projects i wish to take on..............

rocket mass heater................
casted from fire clay in one cast,  encased in cob.  i'll probably heat water, and distribute that for space heating.  some sort of cob radiator system.  it will take the space and place of current gas furnace.  there will be oak construction sleepers around for years with all this construction going on.  maybe find a good source of hardwood cut-offs..........

solar chimney...............
an insulated, partially glazed tower, with flat black heat collectors inside it.  its vented at the top.  as air super-heats in the tower, it creates an amazing amount of lift.  hot-air-out tubes are tapped into it right after a small restriction.........hey! bernoulli's principle!........and the hot air rising in the solar chimney sucks hot air out of the house.  in the winter, close the top flap vent of chimney, and the hot air is forced into the home.  of course, in the summer, the house has to "inhale" cool air, not already hot air from the open windows, which leads us to...........

cool tube intake................
i wish to build a bed of sand in the alley-way, that will have two serpentine-shaped air ducts running through it.  i'll keep the sand moist, and pipe the tempered air into the house, to replace the hot air drawn out by the solar exhaust of the chimney.  the whole system will be on a slant, with a drain at the low end, to keep the tubes dry. it will be in perpetual shade, cooled by the tempering by the damp sand bed.  oh, shit..........i could build vertical sand beds!  better draining, less space.  i'll have to let my cortex chew on that one........

root cellar.............
that's right...........root cellar.  and no, i'm not digging :) i have a plywood box i used to grow.......ummmm....tomatoes in!  that's it.  i am disassembling it, since i no longer grow indoor tomatoes :) and i'm going to build a custom-built box for the alley-way.  i'll heavily insulate it, and vent it high and low. it will be on top of......or next to.....the sand bed, which will help regulate the temp of the root box.  it'll be nice to grab a squash for dinner in february.


also..........a solar hot water system, a solar hot air system, some solar swamp coolers, and a few other projects.  i want the house to run itself.  it will wake up int the morning, and make hay while sun shines.  heat storage is the key.  earth and water provide that.