The SolarWind Solar Home Bill Sechler © 1990 Bill Sechler What is the SolarWind Home? How does it work? Why the six-sided, hexagonal shape? Bees Love It Hexagons are an inherently strong stable shape. Bees have been using it for a VERY long time. Hexagons use 16% (1/6) less exterior wall than a square house for the same number of square feet. That's 1/6th less wall to build and lose heat. The wide, 120¡ angles provides a comfortable, less confining, useable living area. Hexagons are more efficient solar collectors. A square exposes 1/4 of its space to the sun while a hexagon exposes 1/3. Thermal Mass A unique feature if the large, solid fireplace/chimney. It's nine feet square by three feet thick and weighs 50,000 pounds. It's mostly full of concrete and is technically called a "thermal mass". But it's simpler and more direct to call it "The Rock" since that's what it is. What The Rock does is collect and hold heat either from the sun and/or from the built-in woodstove. In the lower center of the The Rock is the fireplace. This is a steel lined arc, with duct and chimney openings cast into the concrete. Fitted into this arch is a highly efficient wood burning stove which draws its air from outside the house. The wood stove heats water and The Rock itself. The arch and associated ducts also heat and circulate air throughout the house. The outer walls and roof of the building form a heat tent. This is because the heavily insulated walls and roof hold and reflect heat back into the building. Some heat escapes but much more is trapped. Since The Rock weighs 50,000 pounds and the combined total of all the other materials within the heat tent equals 5,000 pounds, the temperature of the heat tent (house) is going to be very close to Rock temperature. The Rock's mass totally dominates the space. Another benefit of the hexagon shape is that nowhere in the house can a person get further than about 16 feet from the Rock. This gives gentle, radiant heat throughout the building. If the radiant heat is not enough when the outside temperature drops lower, you open the air ducts and forced, warm air, powered by the heat in the stove arch (not fans) will quickly heat the house. Provision to let heat out of the house, when desired, is also designed into the structure. The upper landing and bedroom walls form a large, 13 foot high flue. At the top of this flue are two remote opening windows. The windows are 20 feet up from the first floor. When opened, these windows and flue will draft (suck) just like a chimney, which is a type of flue. This exhaust flue is heat powered so that the hotter the house, the greater the draft. Any doors or windows opened in the house will then experience an immediate intake of fresh, outside air in direct proportion to the amount of excess in the house. These features are built into the basic structure of the house. They don't break or wear out. They don't make any noise. They don't take any outside power. The SolarWind Solar Home contains a total of about 1400 square feet. It has three large bedrooms (downstairs is 180 square feet, two upstairs are 150 square feet each), two full baths, high ceilings in the upper bedrooms (sloping from 7+ to 13 feet) and the living room (sloping from 11 to 17 feet). The living room is 30 feet long and 15 feet wide to the point of the 36 foot window-wall. There are 4 large skylights for the mid-season (spring & fall) light and heating. The south facing upper bedroom windows are placed so that they will admit direct sunlight in winter but not in summer. There is no space given away for hallways in this design. This home is designed to be primarily solar powered for heating, hot water and electricity with propane to help out with the cooking. I estimate that it will need about two cords of firewood to supplement the solar heating during extended cloudy weather. The owner could elect to hook up to the power company. Everything would still work the same. It just isn't necessary. Access Bill Sechler, SolarWind Energy Systems, POB 780, Bandon, OR 97411 ¥ 503-347-3316