Storage of solar thermal energy can save a lot of fossil energy over time. A heat pump system could be designed in U.S. homes to store thermal energy during the summer and use that heat during the winter. The heat pump runs more efficiently during the summer and winter saving natural gas and electricity. Using solar thermal collectors, absorption cooling and a fluid source heat pump, most U.S. homes could save a significant amount of money and save a lot of fossil energy every year.

The Drake's Landing solar thermal system would use less energy then the heat pump system for general operation,

Heat pumps still use about 1/4 to 1/6 of the energy to move the energy, but when we reach a point where the grids are extremely expensive, and/or are down more then they are operating, the heat pump system turns into a loss of money, as it would use too much aucillary power to operate.

Or, let's not use ANY external energy to heat and cool. Still have to find a solution for your lights, water and cooking, but that should be simple enough...

http://www.enertia.com/

The problem with these homes? They don't fit into the budget of about 99% of the planet. I do believe people are going to be stealing the concept, though, if the company doesn't make it more readily available.

Brilliant design, all said. My question is whether you can get similar results with logs, natural or hewn?

Cheers

I have heard that argument before, but if your heat store gets down to 80F in February, you do not have much heating without a heat pump. Lots of people live where they have all electric homes and use heat pumps for heating and cooling. The heat pump is more efficient working with 60F fluid than 100F air when cooling. It is also more efficient using 80F fluid for heating than using 30F air. If you have PV panels offsetting the electricity usage, you can do quite well. Solar absorption cooling can take care of a lot of the cooling in many parts of the country and can offset a lot of compression cooling costs during the day. A systems approach needs to provide benefits in more places than Alberta or Phoenix.