[Greenbuilding] completely nuts?

[Vadurro, Rob, EMNRD]

RT, you need to drive the Miata at / after sunset in the summer or fall with your honey and you will see the purpose of the vehicle's design.

Rob Vadurro AIA, LEED AP
Park Architect
New Mexico State Parks
P.O. Box 1147
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505-476-3383
505-476-3361 (fax)

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org [mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of RT
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 11:47 AM
To: Green Building
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] completely nuts?

On Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:42:42 -0400, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> http://inhabitat.com/residence-sliding-house-drmm/

I wouldn't say that the idea of a retractable shell is "nuts".

Rod Robbie's design for the early 1980's era "Toronto Skydome" baseball stadium in Toronto pioneered the idea on a gargantuan scale and it made a lot of sense for that application.

For house, not so much. If anything, I'd say it's kinda stoopit.

Why ?

One of my brothers gave me his 2009 Miata hardtop convertible about a year and a half ago.
I chastised him for buying it in the first place. He spends all of his time on the golf course and he discovered that the trunk won't accommodate his bag of clubs, despite the salesman's assurance that it would, when he ordered it.

In the time I've owned it, I've driven it about three times and have never put the top down.
In summer, it's too friggin hot without the shade that the roof would provide.
In winter ... well, the thing is useless in winter (tiny/weak battery, rear wheel drive, minimal clearance on underside) so I wouldn't drive it in winter and if I did, I wouldn't put the top down. *That* would be nuts.  
So it ends up being a novelty item that seldom gets used.

Similarly, with the glass house/sliding shell, you'd not want to retract the shell in summer because the house would be hotter than hell and the glare would be extremely annoying, not to mention the deleterious effects of everything inside being fully exposed to UV.

In wintertime when the solar exposure might be beneficial, it would likely be a net heat loser during the gain periods since there are massive amounts of non-equator-facing glass planes.  Further, it would have to be opened and closed every morning and afternoon on days when there might be sun and in order for that to be possible, all snow and ice would have to be cleared from the tracks first.

Most homeowners find even just using insulating shutters to be enough of a PITA that they fall into disuse in short order.

I can imagine that having to clear away ice and snow every time you want to retract the shell in winter would get old really fast too. Ask any farmer in snow country with sliding barn doors.

And thinking about it now, any snow falling on the glass roof during the day would likely melt and run off to accumulate and re-freeze at the base ... right where the tracks for the retractable shell are. Having to smash and chip that away in order to facilitate closing the shell would get old even more quickly. That is until something gets smashed during the ice breaking process and then the shell would likely never get moved again in winter. (Heated track to melt the ice ? That would make it even more
stupid.)

Once again the phrase "Needless gizmological complexification of an otherwise simple task" would seem to apply. Not "nuts", just not very wise (as distinct from "smart").


--
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada

< A r c h i L o g i c  at  Y a h o o  dot  c a  > (manually winnow the chaff from my edress if you hit "reply")

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