SEE PASSIVELY HEATED UNDERGROUND HOUSES CAN BE BEAUTIFUL TOO!

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We will, however, point out that Buck Vaile and his SEE, Inc. partners were well aware of all those basics and used them to good advantage when they constructed Buck's new home. And we'll mention a couple of additional twists of their own that the SEE boys also incorporated into the residence.

First off, there's the "solaratrium" located on the north side of the underground house . . . between the living quarters themselves and an above-ground garage and storage area. The solaratrium's roof extends up above the earth's surface and is covered with transparent fiberglass sheets which are angled south to collect as much winter sunlight as possible.

The Vaile home does gain some wintertime solar energy passively from this sun room. Much of the warmth collected by the solaratrium, however, would just rise to the top of the 1-1/2 story room and stay there . . . except for a small fan installed in the house. The blower pulls the stratified thermal energy down through a duct running up to the top of the atrium, and distributes the heat to any areas that need additional warmth. (Another—exhaust—fan near the sun room's roof will expel any unwanted heat which builds up in the atrium during the summer.)

Secondly, the SEE crew has built 60 square feet of active hydronic solar collectors into the roof of the Valle home's garage/storage area. These collectors supplementally heat the household's water.

As Buck explains the systems: "We have passive solar space heat supplemented by what we call "hybrid" solar space heat from the solaratrium and active solar water heating. The entire package didn't add more than $3,000 to the cost of the house, though, and we feel it was money well spent."

For backup and additional warmth during the coldest part of the winter, the SEE home is outfitted with a Jøtul woodburning "firestove" (which consumed less than $100 worth of fuel last winter!). A duct directly above the stove collects heat which a fan then pushes to other parts of the house.

The sun-tempered underground dwelling is also equipped with baseboard electric heaters "mainly for reassurance and to please the bank". These heaters were used only in the youngest children's room a few nights at the heights of the winter's worst blizzards and once in a while in the bathrooms when someone was showering.

The SEE designers and builders were just as clever when it came to using the sun's rays for illumination in the Valle home. Every major room in the house gets abundant natural light from either the solaratrium or the windows across the front of the dwelling. Enough light streams in, in fact, to grow houseplants throughout the building . . . and food can even be grown in the atrium when it's used as a greenhouse.

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