Institute of Sustainable Building
Solar Site Survey
Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Path of Sun Across the Sky Note: If you never liked "Science Time", you may want to skip the next few paragraphs, and go right to "Obstacle Survey". The path of the sun across the sky changes with the time of year. At the two equinoxes, the sun rises due east and sets due west. The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and occurs on Dec 21 in the northern hemisphere. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year and occurs on June 21 in the northern hemisphere. The 23.5 degrees referred to above is the tilt of the earth axis of rotation relative to the plane of the earths orbit. In planning a solar collector location, it is important to make sure that the sun will shine on the collector during all the parts of the year that you want it to. Diagrams showing sunrise/sunset positions for the summer and winter solstices, and the suns altitude at the solstices and equinoxes. Obstacle Survey You will need the following
Sustainable Building Article Directory
This directory links to hundreds of free sustainable building articles on the Internet. In many cases these links point directly to the article, saving time and effort searching through entire websites. Websites with lots of articles are listed under Major Sites. Enjoy! Search these articles: Adobe Adobe Adobe Builder.com Newsletter Archives Adobe and Super Block Technology Some Thoughts on Adobe Codes Agricultural Fibers Agricultural Fibers Agricultural Fibers For Use in Building Components Agricultural Residues: A Promising Alternative to Virgin Wood Fiber Arundo Donax Biobased Structural Composite Materials for Housing and Infrastructure Applications Biocomposites from Engineered Natural Fibers for Housing Panel Applications Fiber Futures Leftover Straw Gets New Life Cellulose Insulation Blown-in Cellulose Insulation Cellulose Facts Cellulose Insulation Winning Market Share in Colorado Earthbag Building With Earthbags Earthbag Earthbag Dome Building The Honey House
Housebuilders go back to basics by using traditional methods and materials | The Independent
Families unable to afford their own homes are turning their backs on the housing market and winding the clock back, building their own shelters using traditional methods and materials including mud, straw and wood. The trend for designing homes using natural local materials is a reaction to spiralling housing costs, according to the people who train “have-a-go” builders in historic construction techniques. The movement is even influencing major developers, who are investigating ways to use natural products to meet modern building standards. Charlotte Eve, the co-founder of Edwards and Eve Cob Building, says she and her partner have trained thousands of people to build modern, liveable homes using earth dug straight from the ground. In pictures: Traditional construction materials Ms Eve said interest in cob and natural building has grown since the economic downturn of 2008. Cob is a mixture of clay earth, sand and straw, and homes using this material can be built freestyle by hand. Cob Hemp
AirDrop House: Sustainable Housing Solution For Flood-hit Areas - Green Diary
Conceived by architect Andrew Maynard and his team, the AirDrop House is a sustainable housing solution for flood-hit areas. The tiny houses made from dried sponge-like material could be dropped onto the affected areas by standard military aircrafts. The instant floating abodes expand up to a seven meters diameter from original one-meter diameter as soon as it contacts water. It slowly soaks up water and swells into a self-sustaining temporary house. Via: Inhabitat
Traditional building materials and design | ClimateTechWiki
Earth-related building materials. In many non-urbanised areas in India, East Africa and South America, raw earth is abundant resource, which has popularly been used as building material. Over times, modern technologies have renovated the use of raw earth materials to improve their performance. For example, raw earth materials are converted into compressed earth blocks, made of a semi-dry mix of clay and sand and produced using a mechanised hydraulically compressed block machine. These blocks are reported to have a load-bearing strength two-thirds that of concrete masonry blocks (Mehta and Bridwell, 2004). A further improvement is achieved by mixing earth with a small percentage of cement during the production process to create compressed stabilised earth blocks. Stabilised rammed earth foundation is an innovative application of earth-related building materials. Innovative implementations of this principle include the installation of water sprayers on the roof, or roofpond systems.
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About: What We Do – Open Building Institute
PHOTOSBarn Raising photo by Alexander W. Galbraith. Group Photo of Aquaponic Greenhouse Workshop by Joshua Langevin. Aerial photos of Aquaponic Greenhouse Workshop by Reid da Silva. 3D MODELS Most furniture, decor and plants used in 3D models by the SWEET HOME 3D community. ICONS Open Source Hardware logo by Macklin Chaffee.
» Trähus – Regelkonstruktioner
Text: Cathrine Bülow. Bild. Ekologiskt träregelhus med linisolering. Träregelhuset är idag det typiska svenska småhuset, byggt antingen i lösvirke på plats eller, vilket är vanligast, levererat från fabrik. Träregelväggen består av olika materialskikt som fyller olika funktioner. I konventionella träregelhus fylls facken med mineralull och väggarna tätas med plast. Historik Ursprungligen var våra trähus massiva konstruktioner av hela timmerstockar. Moderna ”trähus” – inga rena naturprodukter I vardagligt tal kallas lättregelhusen trähus, fastän det egentligen ofta bara är fasaden och reglarna som är av trä. Facken fylls sedan med isolering. Bild: Steffen Voss Flicr. Moderna, konventionella ”trähus” består alltså inte av speciellt mycket trä och är definitivt inga ”rena naturprodukter”, utan innehåller en rad miljö- och hälsoproblematiska produkter som limhaltiga byggskivor, mineralull eller ännu värre cellplast. Det går att bygga bra regelkonstruktioner!
