Man Heats 4,000 Sq. Ft Home for Just $2.50 Per Day

[sparky]

Why spend lots of money heating your house when nature can do it for you? Upstate New York resident John Kosmer has taken passive solar to a new level in his home, which only costs $2.50 a day to heat. That’s less than $1,000 a year of heating expenses in an area of the country that gets mauled with snow multiple times a year.

Kosmer worked with Building With Integrity and Adirondack Alternative Energy to construct his passive solar house. Four-inch thick rigid polyurethane is installed on the exterior walls and under the roof, while pre-finished concrete siding covers the exterior of the home.

But the real key to Kosmer’s low heating costs is his windows. 53 vinyl-framed Simonton windows are strategically placed throughout the house, letting sunlight into the white interior of the structure.

A wood stove also rises multiple stories into the atrium, where heated air is carried up into grilles in the attic ductwork. The air is then redistributed throughout the house, which stays at a temperature of 68 degrees.

A project of this magnitude may be out of your reach if you live in a 100 year-old poorly-insulated home, but it’s worth considering if you’re on the hunt for a new house.

Solar House, Solar Home, Solar Homes, Solar Houses

[screener]

Better, and better placed, windows and insulation in an older home would be way more cost effective than building a new home, and have a lesser impact on your footprint. Even the strategic placement of massive solar heat storage in an older home is not impossible.

That said, if one has to build a new house I'm glad that some like this are being built.

[include]

Interesting post Sparky. How feasible is this in existing homes?

[screener]

Take it from someone who has built the worlds most inefficient solar collector, every little bit helps. The main things are insulation levels that keep the heat in, and solar access. I really like the ducted heat storage as shown in the passive solar link at the bottom of the article.

Any home can be re-insulated, windows can be installed for the best solar gain,and if you can be confident of the footings a massive, ie concrete, brick, or stone wall can be added to absorb extra heat during the day. installing the ductwork as you go.

If you are starting out homeless and are considering buying a home, look for one with good solar exposure. depending on your latitude. and the surrounding land forms. In some houses an east or west orientation might give the best sunshine.

[brianidaho]

He does have a wood stove, I wonder how much that factors into the equation? And if the cost of firewood is figured in. I live in a similar climate, and even without a specific passive solar design run a lower heating cost than that...not counting the cost of wood. Not sure how much magic is really involved.

[guppyman]

Interesting story and concept. Thanks for the sharing.

[Peter Bankss]

That's a great source of information shared. I thnk such information should be widelly spread so more and more people can make use of it.

Peter Bankss
Save Our Planet

[Anne Karine]

I know someone who partially heats their antique store with homemade solar panels made from crushed aluminum cans which are painted black, and held in a see-through container that is bolted to the outside of the building. Strange, but true.
Green Vaccine

[Green Jayhawk]

This is a good post thanks for sharing. Ideas like this are really good and I think people would buy into ideas like this if they only knew about them, instead of settling for standard windows and insulation options in their homes.