Syracuse House Project Description
Designing a solar home in Syracuse, New York, known for its very cold winters and overcast skies was a real challenge. The Syracuse House became a testing ground for some radical technologies that proved very successful. This 1800 square foot home has a solar green house along the entire south side that all the rooms open to. The solar greenhouse collects enough solar energy during the day to heat the house. Heat is stored in phase change thermal storage tubes built in to the wall between the living space and the green house. The tubes collect the heat during the day and release it at night. The large solar greenhouse glass wall is insulated at night with a Bead Wall System. The south window wall is two layers of glass spaced 3 ½ inches apart. At night, Styrofoam beads are blown into the cavity between the glass, insulating the wall to about R13. In the morning when the sun comes out, a vacuum pump pulls the beads out of the wall and back into a storage box in the attic. Cooling is provided by earth tubes that cool the ventilation air as it flows through tubes buried in the ground. John Spears was pushing the envelope when he designed this home in 1980 but many of the principals he used still apply today.
|
