We are planning an assisted passive solar home. We will be using a combination of  OSB SIPs

and ICF’s.

 

One of our major design elements will be a two story concrete trombe wall (completely interior and insulated) that will be used to store solar heat in the winter and act as a cooling tower in the summer.  The wall will consist of two 6-8” concrete walls separated with a 6” air space between.  Fans will circulate air up of down the interior air space      (depending on the time of year). Clearstory windows( with proper summer shading) will heat the wall. This will be the north wall of a central two story atrium used to bring light to the central part of the home.

 

I am looking for ideas on how to isolate or insulate the bottom of the concrete walls so there is no leaking of heat into the earth.

 

All floors on the south side will be stained concrete slab.

The house will be one floor aprox. 50x 80.

The north side of the house will be mostly garage/workshop with one master suite(we like the bedroom much cooler than the main living area)

Under the garage/workshop will be concrete cisterns for rain water storage

Newhome,

Foamglas is a product made for this job. You will need to search European side. USA sites only list Roof and pipe insulation. Another option is Y-tong blocks, AAC. The AAC has a lower R-value but you can use 12" tall first cource to get R13? I also saw a foam product that was designed to act as the footer mold. I just couldn't imagine an ICF home sitting on a layer of foam!

I too will be facing the same issue with our concrete deck. We need the thermal isolation but want full attachment. I will likely go with a thin layer of Y-tong

Patrick T

 

 

Thanks for the post. I'd never heard of a trombe wall before.

cad_il


p.s.   Could you please elaborate on how the trombe wall will cool your home?

If you pour the lower level using removable concrete forms you could use the Thermomass insulation system to accomplish that.  Sounds like an interesting project.