ecohouse - a design guide

[...]... in Australia, India, southern Africa and most of South America, Europe and the Middle East Increases will be seen in North America, Asia (particularly central Asia) and central eastern Africa; • an increase in cereal yields at high and mid-latitudes such as North America, China, Argentina and much of Europe At the same time cereal yields in Africa, the Middle East and particularly India will decrease,... internal body temperature at 37°C It can also overheat us Once solar radiation has passed through glass it hits a surface in the building and is reflected or re-radiated at a changed wavelength that can no longer pass, in the same way, back out through the glass, so causing the inside of the greenhouse to heat up This is exactly what is happening with the world’s atmosphere The short-wave radiation can... can pass through the clear atmosphere relatively unimpeded But the long-wave terrestrial radiation emitted by the warm surface of the Earth is partially absorbed by The form of the house: the building as an analogy 23 a number of the trace gases in the cooler atmosphere above Since, on average, the outgoing long-wave radiation balances the incoming solar radiation, both the atmosphere and the surface... greenhouse gases at current rates of increase in a ‘business-as-usual fashion’ predictions by the UK Meteorological Office indicate impacts will be substantial and by 2080 will include: • a rise in global average temperatures of 3ºC over the 1961–1990 average by 2080; • substantial dieback of tropical forests and grasslands with resulting loss of CO2 sink; • substantial overall decreases in rainfall amounts... must become a good heat dissipater Just as people who are hot sprawl out to lose heat, so buildings sprawl in warm and hot climates In many hot climates buildings have a high surface area:volume ratio but the walls facing the sun are protected from direct radiation by verandas, balconies or wide eaves The shallower floor plan of heat-dissipating buildings also promotes easy cross-ventilation of rooms... for two years without it melting (Beamon and Roaf, 1990) 19 20 Ecohouse: A Design Guide 1.4 The ice-house at Hooke, Chailey, Sussex Drawn after a 1776 diagram by William Broderick Thomas This may be the first illustrated cavity brick wall in Britain and here the cavity was used to keep the groundwater away from the ice, rather than for its insulating properties (Beamon and Roaf, 1990) In warm or hot...4 Ecohouse: A Design Guide GAS: reserves of natural gas are abundant and current estimates suggest that stocks could last for 65 years at current rates of consumption Some countries rely on gas for over half of all the primary energy they use and the biggest increase in demand is for gas-powered electricity stations Gas is a cleaner fuel for the generation of electricity than coal or oil and results... fire and chimney around which are located A, the hall; B, the small chamber; C, the master chamber; and D, the communal and servants room The outer walls of the house are made of horizontal untrimmed logs (after a drawing by Guntis Plesums in Oliver, 1997, Vol 2, p 1263) THE BUILDING AS A ROMAN BATH HOUSE In Roman bath houses the floors were warmed by an under-floor heating system called a hypocaust A. .. storage radiator The heat comes from perhaps a fire or the sun, and is absorbed in the thermal mass of the building, as it is in a radiator brick Then, 25 26 Ecohouse: A Design Guide 1.9 This Kakkleoven is the high mass wood-burning stove at the Oxford Ecohouse Above it is a cloth skirt, 60 cm deep, which has been attached to form walls for the hot air that rises above the stove This air is channelled... climate changes so we can shed skins THE HEAT EXCHANGER The greater the volume of the building the more surface area it has to lose, or gain, heat from Figure 1.3 shows that different plan forms can have more or less wall area for the same plan area The surface area:volume ratio is very important in conserving heat transfer into and out of a building To conserve heat or cold the building must be designed . Hyderabad India Prashant Kapoor, Saleem Akhtar, 256 Arun Prasad, Manuel Fuentes 6 Syounai Hamamatsu Japan OM Solar 262 7 Mr and Mrs I. Sagara Inagi Tokyo, Japan Ken-ichi Kimura, Mr H Matsuoka 266 8 Jimmy. in rainfall amounts in Australia, India, southern Africa and most of South America, Europe and the Middle East. Increases will be seen in North America, Asia (particularly central Asia) and central. central eastern Africa; • an increase in cereal yields at high and mid-latitudes such as North America, China, Argentina and much of Europe. At the same time cereal yields in Africa, the Middle East