Page 3 of 6 |
The sun is a wonderful resource, and is one that is often overlooked during a construction project. Not only does it provide heat and light for us, it is essential for our general wellbeing. One of the primary aims of the project was to ensure that there was plenty of natural, unadulterated sunlight reaching the interior of the building.
Earthdome welcomes the sun by way of passive solar heat gains through windows carefully selected from a US-based company called Marvin Windows. Constructed from timber with aluminium cladding, and sporting a special long-lasting colour finish, these windows promise to give many years of trouble-free operation in return for very little maintenance beyond simple cleaning. Traditionally painted or stained windows need to be treated every seven or so years, but these should require very little attention. The timber used in the construction of the window adds to the insulation properties of the frame and presents an organic appearance on the inside face. These particular units are double glazed, rather than triple glazed because, as I have said, I wanted to maintain a high level of light entering the building. Triple glazed units would have reduced the light levels arriving inside the rooms, and good quality light is critical for good health.
Research has shown that Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and even low-grade depression can arise in subjects who are denied access to good levels of sunlight. Essentially, I wanted to help Earthdome residents feel happy, and without them really even noticing!
So, we have a good quality natural light source inside the property during the daytime when the weather is good. At other times we need to generate artificial light and we need to do that as efficiently as possible. The lighting system I deployed in the building is reactive, it responds by automatically switching lights on or off depending on whether or not a room is occupied. This means that the occupants always have light wherever they happen to be, but cannot forget to turn lights off when they are no longer needed. Just leaving a single 60 watt light bulb on for 6 hours per day consumes 2520 Watts per week. Roll that up for a whole year and that same bulb burns its way through 131.4 KW, and the energy generation process required may produce up to 197lb (89.4kg) of CO2 emissions as a result.
Page 3 of 6 |