Brainstorm - a tutorial of sorts to be read in the following order | |
Concept Homes and Concept Building are fostering a growing discussion among reform minded experts in the architect/builder community. These people have come together to tackle the problem of ignorance and fragmentation concerning "green" (environmental-sustainability-building psychology) issues. One of the key elements now needed, according to some of these experts, is green design that will appeal to the masses living in suburbia. If the suburbanites don't go for it, it's a lost cause.
The problem here is that people have a very powerful image in their brains about the houses they want to live in. They may not be able to express the details or the reasons, but the evidence is overwhelming that most people prefer vernacular houses. It is the house "alphabet" they know and are comfortable with and, yes, even love.
The pre-eminent symbol for a house, is two walls and a roof. Outside the dry parts of the world, the vernacular is a pitched roof. The typical suburban American goes for a pitched roof home. How do I know? Look at suburbia (not including the desert southwest). Do you see flat roofed homes? Compared to the number of pitched-roofs, probably very, very few.
So unless green design can come up with an efficient, economical, and aesthetic pitched roof innovation, suburbia is not going to buy it. If we can combine the long-term local and global economic necessity for green building with a relatively low cost solution, while satisfying individual desire to live by aesthetic and vernacular design, we can solve the problem.
My Story
First of all, know this: I am not selling anything except an idea, because I think it is a good idea and will help solve the problem. I personally know builders and architects, my lifelong hobby being home design. I have lived in many different
homes, 26 to be exact, all for more than two months. My 3rd through 8th
homes were in Berkeley, California, in the 60's. My only credentials as
an environmentalist are that I was tear-gassed by the Oakland Riot
Squad while protesting to stop the destruction of "People's Park." I
always thought we needed to green the city, but my eyes were just recently opened by
hearing Andres Duany speak on this topic. (clik Link tab and go to
Green Building: the Not So Big New Urbanism at the bottom)
I know what I like. When I first walked into my present home I knew that it was where I wanted to live. We've been here now for 11 years, I think. The living room has a big round skylight. I never want to move again.
Many almost subliminal factors affect our feelings toward the spaces we call home. Air movement is important. The second you feel a temperate breeze you know that you were missing it before. Light is also important in a home. Realtors know that if a home is dark it won't easily sell. Daylight is what is different about being outdoors. You can have a room full of plants, but without daylight it's just a laboratory experiment.
I want to emphasize the psychological/physiological importance of light. Many people will put up with a lack of light because it's so intangible, and therefore seems unimportant and not worth the cost of a solution. In my estimation, unless you have mold covering your walls or radon leaking into your living area or three feet of Mississippi mud on the first floor, a lack of light in your home can depress you more than just about any other home flaw.
Browsing through the photo gallery of one of the nation's top skylight manufacturers, I was thrilled to see many rooms alive with light, but on the other hand,
many had skylights that were too small for their rooms, too high, or
facing the wrong way. (see photo album:
Insufficient skylights) You want light, but not just as a feature and
not with glare. The big reason people do not install large skylights is
that sky lights are a notorious heat gain/loss factor and therefore in
many cases not money-wise. They will always be an enemy of your heating
or cooling system. So why do people install them? Look at them. They
nourish your soul with light.
Did you know that light is eternal; that it exists outside
of time? That time does not exist for something going the speed of
light? Scientific fact. It's beyond just physics; it touches us in some
deep way. They don't call it enlightenment for nothing. Some say that
light is our true home. I think they may have something there. And it's
common knowledge that without enough daylight, many people suffer
depression. Doctors treat it with light. (See photo album: Bright Idea
Homes see the light!)
Welcome to Bright Idea Homes
Large skylights are an integral feature of the Bright Idea Home. Using new materials and a new building feature, the
homeowner can easily
insulate them in winter, and shade them in summer. This is
possible due to the new building feature- the Greenhouse Cap.
You might wonder why we need this revolutionary new
building idea when all we need for more light is skylights made by
Kalwall (see Links: It's here! Translucent thermal panels). But the
Greenhouse Cap is more than just a light collector. It is the
centerpiece of an integrated thermal control system for the home,
allowing collection and distribution of heat in winter as well as heat
dissipation and almost zero-cost skylight shading in summer.
Kalwall does offer a lot, but it sacrifices clear view --permanently.
In some situations Kalwall may be more desirable than clear skylights,
as in over computer/media areas of your home. However,
if skyview is more important than maximal thermal
insulation, then Kalwall has unacceptable constraints in some home
areas. For example, only a clear skylight will give you a view of the
stars over your bed or allow the relaxing pastime of cloud-watching
from your favorite chair or your bathtub. The home designer will choose
where to place what.
The key new concept in Bright Idea Homes is the Greenhouse Cap. This
unusual departure from a standard building element, namely the roof
system, allows a heretofore impossible breakthrough in cost benefits,
aesthetics
and comfort. Choose where to place large clear and/or translucent
skylights over every room, knowing that the Greenhouse Cap will allow
them to be shaded or insulated whenever necessary while it shades your roof in summer or heats your home in winter.
My presentation on this site is purely heuristic. Edgar
Zilsel, historian and philosopher of science, said, "...even vague and
dubious assertions can render good services to empirical research as a
heuristic stimulus." Though I speak of Bright Idea Homes as though they
existed in the physical world, they are presently only found in my
head. But my thoughts may lead someone to test whether my assertions
are dubious or not.
Let me list the benefits of a Bright Idea Home:
- Range of materials to fit every budget
- Lowers or removes fuel bills
- Efficient innovative methods raise property values
- Wraps interiors in natural daylight
- Lo-tech, easily replaceable parts of the thermal system
- Works by itself or with other green systems, i.e. grey water, photo-voltaic, compost toilet, wind power, etc
- Non-toxic and earth-friendly materials
- Can enhance any home style in any neighborhood.
- Builders can offer buyer choice in skylight placement and green systems
The
photos below
are not meant to suggest they show Bright Idea Homes, because to my
knowledge none have yet been built. They are beautiful skylight
scenes and show what a difference large or multiple skylights can make - plain, fancy, or
in-between. To see some examples of the Greenhouse Cap, go to the article: The
Greenhouse Cap
   
Someone might ask why I call it a Greenhouse Cap when the cap doesn't go on the greenhouse and the greenhouse isn't really a greenhouse with plants. I call it that because the house itself, with green systems incorporated, is a "GREEN" house, and the glass enclosure which tops it, although looking like a greenhouse, is really like a baseball cap for your house. A baseball cap keeps your head warm in winter and shaded in summer. The Greenhouse Cap does the same for your house and more.
Then you might ask, "But how can a greenhouse and lots of big skylights keep my house warm and cool?" Here is how it works.
Not just a greenhouse on a flat roof, the revolutionary Greenhouse Cap integrates with the whole house green thermal system which can incorporate simple, economical active and passive elements such as sunroom/greenhouse, outside window shades, wrap-around porches that are deeper on east and west, glazing, coverable skylights, ducts, windscoop, thermostat-controlled plus manual over-ride vent system, airlocks, blowers, ideally connected with trombe-type above and thermal mass storage below the house, and last, but by no means least (now don't laugh)--lots of old white bedsheets or tablecloths! Why large white flexible things like sheets/tablecloths/curtains? Read on.
The impact of a Bright Idea Home has to be seen and felt. Not only does the Greenhouse Cap provide the key to mitigate traditional problems like thermal storage and loss, but it allows flexible use of all kinds of deck or curb mounted skylights,
and prevents damage due to skylight leakage. Beyond that, the
Greenhouse Cap mimics the vernacular pitched roof of your favorite home
style. It can incorporate traditional and modern at the same time.
(See: New Millenium under photo albums)
Do you know how much people crave natural light? With new glazing technologies skylights have become a must-have item. If you could prevent most heat loss or gain through skylights as well as prevent the unwanted and damaging UV radiation of direct sunlight and especially prevent water leaks,
you would make your whole roof a skylight, wouldn't you? Now you can -
almost. A whole room ceiling can be a skylight except for a narrow
perimeter walkway for seasonal skylight covering/uncovering from the
roof.
All new homes can be built this way. But what about existing homes? If it is possible for a particular flat roof home to adopt green systems, it should also have a Greenhouse Cap. Flat roof homes have less trouble adapting to the Bright Idea than pitched roof homes. Just install as many skylights as you want and Cap it. You will also need stairs or a stair ladder to the roof and an airlock at the top of the access stairs would help. If the roof serves also as a mild weather sun room the Cap's knee wall of glass can be any height and reflective or dark for privacy.
However, in addition to this building process for a flat roof home, a retrofit on a pitched roof home entails removing the pitched roof in order to exchange it for the Cap. On large homes, this would be a very costly thing to do. However, it is not mandatory by any means to change all of a large roof. An analysis could determine which part of the roof would be best to remove -considerations such as cost, stair access, orientation, shade from the rest of the roof area, areas most benefiting from skylights, etc. Perhaps just part of one wing of a large home would provide enough area to substantially increase the cost effectiveness of a Bright Idea thermal system with Greenhouse Cap.
Pictures
below show the design flexibility of the Greenhouse Cap concept. See
the photo albums for details, or check out (if you have Internet
Explorer) the Link to My Favorite Online Design Program in order to 3D
walk through each design.
To solve the mystery of the bed sheets go to What About the Bed Sheets?
  
Most
temperate climate roofs are a lot darker than white, and the darker they are the more heat they collect. In summer this is either expelled from the attic or
somehow prevented from entering the living areas. Insulation is usually
the solution for the attic floor, walls, and roof just as thermal
windows are the normal solution in the living area to prevent heat loss or
gain.
But it is cheaper and more efficient to stop the heat from
entering or leaving the house in the first place. Heat gain is why
outdoor
window shades were invented at some primitive time. Heat loss is why
thermal windows were invented much later. That's what's great
about the Greenhouse Cap. It allows us to return to the beauty of cheap
and low-tech where the sun shines most - on the roof. Unsophistication
is beautiful!
This also explains the "bedsheets" -- what I call White-sheeting. They are summer flooring of any suitable material for the Cap, to prevent the actual floor of dark concrete pavers (tar might stick and black tile might be slippery) from absorbing the summer heat. White-sheeting is also used and can be especially beautiful on the skylights in summer, reflecting direct sunlight and turning it into a glowing translucence viewed from inside the home. (see photos below) In not-so-hot climates you could use light pastel colors to
co-ordinate with the color scheme in the room below, or if you live in
Scandinavia you might completely leave them off in summer and watch the
clouds instead.
Since any white translucent covers prevent the sun's heat from being absorbed by
the floor they rest on, this makes it possible to have a Cap floor
of totally black dense material, like pavers, for heat
gain during winter when uncovered. Before
now, on the outside of your house, you couldn't practically use sheets or curtains because they would only last maybe
two summers plus they would flap and shred or blow away. The Greenhouse Cap prevents this. Before the concepts of White-sheeting in a Greenhouse Cap, you
could never economically take year around thermal advantage of a black roof and
skylights. Now you can -- winter and summer.
The Greenhouse Cap, adequately weather-sealed in winter, can keep your home warm. Dead air space insulates, and that is what the Cap becomes in winter, a giant thermal window to the sky. In summer, with it's gable windows/ridge vents open and the White-sheeting spread, it can keep your house cool.
The quick winterizing process is as follows: the Cap's outside vents and windows are closed and the White-sheeting is removed from floors and skylights, turning the floor into an instant horizontal trombe surface,
storing heat to use after sundown. In winter, the sunlight comes in the
skylights at a low angle, preventing glare and hot spots, but allowing
magnificent views of the changing sky overhead.
During winter sun hours the uncovered
skylights allow heat gain in the Cap to enter the home while extra heat in
the Cap is blown directly into the home or to the thermal storage
under the home, which is then vented into the home after
sundown. At night the only air movement is from the underhouse thermal
storage into the house. The Cap is a tightly closed air space all night, blanketing
the house.
Normally, enough heat would be
given off at night from thermal mass storage to keep the home
comfortable without covering the skylights. But in the event of a
severe winter
storm with extreme low temperatures, the skylights could be
temporarily insulated with a minimum of work by throwing old blankets
over them (if you're a Luddite). You see, there is a reason for the existence of old
blankets! If
you are instead a techie, then thin insulating panels of White-sheeting, like Kalwall, can be
engineered to fold and latch over the sky lights, even at the push of a button (if you are a techie), like an automatic pool cover.
This Bright Idea thermal system of Greenhouse Cap plus White-sheeting will prove so efficient, that you will be able to enjoy your clear skylights all year round. (By the way, in a flat roof they are much easier to clean from below. Have you ever tried cleaning the inside of a skylight set in a pitched roof ten feet over your head?) The system is lo-tech and flexible, and if you were prepared and needed to get warmer in a cold snap, you could quickly add "old blanket" back-up insulation material to the Cap skylights. Or fire up the old wood-burner.
The
summerizing process goes like this: remove and store any insulating materials
from the Greenhouse Cap floor and skylights. Take your White-sheeting from storage and spread over
your dark roof. You can do the same or not for individual skylights.
Your choice. Even if the Cap end windows are wide open, small clips
on the corners of the sheets would keep them from moving or blowing away. Or you could use grommeted
sheets of some material. Those are lo-tech! Just make sure
they are very light colored and you can see the amount of light you desire through them.
In the hot days of summer when the sun is pouring down on
your house, your skylights will glow with light without letting in
heat. The
Greenhouse Cap allows a pleasant return to a simpler,
much more economical way to keep a home cool and at the
same time full of light in summer, while most of the
winter
it creates warmth, and remains light-filled.
Except for the hottest months
you will have gorgeous clear sky views. As a matter of fact,
it's probably the only reasonable way to accomplish this. Otherwise it
would have been tried before now. Skylights increase our interaction with the changing seasons and allow us to receive daily the soul-restoring influence of natural beauty -- always overhead, but often unnoticed.
The album of Bright Idea Home model views under
the Photos tab at top will give you some ideas of what a completed home
might look like.
The Greenhouse Cap idea can fit itself to just about any home design or
style. I will be designing more models as time allows. I think
they are very elegant and interesting, but then, I'm prejudiced. Tell
me what you think by leaving a message here (buttons below), or you can post under the Posts tab at top.
For
more details on seasonal preparations with a lo-tech Bright Idea
thermal system, go to "Seasonal Details" under the Posts tab. And don't forget to go to the Links tab for the opportunity online to walk-through these same Bright Idea designs in 3D and operate some of the doors, windows, drawers, and even
watch the fish float. You can also use my designs as templates to make
your own! The LINKS tab will give all the details under Favorite Online Design Program (near the bottom). Have fun!
  
As I said before, I am describing this concept of a green design thermal system for home building because I have nothing to sell. I just want people to test it, see if it works as I describe, and use it in home design. I am not in a financial position to build any scale prototype. But I would love to hear from anyone who is interested or knows someone who might be interested in trying out this Bright Idea Home idea. (clik Market tab)
There are no patents or copyrights - just the free exchange of information and ideas. Isn't that what the internet is for? Keep me posted. I'd love to watch my baby grow up.
It's not enough to do it yourself. The suburban monolith must change its values, be re educated, be wooed. The focus should be to promote green values in the media and education in conjunction with offering the attraction of vernacular design incorporating all green values. You want, ultimately, communities of diversity united by the common values of private ownership, public common lands, sustainability, and 3E (ergonomic/ecologic/economic) living.
The work has now been done to envision, plan, and in increasing cases, realize green communities. However, these often still smack of the segregated commune idea. Suburbanites of every color, size, and density must be reached through government incentives well-presented. Otherwise, it ain't gonna happen.
Simple cost facts and figures on an individual level comparing green and non-green
living coupled with a visual display of the best that current green-built has to offer,
in various styles including the vernacular, is a necessary educational strategy needing to be carried out early and everywhere - with most funding for the high-schoolers, the immediate home-builders of tomorrow.
But we should not overlook the aging generation looking for a smaller empty-nester. This is a vastly under-rated market for green because these folk were not raised green or educated green and might not even know what green is. They might think it's political. We need articles in retirement magazines and seminars in churches, supermarket handouts for community presentations, ads in local publications.
All this takes time and energy. Be in contact with local greens, if any. Have green people donate facilities and minimal budget for a pool party for a day and invite all the teen-agers who voluntarily handed out your leaflets at supermarkets and took your meeting announcements to churches and schools. To get the teens to do this, go to churches and schools, and post (with permission) "Wanted: Green Human" posters. Build a list of volunteers ready to be called on. When the time comes, send them forth with the promise of a pool or beach party, or reasonable equivalent, dangling before their eyes.
Attend civic functions and collar the leaders to host presentations in their homes; make it fun and relaxing. Bring food. Have a picnic/ BBQ/ street party (no loud music unless the neighbors OK it). Tell the hosts they have a responsibility to set an example of community and informed decision-making. Make sure they understand you are not selling anything. Offer to help. Most importantly, be prepared with your presentation or get someone who does it well. A good presentation on CD is better than a poor one in person.
Can anyone get Andres Duany to make such a CD? He's smart enough to know how to talk to a green-illiterate audience, and he's definitely green. Watch him give a fabulous talk along with Susan (NotSoBig) Suzanka. I stayed up until 6 in the morning watching this 3 hour online video. It is that good. This particular talk does have some technical terminology, so be warned. (Link info for this video is given under the Links tab (bottom of page).
Answer questions at presentations. If you don't know the answer, say you don't know, but you will try to find the answer. Questions indicate interest. Get the person's contact info and tell them you will call them when you find the answer. Then do it. Spend time to encourage them, offer source links, whatever. Don't wait for a donor to fund a glossy publication or idea-book. Make your own. Search the web for good, clear presentation material. Create a document and insert economically appropriate web photos illustrating various solutions overcoming all the problems that green addresses. Or, another approach is to download your favorite photos (if you like them, others might too) and build a presentation around them. Include a link to your favorite, educational fun green websites. Print this material out and put it in a large album with sleeved pages. Use it after your presentation to let people look through. Include photos of vaguely local-vernacular-looking homes so they are not frightened. [WARNING! Advertisement follows!] I would show them some of my notsobig, economical, Bright Idea Homes with green thermal systems and, specifically my innovative and integrating system called the Greenhouse Cap. (see doc : The Greenhouse Cap).
The Greenhouse Cap homes have the best of both worlds, flat roof space and pitched roofs over the exact same area. Suburbanites love pitched roofs and techies love places to put their solar panels.
Who is not being reached with the green message? Find them and tailor an educational strategy to reach them. Use visuals whenever possible. Convert the pre-fab and panelized builders through subsidized design training seminars for their stable of designers. Evaluate their green strength and enhance it, encouraging what green they lack. Explain to all builders the desirability of hiring green sub-contractors. Hold seminars for sub-contractors, who should know green anyway, but offer a seminar or home group to initiate the uninformed. They don't really want to be left behind. Make it painless.
Canvass localities to access the green knowledge of sub-contractors and any green
strengths they may have and put the green-leaners in a local directory. Make it available to all local builders. Include in it a clear and simple and brief introduction explaining the emerging importance of green building to the consumer and the resale market. Let them see that green-educated generations are coming up who will prefer not to build or buy non-green.
With our bad building habits, we are turning our planet into a junk yard adversely affecting our health. The next step is to promote top/mid/bottom understanding that green comes only through sustainability and values-guided concept design. Use websites, blogs, off or online mags. Take it to the streets. Initiate community discussions.
Look for inner-city projects that have potential for cost-effective greening. Talk to the people who pay the thermal bills, preferably the residents, if they have an organization. If not, one can be started. Start small and build on your success.
Create a baby-step list of quickly effective green strategies that are cheap and easy to implement. One of the most instantly financialy rewarding is to get removable, storable, light-weight, manually operated see-through solar shades over east and west balcony windows. Bamboo or plastic roll blinds do a credible job for a few years. At this stage we are looking for instant gratification, not long-term investment. Do a simple before and after study on unit thermal costs. Talk to whoever pays the AC/heat bills.
Get a group together and advertize free consulting to lower heat/AC costs. Promote
winners of regular improvement contests; publish how they did it. Put their photo in the article. Put it on the web or the local community newsletter or newspaper. Buy badges with a professional logo to wear when you go consulting. Dress nice but casual. Take tools with you to measure stuff. Take a compass to note the orientation. Take a picture book of green stategies. Make appointments so people have time to sit down with you and learn as they look at pictures. Choose the photos carefully and create books tailored to the income bracket of the utility bill payer of the property in question, which may not necessarily be who owns it or lives in it. Females go in pairs - it's the security, stupid.
That's enough brain-storming for one morning. More later.
We are post-modern Johnny Appleseeds.
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