jen's everyday blog

Environmental Ideas

I’ve just come back from 2 and 1/2 days of intense environmental action, and my head is bursting with ideas. It feel great! I need to start updating my website asap! One of the things that really blew my mind was a talk by a woman who, with her husband, had built a house in Ontario that did not require heating. You read that right- they do not heat their house, and the temperature inside dips to no lower than 15 degrees celsius, even when the weather outside goes to -30 degrees.

They are using a technology or concept I have know about for a long time- the earthship concept- which is the idea that you can build houses out of dirt filled tires. These houses have sufficient mass to absorb heat from the sun during the day and then re-emit it at night, keeping the house at a constant temperature, but I had no idea they would work in Northern Climates. Thinking about this has really started to turn my ideas about what it is possible to do with insulating in houses on their head.

posted at 14:45 on Sun, 05 Feb, 2006 | path: /living



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