Our First Solar Home

Earthloving

Solar Improvements For Any Home

As of early October, the plans for Bill and Andree's passive solar home are being drawn up by an architect/friend of ours. As soon as the plans are completed they will be posted here.

In the meantime I am experimenting with passive solar collectors that anyone can build and add to their existing home. I have a home in Battle Mountain that I am experimenting with. I will be using the results of these experiments to make the best decisions in building my new home in Sage Valley. These experiments will be explained in detail below.

I feel that there are a few baseline ideas that are essential to any solar home. A few of the central concepts of our new home in Sage Valley are:

1) Insulation. We are looking at R-40 + in the walls and R-60 + in the ceiling. INSULATION is the key to any passive solar home.

2) Window shutters. Having shutters on all the windows with an R value of 20 or more is esssential. Huge amounts of heat go out through your windows every night. Sooner or later Americans are going to start to install shutters on their houses. It takes a few minutes every morning and evening to open and close the shutters but the payback in energy savings is huge.

3) Partially in the earth. The temperature of the soil is between 50 and 55 degrees year around. So if your home is partially in the earth you can take advantage of this for summer cooling and winter warming.

4) Winter hibernation. The house is designed to have a central space to live in during the coldest time of year to minimize the amount of heat needed in the winter. I would estimate that 50% of the rooms heated in America are not used. Our home is designed with a central kitchen, bath, dining and bedroom where we will be comfortable in the winter. The other rooms will only be heated as necessary in the winter but will be fully used the rest of the year.

A website with a wealth of information about Solar Power is:

http://whitebuffalonation.tripod.com

_____________________________

Welcome to the

ZSUNGINEERING

Clubhouse.

The three zsungineers from

Battle Mountain, Nevada

welcome you to come and play with us.

We are developing the newest home passive solar heating ideas from the cheapest materials in the Home Depot for anyone to move the sun's heat from outside their home to inside their home.

The first of these ideas are presented in our revolutionary ZSUNPOWER series of products. The ideas are posted here for your to try and to improve on. Please let us know what kind of results you have had and any suggestions you may have for improvements.

The First is the Amazing

ZSUNPOWER HP- 1

intergalatic

mind boggling

anti gravity

passive solar heating module

The following photos and text will enable you to transform your home from a

20th Century Oil Guzzling Dinasour

INTO

A SOLAR ASSISTED

NEW AGE

BEAUTY

((when the sun is shining))

Just wait till you feel the thrill of

that first stream of

FREE

110 degree hot air flowing into your home from the ZSUNPOWER HP-1.

(HP = House Panel)

1) First locate the south wall of your home and determine that you have adequate sunshine there. If not you will need the ZSUNPOWER HP-2 model which is under development in our highly secret underground testing laboratory. Check back for details once we have our patent rights established in China. (Ha Ha)

2) Determine the size available and visit your local Home Despot for the necessary materials.

3) Make upper and lower angle boards from 2x4's and 2x6's.

4) Mount these to your outside wall horizontally about 8 feet apart.

5) Fill in the two ends

6) Frame in any windows etc.

7) Add 2x4's at 2 feet on center to support the clear polycarbonate panels.

8) Paint the whole thing a dark color

9) Add vertical boards to make air chambers to pull down the hot air to the bottom of the ZSUNPOWER HP-1 where it is blown into your home by a fan.

10) Install a fan thermostat that will turn on the fan any time the temperature at the top of the ZSUNPOWER HP-1 is over 90 degrees ferenheit.

11) Cut a hole in your wall and install the fan.

12) Install the polycarbonate panels.

13) Turn on the fan and bask in the warmth introduced to your home by the ZSUNPOWER HP-1.

14) Say a prayer of gratitude to the Great Mystery for the gift of your life in this physical dimension and for the sunlight that is now warming your home.

__________________________________________

So what the

*"bleep"*

are Santa's little elves up to now?

It looks like they have made a quick trip to

the La Brea Tar Pits

and recovered some

intestinal matter from

a protozoic mamalian reptile.

And due to the sheer genius of the boys at the

ZSUNGINEERING CLUBHOUSE

they have succeeded in creating the

ZSUNPOWER WP-1

solar collector using water as the heat transfer mechanism. If you can't get to your local Tar Pits, similar materials are available from your hardware supply and you will be on your way to heating your water with the power of the sun. The completion of this outstanding revolutionary product will be posted here shortly.

(WP = Water Panel)

________________________________

Stay tuned

for more News from Battle Mountain, Nevada.

Rumor has it that the

CLUBHOUSE

is smoking with ideas about the

ZSUNPOWER 3S-1

easy to install

Solar Shutter System.

(3S = ???)

The boys are thinkin that once we get this wonderful heat into the CLUBHOUSE, why should we just let it flow out through the windows

like poop through a goose??

We have made several experiments and we are closing in on a simplistic design that will slide into your existing window frames, make a nice seal, and be removable as soon as the weather warms up.

HUGE AMOUNTS

of the heat we use to warm our homes flows out through the windows. Thermopane Windows are only a small bit better than regular glass and no match for any kind of insulating material.

As the price of heating fuels continues to rise, it is simply a matter of time before shutter systems become common in homes around the earth.

Peace

and

Blessings

from the

THREE ZSUNGINEERS

Scott and Josh holding a solar shutter

with a water panel in front

and a house panel behind

The solar shutter is simply two layers of thin plywood or hardboard that have a layer of foam insulation between them. The seal between the shutter system and the window frame is accomplished with foam water pipe insulation.

A close up view. 1x2 pine furring strips make the spacers to hold the sheets of plywood or hardboard apart. These spacers are set into the plywood deep enough to give a cavity to hold the foam insulation.

The basic materials for the shutter system are thin plywood or hardboard, 1x2 pine furring strips, 1 1/2 inch foam insulation and foam pipe insulation. These are all readily available from your Home Depot.

The circular pipe foam is located on three sides: left, right and bottom. It takes a bit of trial and error to get the correct spacing for the left and right 1x2 furring strips. The width of these two strips determines the tightness of the fit of the shutter system. The height of the system is determined by the amount of light you want in the room. In the winter you can cut back the light coming into many of your unused rooms or partially used rooms.

Thank you for visiting this website.

May your footsteps be prayers!