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I live
in the Colorado Rockies with plentiful sun and a typical southwestern
arid climate. With over 300 annual days of sunshine, this environment
provides a unique opportunity to realistically provide all of a home's
heating requirements using renewable solar energy. Adding in
environmentally friendly, green material choices and water conservation
techniques completes the sustainability equation. Our mission is to
educate homeowners and the general public about sustainable construction,
and create thoughtful
responsible designs that contribute to a cleaner, healthier environment
for us all.
With
professional degrees in both architecture and mechanical engineering I
bring a unique perspective to home design. One that includes a intimate
working knowledge of how a building envelope interacts and exchanges
light and energy with its environment. That knowledge gives form to my
designs and material choices that may be subtle, but have significant
impact on energy efficiency and livability. I believe in healthy
buildings that blend and tread softly in their natural environments.
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| John Van Doren |
People
sometimes ask me if they need to wear tie-dye and live in a straw bale
home to be "sustainable". The truth is, a green, energy
efficient home can take just about any look you want, depending on how
you choose to heat your home.
Putting aside the use of sustainable materials, let's cover your basic
heating options first. You have three options. One,
you can heat the air inside the home and stay warm by exchanging heat
between you and the surrounding air. This is the typical builder's
choice today using the traditional forced air furnace. Two'
you can heat the ceiling or floor of the house (usually it's the floor)
and stay warm by exchanging radiant heat between you and
floor. This is typically done with hot water tubing embedded
in a light weight concrete sub-floor or directly in an insulated
concrete slab. The hot water heating source can be solar
panels or a highly efficient gas boiler. Three, you can use
passive solar, which means that you use the greenhouse effect plus the
flywheel effect of mass (like an adobe house) to keep warm.
In Colorado you can satisfy almost 100% of your heating needs just
through the use of passive design techniques. You can also
use a combination of one and three or two and three. Keep in
mind that the more you design for the passive option three, the more
that will dictate the materials you use and the form and style of the
house. There is no right or wrong here.
You can build a very well insulated and sealed (I do not recommend
using fiberglass insulation for this) traditional looking home with
Energy Star rated space conditioning and appliances, using sustainable,
environmentally friendly materials or you can go completely off-grid
with a full-on passively heated design using photovoltaic solar for
your electrical needs. Anything in that spectrum is
considered green and environmentally conscious. Given other
considerations like views, tastes, and lifestyle, most of my clients
fall somewhere in the middle.
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