Learn about building underground homes using this primer on passively heated solar underground houses.
A Primer on Passively Heated Solar Underground Houses
Regular MOTHER readers know that this magazine has been
championing warm, safe, snug, storm-proof, easy to
(passively solar) heat and cool underground houses for some
time. If this is your first exposure to the idea, however,
Start with “The Beale Solar-Heated Subterranean Guest
House”, pages 80 — 81, in MOTHER NO. 45. Then move on
to MOTHER NO. 46’s Plowboy Interview with Andy Davis (in
which Andy tells how he built a 1,200-square-foot,
three-bedroom underground home — which looks like
$60,000 — for only $15,000 in northern Illinois . . .
and how he heated the building during the winter of 1976177
for the ridiculously low sum of $1.29).
Next up will be The Plowboy Interview with David Wright in
MOTHER NO. 47. David has designed over 30 “sun tempered”
and “passively solar conditioned” houses . . . and the
interview was conducted in his present (97% heating and
cooling self-sufficient) home on the coast of northern
California.
Then, to learn how Jesse Savell — a contractor in
Cotton, California — builds aboveground structures that
are almost as energy efficient as the underground dwellings
covered by the rest of the pieces listed here — read
“Here’s a Passively Heated and Cooled House That You Can
Afford . . . and Will Want”, pages 116 — 118, in MOTHER
NO. 48.
“Landis and Pamela Gores’ Semi-Subterranean ‘House for all
Seasons'”, pages 64 — 65, MOTHER NO. 49, has another
somewhat different slant on the subject. And “The Paul
Isaacson Family Lives in the House of the Future”, pages
101 — 103, MOTHER NO. 50, introduces still another
passively solar heated, underground dwelling viewpoint,
design, and method of construction.
(See pages 66 — 67 of this issue for information on how
to order MOTHER’s back issues.)
Read more about passively heated underground homes: The Beauty of Passively Heated Underground Houses.
