[Tex]

We have hot Summers and mild Winters in my part of Texas. I plan to build super insulated and/or earth bermed. In order to provide enough electricity, I need to find a way around conventional air conditioning. It is too humid here for evaporative coolers. What are my options?

I will have large overhangs and clerestory windows for natural cooling when possible. I've considered digging a long trench and putting a duct in it to cool outside air(or recirculated air) before it reaches the house. I friend of mine set up a coil in the bottom of his stock tank for a heat exchanger. I'm still 10 years from building, since I don't want to drag my kids out of their schools. This house will be built for my retirement.(at least life after kids move out)

 

[Tex]

I like the missile silo homes. I don't want anything quite so big though.

My dad frames custom homes. In 1985, he framed the inside of an underground home. It was earth bermed, with only one wall exposed. The roof was two feet thick concrete with an opening for a clerestory window for passive cooling. The only structure visible from the street looked like an 8x12 storage building that housed the clerestory windows. It was about 2000 s.f. and cost about $130k to build in 1980s $.

The original owner sold the place to somebody who worked where I did about 10 years ago. I'm thinking I should look them up and ask them some questions.

I'm probably looking at building at least partially underground. I will keep that in mind when I start looking for land. I'm hoping to find some land that has no utilities ran to it. It should keep the price down when buying the land. I don't know if I want my solar panels visible from the street or not. I'll have to take that into consideration, as well as water table, wind data, and tree shading and wind blockage. I'm hoping to have the land mostly paid for before I sell my current home.

 

[Tex]

Dr. Prepared - I will use as much shade as possible without interfering with PV or wind electric production.
We had an evaporative cooler when we lived in New Mexico, and our highest electric bill was $35 in 1993.

BobS - I like the wind catcher idea, but a true windcatcher only is effective in dry climates. What do you guys think of a variation of the wind catcher, where air is forced through ductwork in the ground and out of the top of the house?

Or a system that can be switched to a closed system, where air goes from the house, through an underground duct and back into the other end of the house? A small air conditioner/heater can then fine tune the temperature and humidity once it is circulated through the ground for rough cooling. Here's a crude picture to explain it better.

I'm trying to avoid using water because pumping water uses a lot of energy. Blowing air is necessary anyway, so why not pre condition it by using the ground's constant temperature?

Am I missing something?

 

[Tex]

I was surfing the web and found "my idea" for cooling a house. It's called "earth tube cooling". They use a bunch of small PVC pipes to cool the air. They leave nylon ropes in the tubes to drag bleach soaked rags through the pipes periodically to clean them. You can put fans in the pipes or put a big fan at the manifold to force air through them. It's an unproven cooling method, but I think it would work.

Another idea is to install a concrete tunnel from one end of the house to the other. An air handler will pull air up from one end and distribute air through the house. The other end will have an opening with a ladder. The tunnel could double as a storage room and could be hidden and used as a "safe room".

The Monolithic Dome Institute has a process for building a tunnel that is much like their dome home building process. It can be sprayed in place and will have a flat floor and be at least 6 feet tall. It can be covered with dirt and the house's slab can be poured over it, leaving access openings at each end of the tunnel.

 

[Tex]

I like the solar chimney idea, but I think that pulling in outside air will lead to humidity and mold problems. That would have worked great when I lived in New Mexico. Earth tubes can be a closed system which will not add any moisture to the house. I think I won't be happy unless I can switch my air from "fresh" to "recirculate" like a car. Maybe I can do an Earth Tube/Solar Chimney Hybrid system.