Building A Peat Friendly Home

[tara]

Aiming for good temperature and good light would take different approaches depending on the climate. Are you more at risk of cold or over-heating? Damp and mouldy or dry? Glare or gloom? Optimal quantity and orientation of windows, width of eaves, quantity and position of thermal mass, insulation, single, double or triple glazing, ventilation systems, heating, flooring and cladding materials, etc all depend on where you are.

Smaller windows in bedroom so as to let less light in.

Or nice big ones if they would get sunshine rather than streetlights, with good thermal blocking curtains for when you want to keep cold or heat or light out. :)

 

[pimpnamedraypeat]

Live inside a giant coconut

 

[tara]

I've always dreamed of a sunroom with a glass ceiling like this one: https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/d7717b5e0122fc18_4-9691/traditional-sunroom.jpg

Yes please. :)

 

[tara]

Any thoughts on low-E coating on windows?
It reduces heat losses in winter and heat gains in summer. I think it works by filtering some of the invisible frequencies, but I don't know which ones.
Windows lose a lot of heat in winter, and this is a significant part of heating costs or of having a cold house. Cold house is not good for health.
But if it blocks the most important infrared frequencies, that would be a shame.
Anyone been through working this out?

 

[Ritchie]

if I had a house I would install this WP7407656 Ceiling-Mounted Vapor Tight Fixtures - Grainger Industrial Supply get 5 of them installed and use led lights at 2700k or 3000k.

They look interesting, what is their benefit?

 

[Ritchie]

An alternative to a house fan is a heat recovery ventilator.

Interesting idea, I googled them and they look quite efficient and beneficial. Have you had any experience using them?

maybe you can have a sub panel for the electric on the second floor or where your bedrooms are so that you can shut off the AC at night and have a separate DC feed for your recharging your mobile devices

Great idea!

 

[Ritchie]

I've always dreamed of a sunroom with a glass ceiling like this one: https://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/d7717b5e0122fc18_4-9691/traditional-sunroom.jpg

...but maybe on the second floor for privacy reasons. It would be so nice during cold weather.

I know that looks so cool! I am actually planning something like this for the second floor, northern orientated.

 

[lampofred]

That sounds awesome and like it would be incredibly fun. Please keep up updated on your progress.

Don't anything about technical stuff but: high altitude high altitude high altitude.
Away from cities/smog/radiation
Lots of sensory stimulation: luxurious, soft carpets + tiles + wood, loads of pictures/colors/paint, colorful lights especially red light
Loads of windows to let lots of sunlight in
Large and spacious so it doesn't feel like captivity
Maybe pets/farm
Garden with several home grown fruits and flowers (no veggies though heh)

Wow just thinking about a house like that sounds like paradise...

Basically just a mansion...

 

[Ritchie]

That's not Peatish thinking that's haidut thinking. Ray Peat is a man who lost several teeth from eating nothing but wheat germ. A man who would drink 100 cups of coffee a day .

Lets get serious here folks. What you need to do is get rid of windows altogether. Seal every nook and cranny so that no air enters or leaves the house except through highly filtered intakes. No doors either. You will enter and exit the house through fox holes so as to maintain the highest saturation of carbon dioxide at all times. This would turn your house into the biggest, most efficient rebreathing chamber and would easily mimick living at 200,000ft altitude.


Imagine the possibilities

not a bad idea, having guests around may be slightly awkward though haha
Perhaps a separate chamber in the yard or basement?

 

[lampofred]

That's not Peatish thinking that's haidut thinking. Ray Peat is a man who lost several teeth from eating nothing but wheat germ. A man who would drink 100 cups of coffee a day .

Lets get serious here folks. What you need to do is get rid of windows altogether. Seal every nook and cranny so that no air enters or leaves the house except through highly filtered intakes. No doors either. You will enter and exit the house through fox holes so as to maintain the highest saturation of carbon dioxide at all times. This would turn your house into the biggest, most efficient rebreathing chamber and would easily mimick living at 200,000ft altitude.


Imagine the possibilities

this is a man who truly understands ray peat. bravo.

although you could live in a burrow underground instead of going through the hassle of building an airtight house

 

[Ritchie]

I agree with the recommendations about EMF reduction. It is really a serious issue that probably deserves a bit more attention. If you are installing the wiring, there are methods to reduce noise from the outlets themselves, and the devices attached to them. If you are building in or a near a city, using an insulation with the radiant barrier electrically tied together will create a sort of Faraday cage. Grounding this insulation will allow the cage to dump induced potentials into the earth easier. Make sure a very good earth ground is installed, and that outlets are properly tied in.

WiFi and cell phones are probably the biggest threat, so whatever can be done to reduce them will help.

Interesting. Yeah reducing the EMF output as much as possible and practical is important. I am building close to city, I will have a chat to my electrician about what you are saying. Is there anything else you think I should specifically bring up?

 

[Ritchie]

Aiming for good temperature and good light would take different approaches depending on the climate. Are you more at risk of cold or over-heating? Damp and mouldy or dry? Glare or gloom? Optimal quantity and orientation of windows, width of eaves, quantity and position of thermal mass, insulation, single, double or triple glazing, ventilation systems, heating, flooring and cladding materials, etc all depend on where you are.

I am in Australia, South East. It is warm in summer (30 degrees Celsius average) and cold in winter (0-5deg Celsius nights, 5-15 degree days). Relatively mild through spring and autumn (20-25 degrees Celsius). Quite good sun all through the year. I love the warmth and sun so I would say i'm more at risk of cold. It can be both damp and dry depending on the season.

Or nice big ones if they would get sunshine rather than streetlights, with good thermal blocking curtains for when you want to keep cold or heat or light out. :)

 

[Ritchie]

Live inside a giant coconut

haha

 

[Ritchie]

Any thoughts on low-E coating on windows?
It reduces heat losses in winter and heat gains in summer. I think it works by filtering some of the invisible frequencies, but I don't know which ones.
Windows lose a lot of heat in winter, and this is a significant part of heating costs or of having a cold house. Cold house is not good for health.
But if it blocks the most important infrared frequencies, that would be a shame.
Anyone been through working this out?

I'll look into this, it sounds very beneficial. I haven't engaged anyone specific yet to work this out, but I think you bring up a very good point and it is an important factor that probably gets overlooked a lot in building houses.

 

[tara]

I am in Australia, South East. It is warm in summer (30 degrees Celsius average) and cold in winter (0-5deg Celsius nights, 5-15 degree days). Relatively mild through spring and autumn (20-25 degrees Celsius). Quite good sun all through the year. I love the warmth and sun so I would say i'm more at risk of cold. It can be both damp and dry depending on the season.

I like warmth and sun too. But with 30 C averages in summer, I imagine good eaves to limit sun in summer, esp. in the west, and let in more in winter would be useful, and good ways to open up for passive ventilation when you need it. You could really overheat easily if you insulate well and can't block summer heat. Maybe retractable external awning?

Plan in a winter sunbathing spot.

Not sure if you are thinking of concrete slab or suspended timber floor.
If concrete, get the perimeter insulated as well as the underside of the slab - the temperature at the perimeter tends to drop a lot more than directly below, so can have big heat losses there in winter. Leave some of the internal slab exposed(or tiled) as thermal mass in places where it can soak up winter sun. But not necessarily everywhere - if it were me I'd think of a strip a couple of meters wide of polished or tiled concrete near large north-facing windows/doors, with something warmer/softer elsewhere.
If timber, and the ground can be damp under, an effective moisture barrier underneath can a make a big difference, and making it good insulation even better.

Ceilings lose a lot of heat, and are relatively cheap to insulate.

As well as giving off no toxic fumes, wool is more fire-resistant than many synthetic materials, and doesn't irritate lungs etc like fibreglass.

Chipboard tends to have a lot of glue in it - more than plywood, I think, and definitely more than solid wood.

I don't know what current practice is like where you are - consider investigating airtight lining + heat recovery ventilation?

Air to water heat pumps seem to be trending over direct solar water heating?

Photovoltaic panels?

Heat lamp in bathroom, maybe elsewhere?

 

[bluewren]

Double glazed windows made a huge difference in summer and winter for us in Central Tablelands NSW. Our
living areas are SO comfortable now. Highly recommended!

 

[pimpnamedraypeat]

not a bad idea, having guests around may be slightly awkward though haha
Perhaps a separate chamber in the yard or basement?

In reality a finished basement or wine cellar that functioned as a high CO@ rebreathing room would be killer.

 

[tara]

In reality a finished basement or wine cellar that functioned as a high CO@ rebreathing room would be killer.

You'd still have to deal with moisture and ventilation. I expect personal solutions like masks would be simpler, more customisable, more easily maintained, and probably safer.

 

[yerrag]

Are you using any concrete? Concrete absorbs water, even if it doesn't appear so. That's why concrete structures don't last as long as really old structures in China and Europe, according to George Swanson, in this interview: George Swanson - Living, Breathing Buildings - It's Rainmaking Time!®

He talks about using magnesium oxide as a building material.

 

[tara]

He talks about using magnesium oxide as a building material.

There are some structural insulated panels made primarily of of magnesium oxide that can be used for construction - wall and roof (and maybe floor, though prob less benefit there) - they look as though they have some advantages. The methods I've seen are still joined together with wood - I'll be surprised if they last till the next millenium. But I think there might be other bigger issues before then.