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Old 05-22-14, 09:17 AM   #8
wyatt
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I have a book I bought several years ago on a similar subject. Basically you were building a house inside a house (both insulated, both with windows). The basement was used as a heating/cooling source, the south side was a greenhouse, and the house it's self was normally quite small giving air an opportunity to flow up the greenhouse, over the interior house, into the basement, exchange some thermal energy, and back into the greenhouse. When it is cold out, the cycle is reversed. The idea was that you could normally use the greenhouse as a part of the house. They found that in order to have enough heating in the winters they needed a lot of glass on the greenhouse, and in order to not roast in the summer they needed a lot of ventilation (top, sides, the more the merrier). Lots of the homes built (decades ago) use supplemental thermal mass in the basement in the form of stacked brick/cinder blocks, gallon jugs of water, or something else. I'll see if I can find that book and report back with the name.

Last edited by wyatt; 05-22-14 at 09:45 AM..
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