Buildin Solar News

How Can Brick Stone Make Your Home Energy Efficient
Wes Waddell

Defined Tag: Brick Stone Home Energy Efficient.

A home that is energy-efficient is actually healthier and more cost effective over time. Energy efficiency modifications in and around your home can eliminate or at least lessen the poor quality of air that’s brought in by various weather conditions and chemicals that are used in most of todays standard building materials... thank goodness more green building products are becoming more readily available.

One way to make your home more energy efficient is to pay closer attention to the building materials used in it's construction or remodel and to the house design and layout itself.

In Australia, bricks have long been recognized as the most commonly chosen building materials. In fact, nearly 90% of the houses built in Australia are constructed using bricks and blocks. Because of the governments campaign to decrease energy consumption in all its forms, there are new building regulations put in place that require the newly constructed houses and businesses to be more energy efficient. I don't remember what that new percentage is, but with that in mind... even in other parts of the world, there are a few things you need to know in order to come up with an informed and educated choice in your building materials.

I want you to think for a moment about the amount of energy that’s usually consumed in your home. Most people are really surprised to find out that the largest part of the home's energy is used up in cooling and heating the inside spaces. Cooking and lighting, even when you put them together, comprise only a few percent of the total energy use in the whole house. That's why we tell you that anything you can do which will help lessen the cooling and heating bills of your home will always be a good investment, ALWAYS!

The question then becomes, do you think it is possible to cut down on your cooling and heating energy consumption within the new or remodeled  home while keeping within a comfortable thermal comfort inside?

This is where passive solar home design comes into play.

Passive solar home and business design takes a better look at the energy coming from the sun and how to use it to improve the home’s cooling and heating in a totally natural way. There are actually four (4) major principles in passive design that are easily understood and used to your advantage. These are (1) orientation, (2) insulation, (3) ventilation and (4) thermal mass.

Let's take a look at them one at a time:

· Orientation. If you are building a new home or looking to purchase a new one - this one conscious thought process could save you more on your energy costs than the other 3 combined. This is quite simply nothing more than taking the huge glass portion in the North (South in the Northern hemisphere and USA) part of your home and using it to allow the low winter sun in to heat the inside. You then limit the amount of glass on the opposite side (summer sun side) so that you block the high summer sun's heat rays. Then use simple shading on your summer side eaves to protect what glass you do have on that side. Planting trees on the east and west sides that are thick with leaves for shade in the summer and bare allowing winter sun access could also reduce your energy costs by 25% or even more depending on where you live.

· Ventilation. When the crest of summer time has already passed (the sun is at it's highest), air is now permitted to get in and go out of the house in order to make it as cool as possible in a natural manner. Cross ventilation is best. To optimize your cross ventilation, plan your openings (doors and windows) on either side of the business or the home so that you have generous large openings with almost negligible internal obstructions such as walls or cabinets.

· Insulation. I have heard a lot and seen even more about the insulation in modern homes. Most everyone knows that the insulation in the wall and ceiling is what serves as the obstacle to heat transportation in and out of the home. Insulation efficiency can be calculated and expressed by means of its R-value but... it doesn’t present the whole issue that way. Various walls may have the same R-value but may not work the same simply because of orientation and the materials used. It's also been documented recently in numerous studies that a home that is totally sealed poses great health risks since all the harmful chemicals in the walls, carpeting and even your paints get trapped in the stale air inside the home.  Ventilation is especially important in the cold winter months when we spend so many of our days trapped inside.

· Thermal Mass. This is simply talking about how heavy and dense a material is and how much heat it holds. Wall materials that are dense and heavy, like bricks and concrete, suck up a lot of heat and hamper its conveyance through the walls. That's why block/brick/concrete buildings stay so much cooler naturally in summer and remain well above freezing even when temperatures outside are well below that. Compared to brick walls, the lightweight materials used in wood construction have very low thermal mass. Now you know why the thermal mass of brick and concrete walls turn out to be more so much more capable of moderating your homes temperature even if they have similar R-values to the wood construction materials.

Now, let's put it all together:

The first two techniques in the passive solar home design, which are orientation and ventilation, need to be set up into the house from the beginning or reconstructed during a major remodel. Then, your home's building material preference has a major effect on the quantity of thermal mass and how much heat it can store and release into or keep out of the home or business. This directly effects how much ventilating you can do year round. One of the simplest and most economical ways to increase your homes thermal mass is through bricks, blocks and concrete. Those bricks that are made from heated kiln dried clay contain a very high thermal mass. They are almost universally available to make your home well ventilated, comfortable and more energy efficient.

Note: Recent advances in the use of concrete as shotcrete, gunite or guncrete now make it possible to save a bundle of cash in your passive solar home's building costs and you can make it look like almost anything you want... even as if it was wood or log cabin siding.  Of course, that's for another time.  Let's finish up here first.

There is a lot of really well done research proving the idea that brick, block, stone, or concrete homes are extremely energy efficient. That same research has revealed that a large part of the heat is bounced back to the outside environment via the brick’s exterior panel especially the lighter colors. Another conclusion that came out of all this passive solar building materials research is that in summertime, the temperature inside a home that’s constructed from bricks remained favorable and comfortable in spite of the ever changing temperatures outside.

Tid Bit: What's the best color for absorbing the most heat from the sun?  NO, IT'S NOT BLACK!

The US Department of Energy stated that thermal mass stores up heat by means of converting its temperature. This can be achieved by either storing heat coming from the warm air in a room or by means or transforming direct solar radiation from the sun into heat. And, since brick, stone/rock, or concrete has more thermal mass than other lightweight building materials, it is a very useful element that can be employed in making your new or remodeled home more energy efficient.

To sum up, brick, stone/rock, and even concrete is a very simple and inexpensive technique used in adding to your homes total thermal mass. Therefore a brick, stone/rock, and even concrete passive solar designed home is more energy efficient and cost effective than those stick built homes that are made from other light weight materials.

By the way... the best color for absorbing the most heat from the sun is Olive Drab Green - Army Green.  Interesting... isn't it?

Wes Waddell