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While the house looks very complicated, construction is fairly simple. Most of the wall, roof, and floor panels are equilateral triangles, eight or ten feet along each edge depending upon the floor plan selected. The panel skins consist of materials graded according to the climatic conditions at the installation site. These skins encase insulating materials, creating a very strong stressed-skin panel with an R-28 insulation value. The roof panels are covered with a durable, reflective, and self-glazing material.
The inner layer of insulating foam within the structural panels is dipped into a phase change material. At 70° this material begins to melt, while remaining bound within the foam. It absorbs a great deal of room heat as it melts, keeping the air temperature at 75° until all of the phase change material has melted. As the room cools, the phase change material solidifies between 70° and 65°, releasing as much heat as can be stored in 3" of concrete. Since every surface is releasing this heat, the room air warms to the temperature of the walls. When all the phase change material has melted, the room temperature rises above 75°. This heats and expands carbon dioxide gas in a piston at the peak of the house, which pushes an actuating rod, opening a vent and exhausting the excess heat.
The house utilizes the properties of crystal energy to create a healing, clear environment. Lightning rods at the peaks attract the electrical charge of the sky and transmit this charge along the edges of the structure through copper wires to quartz crystals at each point, then down to grounding rods buried in the Earth.
The quartz crystals resonate to the frequency of this conducted charge and emit electrical energy. Glass spheres enclose these crystals. The air is drawn out of the spheres and is replaced with gases which ionize and fluoresce with the crystal charge. The spheres emit a warm, natural light and are controlled via a variable switch. Photovoltaic panels, an optional wind generator, and batteries power full-spectrum compact fluorescent lights. These lights are switched with light and motion sensors, so the room lights up when entered and darkens when exited, if daylight is not sufficient. The wall and ceiling surfaces may also contain phosphors which absorb the sun's light during the day and glow through the night.
Sunlight enters the south windows, warming the surfaces directly and also indirectly as the warm air circulates to the shaded surfaces. The windows consist of no less than three layers of clear Tedlar film, a very strong material which does not degrade in sunlight. The windows are soft like pillows.
The windows exchange heat from warm stuffy room air being exhausted to cool fresh air entering. The room air enters the inner air space at the top of the window and as it loses heat through the window it sinks out the bottom of the window. The fresh air enters the outer air space at the bottom of the window, picks up the heat being released by the room and old air through the film, and rises into the room at the top of the window. This captures about 85% of the heat in the exhausted room air plus the heat lost through the window from the room, giving it an effective insulation value equal to 5" of fiberglass (R-14), while the house has the fresh breath and scent of the outdoors.</p>
Solar collectors on the south sloped roof panels both heat the water and cool the refrigerator. These panels are filled with a material which adsorbs ten times its volume in water. During the day the 200° heat generated within the panels evaporates the water contained within this material. The resulting expansion from vapor pressure evenly fills a piping system with water vapor. Water vapor carries 17 times as much heat as an equal volume of dry air. The vapor condenses in tubing within the hot water tank, transferring the heat of condensation to the water within the tank. The condensed water pre-heats the incoming cold water at the bottom of the tank, then flows down to tubes in the refrigerator box. After sunset, the solar collectors cool down and the adsorbent material reclaims the vapor, thus dropping the vapor pressure of the piping system. As the vapor pressure drops, the water in the refrigerator tubes evaporates very readily. As the system pressure approaches near-vacuum, the evaporation absorbs so much heat from the refrigerator water that it freezes the water remaining in the tubes. The resulting ice keeps the refrigerator cold during the following day. As the vapor rises back to the adsorbent material, it is diverted through a bypass valve around the hot water tank. Each shelf in the super-insulated refrigerator is an individual drawer. When opened, the cold, heavy air is retained within the drawer, versus conventional refrigerators with side-hinged doors, which allow the cold, heavy air to tumble onto the kitchen floor each time the door is opened.
Solar photovoltaic panels generate electricity. They can be mounted where most convenient or in treetops in a forested location. Wind power from an optional wind generator in the tree tops or hydro power from a local stream or waterfall increases in winter and during storms, just as solar power is decreasing and as the lighting needs increase. Solar, wind, and hydro electrical power feed through a charge controller into batteries. When needed, it flows through an inverter to change the 12v dc current to 110v ac.
Rainwater on the roofs runs into gutters, then flows into a cold water tank located in the ceiling between the rooms, above the closets. This tank also filters the water through sand, angel hair, and charcoal. An optional ozonator further ensures water purity. It flows to over-sized faucets through one-inch pipes, to give full flow at very low pressure. It also flows to the hot water tank. A low-flow showerhead requires very little water. A thermo-siphoning solar collector located in the southern deck heats and filters water for a covered, insulated hot tub.
Greywater from sinks and shower flows through a sand filter, then to the hydroponic gardens. The toilet flushes with a ball valve instead of a U-trap, thus requiring very little pressure and only a pint of water to flush. The toilet waste water flows to a clear fiberglass tank beneath the south deck.
Sunlight enters this tank, where algae feed on the sewage. The algae water then flows through a one-way valve to a second tank, painted black, also heated by the sun. Here anaerobic bacteria feed on the algae, and produce methane. They produce five times as much methane from the algae cellulose as they would from the raw sewage. When the pressure has sufficiently risen, an exit valve in the bacteria tank bursts open, releasing the water and bacteria to a solar still. With the pressure released, the exit valve closes and a fresh load of algae water flows into the tank. The pressurized methane later flows through a regulator, and proceeds on to the cook stove and a quiet back-up electrical generator.
Between the opposite polarities of algae growth (oxidation) and the anaerobic bacteria digesting the algae (reduction), an electrical potential develops. It is a living battery. An anode in the algae tank and cathode in the bacteria tank collect this current, which can then be transformed and inverted for household power.
The solar still evaporates the water and pasteurizes (sterilizes with heat) the bacterial solids left behind, which make excellent fertilizer. The water vapor rises up a tube and condenses in the hot water tank in the peak of the house, completing the water cycle
Hydroponic trays are fitted to the structure which are automatically fed by the filtered greywater system and provide a food source for the family. In temperate zones, these trays are mounted on the exterior of the structure during the spring and summer and move inside during the fall and winter months.