GBA Logo horizontal Facebook LinkedIn Email Pinterest Twitter X Instagram YouTube Icon Navigation Search Icon Main Search Icon Video Play Icon Plus Icon Minus Icon Picture icon Hamburger Icon Close Icon Sorted
Article

Pointed at the Sun


An innovative solar-heating system is the foundation of an artist’s small country house, where an equally smart plan accommodates both life and work

The husband-and-wife architectural partnership of David Arkin and Anni Tilt is known to push the boundaries of sustainable building. In this case, they whittled down a proposed 2500-sq.-ft. project to create a 1600-sq.-ft. home for a California artist and her two children; it uses both active and passive solar strategies to gather electricity and heat. The house shares a roof with a 300-sq.-ft. guest apartment, and shares the site with a shop/studio that’s sized to lead a double life as a garage. The heart of the house, though, is a sand-bed heat bank. That’s where glycol heated at the photovoltaic collector courses through tubing and heats the slab to about 75°F. The solar system has cut the homeowner’s energy costs in half.

Pointed-at-the-Sun_FHB195.pdf

GBA Prime

This article is only available to GBA Prime Members

Sign up for a free trial and get instant access to this article as well as GBA’s complete library of premium articles and construction details.

Start Free Trial

0 Comments

Log in or become a member to post a comment.

Related

Community

Recent Questions and Replies

  • |
  • |
  • |
  • |