Which is "greener"?

[tg]

Can't access the site. Anyway, I am not much of a basement fan these days since I have been doing a lot of pumping lately---and I'm one of the lucky ones with really good soil drainage. No real damage (fingers crossed for the power to stay on), but not pleasant.

I have to admit that I *am* a booster for this particular slab technique. If you have a well insulated house, the effect is to tie the temperature to the temperature of the earth 4-6 feet down, depending on the perimeter insulation. That would be 55 F where you are, I suspect.

Yes I agree.

-tg

[ta]

I should have mentioned that in this case, the basement would be fully above ground. The basement is essentially the first story of a 2-story house. This is strictly a cost-cutting measure . . . no slab needed, no expensive wood siding, no SIPs walls on 1st story (painted concrete or stucco).

I wanted to do a 1-story floor plan, slab foundation, but as I'm sure you know, it's a lot cheaper to build up.

[tg]

This sounds interesting---but I wish I could see what the construction is like. What are the R-values for the walls? Can you try to find a similar site or check the address you gave me?

-tg

[ta]

Here's the local site (strange, the other one worked fine for me):

Here's the specific product: They start at R12.5 with the option to add more insulation to increase R value.

[John Stafford]

May I ask where you live? Here in Minnesota we are required to have a properly insulated and footed slab foundation, even for a garage.

[John Stafford]

The address works for me, but I am not suggesting they are the best source for such information.

At work I am doing a large project regarding energy efficient building and later I can send some links to other approaches, in particular pre-made plywood and foam walls.

[ta]

Yeah, I misspoke there . . . apparently it's crushed gravel under concrete.

I'm in NC.

[John Stafford]

Ah, yes. NC is a beautiful part of the USA, and you don't need the measures we in Minnesota do. The freeze goes down as much as four feet in my area, and further down farther North.

This afternoon I am going to the friend's home that uses circulating heated water in the concrete floor. I will try to get a snapshot that shows how most of the basement is in a berm. The circulating system I refer to is not the same as tg mentioned - it uses a tiny natural-gas furnace to supply the heat to the anti-freeze - it is not an earth type pump.

It's a charming one-bedroom house but the studio workspace could be subdivided into three more bedrooms, and the pool on the main floor could be converted to a greenhouse.

[Shrikeback]

Clearly the green thing to do is to forcibly relocate those folks living too far north to somewhere warm enough that they can live in open straw huts, naked and classless on the sunny beach of retirementland.

What we need is a government forceful enough to force these green decisions down our collective throat. And don't forget to ask about our One Child Policy.

[Giga2]

And the 'Flintstones-style peddle-car' policy.

[Chazwin]

Depends.

1) How greenish the existing house is. 2) How green is it to manufacture green shit. 3) Disposal of old house. 4) Complete refabricaion of new. 5) energy requirements of new house in terms of location, climate etc. 6) how long is a piece of string?

[tg]

Ok, I accessed it. You will still need a footing and a floor of some kind, so I don't see what the savings is.

However, I did look at the NC building code, and my kind of perimeter- insulated foundation requires strong termite prophylaxis. I'm not sure what that costs or how effective it is in your climate---which may soon be mine, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, the rain continues. Funny how we get these unprecedented storms when the energy in the climate system is decreasing (according to the deniatarians.)

-tg

Meanwhile, the rain continues---