|
| Roof W-E | = 2' 9" + 11" + 36' 8" + 11" + 2' 9" | = 44' 0" | |
| Roof S-N | = 3' 6" + 11" + 38' 8" + 11" + 14' | = 58' 0" | |
| Roof Area | = 44' 0" * 58' 0" | = 2,552 sq.ft. | |
| Yield/inch | = 2,552 * (1/12) * 90% * 7.5 gal/cu.ft. | = 1430 gal./inch | |
| Annual | = 1,430 gal./inch * 40" | = 57,200 gal./year | |
| Daily (40") | = 57,200 gal./year / 365 days/year | = 156 gal./day | |
| Daily (24") | = 2,552 * (24"/12") * 90% / 365 * 7.5 | = 94 gal./day |
Gutters, Downspouts
Roof Washer
Rain Water Filtering & Storage
Filter System
Storage
The dimensioning of our storage capacity was influenced by multiple factors.
Overflow & Fill 'er Up
As the above calculations showed, a single 2-3 inch rainfall can yield almost 4,000 gallons of water -- or about two-thirds or our storage capacity. So it is definitely thinkable and likely that we might have days where our cisterns are at capacity, at which point we better had thought of a way to divert the water (notwithstanding the option of taking some long showers or big bubble-baths).
At this point I have not completely thought through the best way. Maybe we'll put up some additional outside storage tanks under the deck to collect water for watering the garden. But ultimately we have to route the water away from the house (I don't think it would be good to flood our septic system).
The other extreme case (for the quality-inclined out there: I'm testing the boundary conditions ;-) is when to run completely out of water, which most likely would happen during the winter. E.g., if the last rainfall (that filled up our cisterns) was on December 6, we could run out of water by February 24, after 80 days, if we use an average of 75 gallons per day. To accomodate this scenario we need to add a "frost-free" filling pipe accessible from the outside (or, I was just thinking, maybe from within the garage). Then we can either get a milk or fire truck to bring some water or get one of those "truck bed tanks" to haul some water ourselves.
Washing & Drying
Electricity
Wind Energy
Solar Energy
Energy Storage
AC/DC - from DC to AC
Lighting
Entertaining
The Shelter
Minimal but yet Sufficient
We initially started our house design by trying to come up with a space-efficient design that still provides comfort. Although we haven't read her book, you could say that we designed a "not-so-big house". Interestingly enough I just found out in an interview, that Susan is originally from the other side of th Atlantic (Britain) and also resides in Minnesota. I'm sure she'd have a few tricks up her sleeve to improve on our design, but for now we're quite happy. Anyway, I digress.
We quickly settled on a 36 by 24 foot (10.8 x 7.2 meters) floorplan for the main floor that included the living/dining area, a bathroom, kitchen, pantry, and an extra room for an office/library. To minimize space (but without sacrificing comfort) we had intended to have the garage in the basement (I definitely wanted an attached garage from which you could enter the house [for those of you wondering whether that isn't the definition of an attached garage I should mention that my father and I added an attached garage to our house in Germany, and though a garage wall and a house wall are attached to each other, you still need to walk into the house from the outside). During our initial review of the floor plan with our General Contractor, Andy Bunge, he shared a story of how he had designed his house as well as a duplex he just built in 2003 to be handicap accessible, because "you never know". So we took Andy's advice and went through a fairly extensive re-design that made all doors on the main floor 3 feet wide, the bathroom big enough to have a five-foot radius between sink, toilet, and bathtub, and the garage moved to the mainfloor (increasing our main floor size from 36 by 24 to 36 by 38 (10.8 m x 11.4 m).
Actually to move the garage up to the main floor had its advantages: it eliminated the need for excavation, potential retaining walls (although with the landscape given, we could have made it work) and the risk of having water run into the garage. Secondly we now have a nice, warm, 14 foot buffer to the north side of the main living space (which also nixed any attempt to put in windows on the north side ;-) that shields us nicely from the cold and from the frosty north winds. Thirdly we were able to gain a few feet for the upstairs rooms, thus deflating the somewhat tight spaces. A fourth advantage is the added roof space of at least 575 sq.ft. that gives us a gallon of water more per day per each inch annual rainfall (40 gal/day for 40 in./year). And lastly, although somewhat unnecessary, it added a nice 480 sq.ft. to the basement, making enough room for the water tanks, the movie room, and room for a potential future music studio.
The Floorplan & Design
In the next paragraphs I'll try to describe our thinking behind the design of some of the rooms of our floor plan. The order in which things are described in here follows loosely the order in which the pictures are sorted in the corresponding photo album. Feel free to browse the pictures in parallel to reading the following paragraphs. Some descriptions might make more sense with the picture in mind.
Exterior Features
The first thing that most people notice (besides the somwehat dramatic deck design) is that the living/dining room is very open and spacious. Obviously this is a direct result from our primary heating source, passive solar energy. Our glazing on the south-side takes up 24 ft of the 36 feet wall. But we are also lucky to be able to build in a spot where we have almost absolute privacy and do not have to be concerned about "exposure" or living in a fish bowl. Obviously this design would work less well in "suburbia" unless one would employ curtains.
On the north side you'll notice a large (14 foot) overhang that serves as additional rain water collection surface, shelter for firewood, and is a drive-through for accessing the west-facing garage entrance (see next section).
You'll also notice the roof's overhang, shielding the siding from the elements and especially on the south side, providing sufficient shading in the summer time (when the sun stands high in the sky during the day) to avoid overheating of the heavily glazed living room.
The Garage
Another feature visible from the outside is the design of the "drive-through garage". This idea originated with the garage my father designed and built at their house in Germany. Albeit with the size of European cars, and the lack of space (my parents' fifth-of-an-acre lot on top of a landfill cost $100,000 in the mid 1970s...), my father could get by with an overall length of 8 or 9 meters (27-29.5 feet) and only one garage door; we played the "switching cars game" quite often. Originally we had only planned a "one car" garage which would have resulted in an L-shape floor plan. As I was "building" the walls in the 3D modeling program, however, I realized how unnecessarily complicated it would become to construct such a floorplan (including a much more complex roof line).Which then led me to the "drive-through" garage design with a door on either side.
For the time being we will use the garage for our pickup truck (which, according to our calculation uses approx. 30 mpg/per person since we mostly commute together at least 70% of the time) and for the tractor (a Kubota BX2230 - highly recommended). But the garage, at a length of 36' 8" (11.2 m), is now actually big enough for the truck plus a mid-size sedan.
No Traditional Entrance Door
The Garage also serves as our personal main entrance door, thus eliminating an often unused feature of houses, where most people enter the house through the backdoor. Besides the two garage doors on the east and west side, we added a regular door on the north side, a little off-center. This door will serve as a back-up entry and mainly in the winter as an access door to carry the firew wood inside from the north roof-overhang.
With a 2,000 ft (610 m) driveway that climbs about 300 feet (90 m), we're unlikely
Some of the more or less intentional unique design concepts include:
Design Challenges
The biggest design challenge was to fit in the stairs from main floor to the basement. The stairs