Thermal House
My masters program at RPI in 1981 and 1982 dealt with architecture as part of the natural environment. One aspect of this design methodology is planning a building's relationship to the sun. Skipping discussion of some obvious other features, such as the silo in the living room, this house is the third in a sequence committed to solar energy as a primary part of the heating system. It faces due south across a gently sloping lawn. The south windows, the two-inch-thick Chinese slate floor, and snow on the sloping lawn are critical parts in a system that heats the entire house, even on mildly overcast January and February days.
I purposely visited the house several years ago when we had a 104-degree day. The slate and the one foot of concrete below it, not to mention the whole concrete back wall of the house, absorbed heat well enough to avoid air conditioning with the living room at 80 degrees.
By the way, the house is mostly framed with the salvaged parts of barns existing on the property. The silo in the living room contains a spiral stair to the second floor. It is the reddish vertical-board feature in the first photo.
Current Projects
Spider Graphics
Juglans Nigra
Main Street Renovation
Xuxles
Completed Projects
Rocket Project
Green Hills House
Thermal House
BioHouse
EcoVillage
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Don Ellis
Trumansburg, New York, US
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Last update November 16, 2005