Passive Annual Heat Storage: Improving the Design of Earth Sheltered Homes – Mother Earth News

Article first appeared in Mother Earth News, January/February 1985. Click here to view article at their… [more]

Umbrella Homes (Featured in Popular Science)

A simple underground house design uses a novel insulating/water-shedding blanket that covers the structure and surrounding soil.

PAHS Home Seen From Space!

PAHS Home as Seen From Space! This is an image from Google Maps of the famous Geodome.

Live in Harmony with the Earth: Passive Annual Heat Storage Improves Earth Sheltered Homes

How can I build an earth sheltered home that saves summer heat for all-winter heating?

Use your home itself to collect free solar heat all summer.
Cool your home passively, while heating the earth around your home, without machinery or commercial energy.
Keep your home cozy all winter by retrieving heat from the soil.
Utilize the free solar heat stored throughout the summer as a year-round natural thermal resource.
Power a convection ventilation system using stored heat that provides warm air all winter and cool air all summer.

Passive Annual Heat Storage (PAHS) is a method of collecting heat in the summertime, by cooling the home naturally, storing it in the earth naturally, then returning that heat to the home in the winter. It includes extensive use of natural heat flow methods, and the arrangement of building materials to direct heat from wherever we get it to wherever we want it, all without using machinery to make it work. With the rising cost of energy, all home builders should get familiar with basic PAHS principles.

The goal of Passive Annual Heat Storage is to provide a method of placing building materials and organizing construction so that the comfortable environments produced are continuously pleasant. The resulting subterranean home interiors are balanced with the natural environment, and are able to extract all of their energy needs from their surroundings without using any commercial energy sources. Thus, there is no longer any need for using mechanical devices or causing any disruption in global ecosystems.

Built-In Temperature for Subterranean Homes

Using PAHS principles derived from over 25 years of research, it has been possible to build homes that are able to self-maintain an internal temperature that varies only a few degrees up and down from a comfortable average of about 70^o F (20^o C.).

Ecologically Compatible and Continuously Comfortable.

Such homes have actually been able to produce a positive energy coefficient. That is, they collect and save more energy than they need for operation. These subterranean homes have been built around the world and have been very successful from Montana to New Zealand, Europe to Alaska.

Surplus of Energy in an Earth Sheltered Home

To date, a number of homes around the world have actually achieved full annual heat storage. That is, they collect absolutely every drop of heating and cooling energy that the homes need through long cold winters, long hot summers and the rest of the year too. They don't just reduce energy consumption, they provide a surplus of energy that is used to provide partial domestic water heating, and provide natural power to run fresh air, heat recovery, and ventilation systems.

This information is being provided to promote the spreading of PAHS homes, to promote energy conservation on a higher plane than is usually done, and to direct people toward the information needed to produce real and positive results. Armed with a knowledge of annual heat storage principles, you will be able to have a part in advancing the technology, and share in overcoming practical building challenges. Make good use of our easy access to publications, videos, and plans, and be brought up to speed on PAHS technology so that all may be benefited!

Earth Sheltered Homes | Passive Annual Heat Storage