[Part 3] Heating and Cooling for Free Using Insulation

Grab your free guides to Sustainable Homes at these links!

🌻 FREE PDF Download: The Six Essentials of a Sustainable Home Plus Bonus - the Before You Buy Property Checklist:
https://www.sustainablehomeresource.com/SixEssentials

If your goal is to reduce your reliance on fossil fuels, and lower or even eliminate your heating and cooling bills, then planning your heating and cooling system is your very first design decision.

Controlling how the sun’s heat interacts with your house, storing heat in the structure of the house using thermal mass, and retaining the heat using insulation are the three essential components in a passive solar home. And these three components must be considered as you design your home because it is the structure of the home, how it interacts with the building site, and the materials it is constructed out that is the heating and cooling system.

In this video, I’m going to focus on insulation, the third component of what I call the Solar Design Trinity. I’ll show you how it works along with thermal mass, and solar gain to heat and cool your home for free.

🎬 Part 1 Heating and Cooling for Free Using the Sun
https://youtu.be/9Pj2l4pwikY

🎬 Heating and Cooling for Free Using Thermal Mass
https://youtu.be/eR_5RXx02Tk

Just a Few of the Latest Insulation Options

💻 Search these insulation types to see what’s available in your area

Hemp Insulation
Demin Insulation
Wool Insulation
Rock Wool
Clay Slip
Soy Spray-in foam

💻 Search these building materials that contain insulating properties
FasWall https://faswall.com/
Hemp Crete
Air Crete
Strawbale

Do you have another insulation you’re familiar with? Send me a note to tell me about it at KristinaMunroePE@gmail.com

More stuff to help you build a sustainable home of your dreams:

📘 BOOK Twisted Oak: A Journey to Create a Self-Sustaining Life and Home by Kristina Munroe PE
https://www.sustainablehomeresource.com/book

💻 Our Workshops & Online Courses:
https://www.sustainablehomeresource.com/

Bio
I’m Kristina Munroe. I’m a structural engineer, author, and consultant. My passion is guiding you step-by-step through designing and building a sustainable home you’ll love without the typical frustration, overwhelm, and costly mistakes.

In 2010 I moved my two young sons back to my hometown of Durango, Colorado to build an off-grid home and to start a new life. Along with a talented carpenter, and a couple of helpers, we built a small solar-powered home we lovingly named Twisted Oak. This magical home is not only beautiful, whimsical, and fun, but it heats and cools itself, generates its power, collects and heats its household water, and manages its waste in an environmentally responsible way.

I believe we can all live more abundant lives by lessening our impact on this precious planet and living more connected to cycles of nature. This is not about living in lack, but rather embracing the abundance we have by consuming and throwing away less.

I raised my two young sons in Twisted Oak. And in all those years, I've never regretted creating a small, simple, and affordable home without needing a lot of electrical devices that would have driven up the cost of our solar PV system.

We love living closer to nature and reducing (not eliminating) electrical devices or modern conveniences.

I carefully and consciously designed our home so that we do not rely on electricity for our comfort or safety. If we lose power, it's only a minor inconvenience.