passing to the outside at
night. These are very important as all the heat gained in the day
would be lost to the outside at night. As the sun is very low in the
sky in winter the sunlight at midday travels the full 24' of the width
of the house heating up the floors and the back walls. In the summer
the sun is much higher in the sky so that the shutter boxes keep the
direct sunlight from shinning more than 1 ft. into the house. You don't
need the heat in the summertime.

When the sun is not shinning the extra needed heat is provided by a
wood stove in the kitchen (wood is stored up sunshine). The house is
so well insulated, and being set into the hill that the prevailing
north and NE winds blow right over the roof with very little heat loss.
Also as 3/4 of the surface of the house is below ground there is
minimal heat loss thru the ground. The ground temperature stays
constant 10 C all year round 8 ft. deep. During construction it was
decided to also install electric baseboard heating for emegency use and
times when the house would be vacant. Each baseboard unit is
individually thermostatic controlled. The only unit that has been used
in the last 5 yrs. is the one in my bedroom when the wind was from the
south west and the night temperature was -35C. On a normal winter
night -25C the extra wood fire goes out at 11PM and there is no extra
heat until 8AM, the temperature in the house has only dropped 3C - the
heat is being given up by the heat storage concrete. The normal use of
wood during the winter is 2 1/2 full cords.

The ventilation (which is necessary for healthy air exchange and the woodstove) is provided by two 6" ducts which start in a screened-in inlet housing 100 ft. south of the house, these duct are buried 5 ft. deep, have drainage holes, and in a bed of gravel for drainage. One of these ducts comes up under the wood stove, the other comes up at the east end of the central hall. Thus the cold
winter air coming into the house is preheated as it travels along this
duct and enters into the stove. The duct in the hall is closed for the
winter. There are basically no drafts in the house. There is a wind-
powered ventilaror (which runs year round) into the utility room which
also draws stale air out of the house. In the summer time additional
wind power ventilators in the kitchen and bathroom are turned on and if
the windows are kept closed these ventilators draw air out of the house
which is replaced by cool dry air coming thru the underground
ventilation ducts - thus air conditioning the house.

There is also a solar electric system which produces electricity
directly from the sun using silicon cells (similar to those used in a
solar powered hand calculator). This bank of solar cells are mounted at
the coorect angle on the roof, they are 4' x 8' and produce 15 amps at
14 volts of electricity which charge up a bank of lead/acid batteries
with a storage capacity of 300 anp-hours. There is also a wind powered
turbine generator which produces 300 watts of power in a 20 MPH wind.
This also charges the battery bank. Each room has a 12 volt high
efficiency 20 watt flourescent lights which is used in emergency for
the regular power system failure. There is a 800 watt inverter which
changes the stored 12 volt power into 110 volt 60 cycle power to run
the deep well water pump, and the deep freezer in the event of a power
failure.

The wood stove in the kitchen provides heat to all the rooms when the
sun is not shinning, it has a large top for food cooking, has a full
size oven, a storage tank at the end to heat up water for washing. Also
a compartment to store and dry the kindling starter wood. It has not
been necessary to cut down any alive growing trees in 9 years, as there
is enough fallen trees and trees cut down and damaged by the beavers.

The entrance vestibule serves as an air lock when entering the house in
the winter and is storage for 1/3 cord of wood for when the storms are
blowing. The rest of the winters supply of wood is stored in a wood
house with an open south side and holds 2 1/2 cords of wood. The
entrance vestibule has clear fiberglass walls on the top 4 ft. and then
is a small green-house for the summer time. The vestibule also stores a
shovel, and the door opens inward as there has been many times when a
large snow drift has blocked the entrance after a severe blizzard, and
it was necessary to shovel my way out. There is also emergency exits
built into the 4 large windows in case of fire.

The house is fire proof as the interior walls and drop ceiling are fire
proof gyprock and plaster. The cement walls are lime plastered. The
house has been designed to withstand a 200 MPH wind and an earthquake of 9 on the reichter scale.

As none of the north rooms have windows they are all provided with
solar tube style ceiling skylight which provide sunlight, the dining
room has a 4' x 6' mirror which reflects the outdoor trees and view of
the outdoors thru the south window in the living room. There is a large
picture of a japanese waterfall over the kitchen sink (I visited this
place and brought the mural photo back with me). The bathroom has
mirror on the north and south side. The third bedroom has a full 9' x
8' wall mural of a woods scene with 3 full size deer. These all serve
to break the clostraphobia effect of lack of windows. Most visitors
are very surprised at the large bright size of the house as they expect
something like the inside of a cave.

The water system is pumped from a drilled well 60' deep tapping into a
deep underground stream which comes from deep inside the earth, not
into the normal water table. There is an electric pump inside the well
pumping the water to a presure storage tank in the utility room. The
well is capable to produce 15 Gals. per minute of water continuous
(which is far more than I ever use). The toilet and wash water goes
into 1200 gal. septic tank where special bacteria change the solid
waste into safe grey water. This grey water is piped into a large
buried rock filled septic field that finally filters out and purifies
the water. We are very careful not to put anything into the septic
system to kill the good bacteria that are doing good work.

The house was built in 1995 and has been problem free.