A bermed home requires substantially less heating and cooling. This is very evident when one enters a basement or a cave. We built a bermed home, with tire-bale walls. With the passive solar, solar PVs, and wind turbine; the home is self-sufficient for energy. It has no gas at all. It doesn't even have forced air, which makes it very nice and quiet. Hete are a few pics.
The living room, with the tire bale wall in the background. This wall is bermed. The dirt ourside is just about as high as the top of the grey section of the wall, 10 feet.
This is the entrance to the guest bedroom. The head of the bed is against the tire bale wall (7-1/2' high).
This is a walk-in shower. Here the tire bales were covered with an outdoor stucco material, which will withstand the direct water.
This is the front glass, for the passive solar heat. The glass is angled (optional), which allows more sun penetration, when the sun is lower in the Southern sky in the winter.
This is the house from the outside. It was a hot, sunny day; so the shades are drawn. The berming helps the house maintain a nice, cool temperature, without any A/C, even on 100 deg F days. The outdoor shades are a "must", otherwise, the house would get extremely hot. Wind turbine is in the back.
The living room, with the tire bale wall in the background. This wall is bermed. The dirt ourside is just about as high as the top of the grey section of the wall, 10 feet.
This is the entrance to the guest bedroom. The head of the bed is against the tire bale wall (7-1/2' high).
This is a walk-in shower. Here the tire bales were covered with an outdoor stucco material, which will withstand the direct water.
This is the front glass, for the passive solar heat. The glass is angled (optional), which allows more sun penetration, when the sun is lower in the Southern sky in the winter.
This is the house from the outside. It was a hot, sunny day; so the shades are drawn. The berming helps the house maintain a nice, cool temperature, without any A/C, even on 100 deg F days. The outdoor shades are a "must", otherwise, the house would get extremely hot. Wind turbine is in the back.