“Efficient house design is based on the natural energies coming into the system (sun, wind,rain) on surrounding vegetation, and on commonsense building practices.” Bill Mollison

 

South Elevation

The use of intelligent design to reduce the amount of energy required to operate a home can substantially lower the environmental impact and the long term cost to the owners. The design of our home uses the passive solar benefit of the site; we conducted a digital sun-study and built the roof overhang and installed dual glazed, argon-filled, Low E180 windows on this south elevation. This maximizes solar gain during the winter and reduces heat gain during the summer without the use of any extra energy.

 

North Elevation. Entrance.

Wintertime in this round home is warm and cozy. The combination of super-insulated walls, air-tight building envelope (draft free environment), passive solar design, nestled protection in the grove of trees and redundant heating systems means that it serves as a welcome sanctuary in the storm.