|
|
Alton
Veteran Member
Posts:2164
 |
| 09 Jun 2013 08:57 PM |
|
Would a dome style of home be more suitable for more areas than a salt box? As you know, a dome can be very energy efficient and conserving of materials. A dome is a dome, but all domes do not look alike. I see salt boxes and they look so much alike that I think of a home that is very limited in style and should be built only in the north where there is lots of snow.
I still have trouble accepting steep roofs in Key West, FL where snow is not a concern. People from the north that built in the south brought their New England styles with them. Now we see styles in areas do not work well with the weather. |
|
Residential Designer &
Construction Technology Consultant -- E-mail: Alton at Auburn dot Edu Use email format with @ and period .
334 826-3979 |
|
|
Lbear
Veteran Member
Posts:2740
|
| 10 Jun 2013 01:35 AM |
|
Posted By Alton on 09 Jun 2013 08:57 PM
Would a dome style of home be more suitable for more areas than a salt box? As you know, a dome can be very energy efficient and conserving of materials. A dome is a dome, but all domes do not look alike. I see salt boxes and they look so much alike that I think of a home that is very limited in style and should be built only in the north where there is lots of snow.
I still have trouble accepting steep roofs in Key West, FL where snow is not a concern. People from the north that built in the south brought their New England styles with them. Now we see styles in areas do not work well with the weather.
Domes are a tough sell to most people and a lot of HOA's would not allow them. When it comes to a custom build and a dome design, many banks would have a hard time financing the home because of the obsolescence of a dome home. I guess if you are out in the middle of nowhere then a dome home can work or if you are in a subdivision of nothing but dome homes, but the latter is very rare. |
|
|
|
|
Alton
Veteran Member
Posts:2164
|
| 10 Jun 2013 07:04 AM |
|
Lbear,
Back in the 1960's and 70's, we went through similar problems with getting underground homes accepted. In fact, the name got changed to earth-sheltered homes to make them more acceptable and also to reflect that a home could be bermed as opposed to having dirt on the roof. Earth-sheltered homes were usually built in rural areas instead of subdivisions.
One way around the problem as you mentioned is to devote subdivisions to a particular style. Back while I was still interested in earth-sheltered homes to save energy and have protection from storms, I managed to find and visit two subdivisions where every home had to be earth-sheltered. One subdivision was in Wisconsin hills and the other was in Florida on flat ground. Dirt was hauled in to berm the houses in this Florida subdivision.
I brought up the thought about dome homes because I am hearing more about people wanting to build domes. The style ranges from true domes to only the roof being domed. |
|
Residential Designer &
Construction Technology Consultant -- E-mail: Alton at Auburn dot Edu Use email format with @ and period .
334 826-3979 |
|
|
Dana1
Senior Member
Posts:6991
|
| 10 Jun 2013 12:13 PM |
|
The Concord Riverwalk is a development of Net Zero houses in somewhat pricey suburb of Boston, all heated & cooled with mini-splits. Retail per square foot they're up there (driven by the market for both Concord and green-cred), and none are very large, but they nicely appointed, inside & out, with a New England village kind o' vibe to the 'hood. Or maybe that's too much of a downeast Maine mill/fishing town look for the critics? To me it looks a lot nicer than a lot of 1940-1990s development in Concord, if not as diverse as some of the out-of-place modernist architecture examples in (even more upscale) Lincoln, MA next door, that also take a upsized wallet to heat & cool. |
|
|
|
|
Lbear
Veteran Member
Posts:2740
|
| 10 Jun 2013 05:32 PM |
|
Posted By Dana1 on 10 Jun 2013 12:13 PM
The Concord Riverwalk is a development of Net Zero houses in somewhat pricey suburb of Boston, all heated & cooled with mini-splits.
Retail per square foot they're up there (driven by the market for both Concord and green-cred), and none are very large, but they nicely appointed, inside & out, with a New England village kind o' vibe to the 'hood.
Or maybe that's too much of a downeast Maine mill/fishing town look for the critics? To me it looks a lot nicer than a lot of 1940-1990s development in Concord, if not as diverse as some of the out-of-place modernist architecture examples in (even more upscale) Lincoln, MA next door, that also take a upsized wallet to heat & cool.
Those homes are a lot more aesthetically pleasing. They are not my style but I appreciate the homes visual appeal. This type of design will appeal to a lot more people and with it being Net Zero, it's a win-win situation. I appreciate all types of architectural designs whether it's classical, modern, contemporary, etc. They are using Mitsubishi Mini Splits and the homes are well-insulated: - Windows & exterior doors: noise minimizing tripled glazed
(except where prohibited by code); Low-e, U value: 2 (R=5)
- Walls R=40 min, roof
R=50 min, basement R=26 min
Concord Riverwalk - Spec Sheet |
|
|
|
|
Dana1
Senior Member
Posts:6991
|
| 10 Jun 2013 06:15 PM |
|
... and with the outdoor units mounted on the sides facing the woods, not the walking common or street, who cares how high they are on the wall, eh? Snow pack depths of 2' or more in that neighborhood have been been experienced there in the past 15 years, skied by me personally. :-) My office was less than a mile from that place back in the mid-'90s, and my parking lot backed up against a piece of XC-skiable conservation land. I wouldn't recommend ground-mount there either, except under a very ample-sized open-shed doghouse extending 2' or more beyond the mini-split on all sides. This wasn't anything like a record snow year, in Concord- got a late start and only a coupla pretty good Nor'Easters, but they did get about 2' out of the bigger storm, which sagged quickly to an ~18" snowpack: http://www.morrisbeacon.com/blog/?p=439 (I've definitely seen it deeper than that, more than once, if only once this year. This had to be several weeks later given how little snow was left on the roofs. IIRC there was another pretty good one shortly after those pics were taken.) ZeroEnergyDesign was responsible for a big piece of the Riverwalk development and they have quite a range of non-shoe-box PassiveHouse and Net-Zero examples in their case studies pages:
http://www.zeroenergy.com/energy-consulting-and-mechanical-design.html |
|
|
|
|
Lbear
Veteran Member
Posts:2740
|
| 13 Jun 2013 03:44 AM |
|
Here is one of the LG Mini Splits and it is much better looking than those white wall units:  |
|
|
|
|
Dana1
Senior Member
Posts:6991
|
| 13 Jun 2013 01:41 PM |
|
Looks BETTER? Really?
Looks more industrial, and calls attention to itself. And it's total counterpoint to the column radiator below it, in color, texture, & style. Maybe the interior decorator thought it played off the brushed stainless look of that ugly range hood or something?
Ceiling & mini-duct cassettes can turn the visual into the perhaps more accepted grille look, but really, I don't consider that LG blob any more, and slighly less attractive than say, Daikin or Mitsubishi blobs on the walls:
http://www.pacificairconditioner.com/files/DAIKIN_AC_QUATERNITY_012.jpg
http://s3-media4.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/XUIK4XZnEl2fxN3agdptkQ/l.jpg
It's also possible to mount them where it's not in-your face visually, and they can be screened off with valences of whatever you'd rather see instead. I suspect for some folks it's the lack of familiarity that creeps 'em out- how beautiful is that old radiator, for instance, and how well does IT fit into their decoration scheme? But it's a familiar morph, with fewer objections. |
|
|
|
|
jonr
Senior Member
Posts:5341
|
| 13 Jun 2013 03:23 PM |
|
Ceiling & mini-duct cassettes can turn the visual into the perhaps more accepted grille look, IMO, a grill is a better look than a bump on the wall. And I can conceive of it feeding two rooms, one on each side of the wall. |
|
|
|
|
Lbear
Veteran Member
Posts:2740
|
| 13 Jun 2013 09:28 PM |
|
Posted By Dana1 on 13 Jun 2013 01:41 PM
Looks BETTER? Really?
Looks more industrial, and calls attention to itself.
If the unit only comes in WHITE and no other color, unless you plan on leaving your walls white, the white unit WILL draw attention to itself. Who leaves their walls white? White is boring primer color. Say you paint your wall a bluish color, the white mini split will stick out like a sore thumb on that wall. If the manufacturer offered options (like LG does) then the units wouldn't be as hard of a sell to new customers. I just wish LG units had better reliability like the Mitsubishi or Daikin. White mini splits draw attention to themselves just by being installed on a wall. It forces one to leave the wall painted white so as to make the mini split blend into the white wall. Very limiting on interior design colors. The LG Art Cool does a good job of NOT looking like a mini split and blends in as artwork. This can and does appeal more to new mini split customers.  |
|
|
|
|
ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
|
| 14 Jun 2013 12:48 AM |
|
Go to the Houzz website, put "minisplit" in the search box and scroll through the images, playing "Find the Minisplit" |
|
|
|
|
Dana1
Senior Member
Posts:6991
|
| 14 Jun 2013 11:43 AM |
|
Yup- there are hundreds of ways design to never have to look at it if you can't stand the look. A crappy square picture frame isn't exactly a great solution everywhere, even if you had the perfect crying-clown-on-velvet to put in it. |
|
|
|
|
ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
|
| 14 Jun 2013 03:20 PM |
|
even if you had the perfect crying-clown-on-velvet to put in it. "Poker playing dogs", although I guess it is a matter of opinion. |
|
|
|
|
jkrash
New Member
Posts:10
|
| 07 Jul 2013 08:11 AM |
|
Thanks everyone for the input, I ended up getting the AOU-15RLS2H installed, Thanks Dana1, like you said it's more than enough to cool down the building even with out side temps at 85 degrees and over 65 percent humidity. I won't know how it heats until we get some cold temps but I'm sure it will be fine. I think it looks OK on the wall, all the other appliances are white so it blends well.
Fujitsu also has a universal mount unit that you can mount low to the floor or on the ceiling this is something I' will probably look into for our next project. |
|
|
|
|
jonr
Senior Member
Posts:5341
|
| 07 Jul 2013 01:33 PM |
|
Have you found temperature distribution to be an issue? Ie, do closed door rooms get excessively warm or humid? |
|
|
|
|
jkrash
New Member
Posts:10
|
| 08 Jul 2013 11:10 PM |
|
If it was my home I would have an issue with the distribution, since it's a cabin in the middle of no where it's quite comfortable, even when room doors are closed over night. |
|
|
|
|
Dana1
Senior Member
Posts:6991
|
| 09 Jul 2013 04:58 PM |
|
Posted By jkrash on 08 Jul 2013 11:10 PM
If it was my home I would have an issue with the distribution, since it's a cabin in the middle of no where it's quite comfortable, even when room doors are closed over night.
That's likely to change when it's -15F outside, but that's not a shoulder-season temp. During the summer season the nighttime cooling loads aren't very big (not much sun = not much solar gain.) At some outdoor temp you'll find leaving the doors open most of the time deals with most of the room-to-room temperature differences, and you can always slightly overheat the main space to keep the doored-off rooms comfortable, using less power than auxiliary resistance heating. At some lower temp some aux-heating may necessary. There are many ways to manage this for optimum comfort and efficiency, no rocket-science required, but it's up to the occupants to figure out what works best for them. |
|
|
|
|