American writer and retired traveler David Noland single-handedly designed a house according to Passive House standards, which maximizes the use of sunlight. Thanks to careful planning and modern technology, during sunny hours the house generates more electricity than it consumes. Chronogram portal writes about it.
According to David Noland, his plan was to build for himself and his wife a small, simple, one-story house near the road and without a wood-burning stove. At the same time, the housing had to meet all Passive House standards.
Despite the lack of formal architectural education, the man developed the project himself. After developing the design of the house, he turned to an architect to complete the structural design and draw up construction plans. For direct construction, he hired a Passive House specialist from New York.
“This is not rocket science. The floor, walls and roof must be well insulated and airtight. There should be good air circulation and good windows without thermal bridges. It's really quite simple”, — told Noland about the design of the house.
David Noland's house is a rectangle with an area of 408 square meters. The entire shell of the house consists of structurally insulated panels. Along the southern wall of the house is a series of triple-glazed windows that trap heat from the sun's low rays along the winter horizon and help to naturally light the living area in winter. The man carefully designed the shape of the roof to make full use of the sun's rays, and also calculated the overhang of the roof to protect the windows from the strong summer sun.
Because the house is so well insulated, air must be constantly circulated to keep the internal structure healthy for both people and materials. To do this, David Noland installed a Zehnder ERV fresh air circulation system in the open attic, which takes stale air from the kitchen and bathrooms, then fills the living room and bedrooms with fresh air from the outside, transferring the temperature of the outgoing and incoming air to the room .
All of the home's energy needs are provided by 30 400W Suncommon panels located on the roof. Their total power is 12 kW. During the sunny months, the batteries generate more energy than is needed for the house and two electric cars.
“We have accumulated a large kilowatt-hour credit, which should be more than enough to see us through the winter months with zero net energy consumption. during the year”, — noted David Noland.
We will remind you that the American company Airiva has created a silent wind fence made of eight modular vertical Airiva wind turbines, which can generate approximately 2,200 kilowatts of electricity per year.