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I had not chimed in but agree with Ross. </div>
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Rather than Passive House as a descriptor perhaps super insulated airtight good windows would be a more useful and accurate list. </div>
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If you do earth sheltered the required insulation levels would be much less. </div>
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The big challenge in that climate is humidity control. Mini split might work but you would want as small as possible to ensure it does run a lot but not over cool. </div>
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Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell network.</div>
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<div><b>From: </b>Ross Elliott</div>
<div><b>Sent: </b>Friday, July 26, 2013 19:45</div>
<div><b>To: </b>greenbuilding@lists.bioenergylists.org</div>
<div><b>Reply To: </b>Green Building</div>
<div><b>Subject: </b>[Greenbuilding] Earthship in New York</div>
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<div id="_originalContent" style="">Not to rain on your parade Genarro, but "Earthship" and "Passive House" are<br>
rather contradictory terms, at least in New York's climate. The insulation<br>
values needed to reach Passive House are a long way off from dirt packed<br>
tires, and much as I admire what Mike Reynolds did in New Mexico with<br>
materials that weren't being recycled back then, bottles, pop cans and tires<br>
are no longer just garbage. It's a tremendous amount of work to build with<br>
tires, some people I know of spent several years just getting the walls up<br>
and then couldn't afford to complete the structure. Some are convinced the<br>
thermal mass of Earthships have some magical effect on energy consumption,<br>
and that over-glazed sloped south walls don't leak, overheat during the day<br>
and lose heat excessively at night, despite evidence to the contrary. I've<br>
been to Taos and stayed in an Earthship, and have read everything Mike<br>
Reynolds wrote and watched all the videos, and I respect the creativity in<br>
these homes which certainly should be part of any decent green building<br>
project, but I hope that by investigating "Passive House concepts" you'll<br>
discover the shortcomings of Earthships in a cold climate. Why not insulated<br>
rammed earth, strawbale, or even super-insulated wood frame construction?<br>
<br>
Solar thermal radiant is barely economically feasible (with a backup system)<br>
with a certified Passive House in northern climates, so go with a cold<br>
climate air source heat pump or geothermal, if those are your only choices<br>
and you really want a tire house. But if you build a true Passive House, you<br>
can heat with a much simpler, cheaper combo DHW system, cool with a ground<br>
loop and night cooling bypass on your ERV and save a fortune on HVAC<br>
installation costs. Plus you can add solar thermal to the mix if you like,<br>
with an appreciable % of energy boost. <br>
<br>
Ross Elliott LEED-AP, CPHC <br>
Homesol Building Solutions Inc.<br>
Almonte, ON<br>
<br>
<br>
On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 1:06 PM, Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn <<br>
info@ecobrooklyn.com> wrote:<br>
<br>
> This is a typical tire packed earthship. I am looking to implement <br>
> Passive House methods and see where we end up. I'd like to use as much <br>
> salvaged materials as well of course.<br>
> I guess my question is not so related to an Earthship though. It is <br>
> more one of using solar thermal radiant or Minisplit PV.<br>
> Matt you raise an excellent point about humidity. For that reason <br>
> alone it may be worth going with Minisplits.<br>
> The larger question is what is a better use of money for an East Coast <br>
> building with land, solar thermal, PV or geothermal....?<br>
><br>
> Gennaro Brooks-Church<br>
> Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.<br>
> Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA<br>
> www.EcoBrooklyn.com<br>
> 22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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