My neighbour's wife read "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien, and decided they needed to build an underground house. 30 years ago. Here's a couple shots of their place:
see the chimney in the center of the green space?
My neighbour's wife read "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien, and decided they needed to build an underground house. 30 years ago. Here's a couple shots of their place:
see the chimney in the center of the green space?
that's really cool. How energy efficient is the place?
WARNING: This post may contain material offensive to those who lack wit, humor, common sense and/or supporting factual or anecdotal evidence. All statements and assertions contained herein may be subject to but not limited to: irony, metaphor, allusion and dripping sarcasm.
Amazingly so!!
His heating/cooling bills are about $20./mo. where I have a traditional style house, that I've done amazing insulating to and am still averaging over $100.
you can't see from the pics, but he's got over 100sf of solar on the front, and can go off grid with a flip of a switch.
I aspire to be him!
lol
That is in Manitoba?!
Very nice place. Underground is my dream house. Has been for years. Maybe one day.
Is that a L shaped lake around the back of the house? How big is the house? Total underground on 3 sides or more?
Yup...Manitoba, just down the road a ways from me.
it is an L shaped pond, which joins to another one barely visible at the top of the phot, so in essense, he has water on three sides
What he did was he dug the hole for the basement, then built the house, then used the fill to cover it over, including what he dug out for the ponds.
The South facing side is not covered, and open to the sun. It is essentially a bank of windows.
I think he said that it was about 2400sf in size
Ah..Canada...land of the mystical lumberjack commandos....(just kidding guys!)
or am I.......
WARNING: This post may contain material offensive to those who lack wit, humor, common sense and/or supporting factual or anecdotal evidence. All statements and assertions contained herein may be subject to but not limited to: irony, metaphor, allusion and dripping sarcasm.
Sniper that is one nice lay out. Not much worry about drinking water either, I would assume fish to eat as well.
He hasn't done fish, as he is only 5-8 feet deep, and in a cold winter, it would freeze solid. He provided me with valuable info though for when I started building my poond, I took it down to 18 feet, and although a technical problem killed them off this summer, I had 200 trout thriving nicely in mine.
He would have to filter his water for drinking, being that shallow, he gets a lot of algae. He also allows runoff into his, which isn't the greatest either. He raises peacocks, and encourages geese into his pond, and has 11 mating pairs that return annually. Between that, his amazing garden and greenhouses, he'll do well for food. I'll supply him with the water and fish in trade. lol
The runoff is easily enough filtered. I didn't consider the cold winters up there and 5-8' would not be deep enough to hold them over. I bet your at 18' you will be in good shape.
The geese are a nice touch.
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