No heating or cooling systems in our strawbale home.  According to the bank, this is true.  However, we have a wood stove and we have two 5' x 6' windows facing south, which is all we need.  We oriented the house 10 degrees off south, so these windows would get proper solar gain in the winter, yet they'll be shaded by the roof overhang in the summer.  In the winter, the sun pours onto our concrete floor, which absorbs the heat and radiates it out throughout the evening.  We also have heat sources like a washer/dryer, dishwasher and people taking showers.  Finally, since we didn't really know how warm our house would stay, we had the house wired for baseboard heaters in a few rooms, just in case.  However, we have learned, they are totally not needed. 
 
     

For cooling, we aren't people who like a cold house.  Our goal is to keep our house somewhere in the upper 70's in the summer.  We have a very open floorplan which allows for excellent south to north ventilation.  We have only two small windows on the west side which are exposed to afternoon sun.  South to north winds prevail here, so, we expect in the summer we can leave windows open at night to get our "pocket" of cool air.  In the mornings, we'll close the windows and enjoy the cool air inside while it gets to 100 degrees outside.  This has yet to be tested, but with how successful our heating has worked, we are not concerned.  This house truly locks in the air.

Our hot water heater is a solar hot water system with electric back up.  It is actually a "drain back" type solar system, which has a 10' x 4' water panel on the roof.  There are basically two systems:  Heating Water and the Useable Water.  Heating water goes up into the panel and gets heated by the sun.  Then it comes down and circulates through pipes which are wrapped around the water we want heated for use.  This process continues to keep our water hot.  So far, it allows us to take showers at night and still have plenty of hot water for showers in the morning, should we need them.  However, as we do have some cloudy days in the winter, we do have electric back up which kicks on automatically if the Heating Water doesn't get hot enough.

                  

                  

We were originally going to install a solar electric system sized so that we  would save ourselves from having to pay electric bills.  However, our local electric utility does not offer net metering.  Unfortunately, our system would have had to be so large and with such a large battery bank, it did not make financial sense to install it.  Had the utility company offered net metering, the payback period would have been short enough to make financial sense.

We get our water from a well, so the only direct cost for this is the small electric bill to pump it.  We have a septic system for our waste and so there is no direct cost for this.  We do use all natural cleaners and add microbes regularly to keep the system functioning, but their cost is minimal.  The only cleaner we use in our house is an all natural product that works for all cleaning purposes and so we only have one bottle of cleaner in our house...Enviro-One.
 
                 

We have purchased two rain water tanks;  one is 1500 gallon and one is 1100 gallon.  They are both too small.  We should have bought larger and we are going to purchase an additional 1500-2000 gallon tank.  These tanks will be used to water our outdoor landscaping.  Additionally, our greywater will be used to water outdoor landscaping.  We want an area in the front and in the back that attracts lots of hummingbirds, birds and butterflies.  This area is known for its birding and hummingirds, so we're taking full advantage of that!  These tanks are hooked up to our gutter downspouts coming off our metal roof.  From what we understand, these tanks will fill up in the first couple of monsoon rains we have.  Of course, we have more than one or two monsoon rains...oh, well, we'll add tanks until we can catch all or most of it.

For our landscaping, we are going to compost to help give our plants the nutritents they need, considering we live in desert sand.  We bought a compost crock from greenfeet.com to put our scraps in.  This is most awkward part of composting and this crock really helps.  There should be a picture of a crock on the left side of this page about halfway down.  Click on it and it will take you to where we bought ours.....greenfeet.com.  They also have other composting items to check out, as well as many green or natural products.

We wanted a house that was as self sufficient as possible.  With almost no cost for water, no cost for waste, a very light electric load (all appliances are Energy Star rated, we use CFL bulbs, hot water is solar supported, no heating or cooling costs other than wood and ceiling fans, we use a solar oven as much as possible), we feel quite successful.  So far, we've passed the heat test.  Now, all we have to do is pass the cool test this summer.


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Enviro-One is truly an awesome cleaner.  It can be used for virtually all of your cleaning needs.  It reaplaces all the bottles of harmful toxic chemcial cleaners in your house.

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