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Re: GBlist: Natural air flow



David,

At the Solar House in Raleigh, NC we have a two story sunspace.
The Solar House uses a number of strategies for passive heat 
distribution utilizing convective heat transfer. Windows from every 
living space open up into the sunspace. These windows act as 
dampers for heat distribution from the sunspace into the living spaces
during the winter. The house also has a "convective loop" that evenly
distributes heat throughout the house. Cold air flows out of the house 
through french doors at the lower floor leading from a recreation/
circulation space of sorts into the sunspace. This cold air displaces 
warm air in the sunspace which rises up through french doors at the 
upper floor leading from the living room to a balcony in the sunspace.
The warm air transfers its heat to the building materials in the rest of
the house and cools. The now cool dense air falls down a NORTHERN
stairwell into the rec room where the process repeats. This convective
loop keeps stratification to a minimum and provides for a self-regulating
control. You may also be interested in an envelope home design by Enertia
Building Systems: http://enertia.com. 

One other item of note, a homogeneous indoor temperature is the goal
of most mechanical designers, however, just as we typically don't
want our house painted beige from top to bottom, some temperature
variation, when controlled and used as a design element, can be an 
exciting and provoking aesthetic consideration. As we learn to naturally 
manipulate the air and surface temperatures inside our houses, the 
sense of thermal variation can heighten our visual, tactile, acoustical and 
spacial experience. Its part of what makes a building seem alive.
References: "Thermal Delight in  Architecture" / Lisa Heschong
        "Sun, Wind and Light" / G.Z. Brown
        "Climatic Design" / Donald Watson

At 02:22 PM 8/21/97 -0500, 
"David F. Lambertson" <dlambert@falcon.cc.ukans.edu> wrote:
> indeed the entire house felt evenly heated and very
>comfortable.  I would like to know why.  Is it the dome shape or the
>perimeter gap or both?
   

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