| I have in mind a certain house I'd like to live in. How I envision the operational details of this Bright Idea Home might help you envision it too. All kinds of thermal systems now available can be mixed and matched, but what I describe here is just my quirky way of working it all out. As new and better systems come along, or features that enhance a system, the flexibility of the Bright Idea Greenhouse Cap system will most likely allow you to integrate it. I like the idea of a wind scoop and blower system with below house thermal mass storage.
BRIGHT IDEA HOME ONE-HOUR WINTERIZING/SUMMERIZING
WINTERIZING
When it stays cool during the day, just remove, fold, and store the sheets. If you live in a zone of weather extremes, you can increase the insulation in the Cap as much as you want. You can cover the skylights with White-sheeting: white/light colored blankets, panels or batts of real insulation and nothing will blow away because you've closed the windows and the outer fan vents, creating an insulating dead-air space under the Greenhouse Cap.
Switch the wind scoop vent from blowing outside air into the house to sucking in hot air from the Cap and blowing it into the house. Also close the high-on-the-interior-walls cool air vents in the house. Cold air is collected from the rooms through vents at wall bottoms and routed back to the storage area, picking up heat stored in the stones during the day and traveling by ducts to every part of the home.
A very small vent to outside air can be opened in the main duct coming from the storage area to mix fresh air (if necessary) with warm/hot air coming from the storage area. Open the warm air vents at the bottoms of the room walls to allow the warm air from the thermal mass storage to rise into the house. If the warm air vents are located on walls opposite those containing the cool air vent collectors, then the warm air rises one one side of the room and cool air sinks on the other side producing air circulation without much mixing.
On winter mornings after the Greenhouse Cap air is warmed by the sun and a threshold temperature is reached (this will happen even on cloudy days), the Cap ridge blower is activated which collects and sends this warm air directly into the home through the flexibly vented wind scoop (now closed to the outside but opened between Cap and house). After the home is warm enough, the vent switches the air to the thermal storage, auto switching back and forth during the day. Most of these processes can be done by thermostat and auto controls, but having a manual over-ride is recommended.
If the Greenhouse Cap gets too hot, its ridge vents to outside can also be set to open automatically. This may happen to protect plants or people from heat stroke on the roof. But it should be remembered that if plants are a priority in the Cap, then thermal efficiency will go way down. The best use of the Cap in winter is for collecting solar heat, but that kind of serious heat will kill real plants. Instead put your plants in a sunroom or traditional greenhouse. Use the Greenhouse Cap space for photo-voltaic panels instead.
On winter evenings when the sun goes down and the Cap temperature drops below threshold, the Cap vents to the house (via wind scoop) are closed and all air is routed through the thermal mass storage. The heated air is blown up, and the small fresh air vent will open, sending fresh warm air into the home.
SUMMERIZING
When warm weather comes back, take another hour to summerize your home. Switch necessary control settings. Take up any insulation under the Cap and store it, then take the White-sheeting out of storage and arrange them over Cap floor and some or all skylights. Open the large gable Cap windows. Open the wind scoop vent and blow fresh breezes through the home.
At night after sundown, cool outside air flowing through the Greenhouse Cap is vented and blown down to the high-on-the-wall cool air vents until the house is cool enough, then it is routed through the thermal storage rocks under the house to save cool temperatures to be used to combat the following day's heat.
If residual daytime heat collected by the mass of the house itself causes the house air temperature to get too warm again at night, the system should switch the outside air back into the house.
The next morning when the house air reaches threshold temperature, the vents switch and the collected room air is blown through the now cold rocks in thermal storage, and then back to the upper wall registers for use in cooling the home.
That's it. Now I'm going to go read up on the latest in green design and technology! |
