GEORGIA ADOBETM BUILDINGS are high thermal mass structures. About 70% of the homes on Planet Earth are actually made from raw earth. When we use the free materials, that God supplied and perhaps some of those we have upon our land, the affordability factor goes way up.
Look at the photo above, It's just a used automobile tire, that is packed with about 250 pounds of earth off the land from about 5 feet down below the grass with -0- organic matter therein . Just as a brick does, this filled tire, holds some energy. That is then added to from solar, and as one is making a wall for the building, and sheets of insulation are placed firmly upon the outside of the wall and a moisture barrier is placed against that insulation. Then, Earth is placed against this exterior moisture barrier, making for mostly a completed wall outside. Landscaping holds all in place, along with about 20 to 30 feet of Earth bermed high against the structure, right up to where the wall ends and the roof starts.
As this building is completed, the Earth's warmth, then can stay inside the tire, until the room is cooler than the thermal mass, due to the insulation holding that warmth inside. With a sunny Southern side exposure, the sun's rays will warm the Earth filled tires and increase the energy stored in those tires. This, just as a battery functions, is charged up with heat, from day after day, of the sun streaming into the building, (or it cools due to a lack there of) through perhaps a Southern facing set of windows. This is called "Passive Solar gain".
In order to cool the building naturally, and without electricity being used, some fresh air is needed with movement of that air through the building, and it draws upon the thermal mass too as it moves. This will come through the pipes, buried during primary construction into the North wall, thereby allowing air to enter the back wall when that pipe is opened manually and if upon the Southern exposure, an upper windows above the large set of picture windows, can be raised ( transom ), then a normal convection (heat rising, cool falling) can take place, allowing fresh air to come through the buried pipes, on the Northern wall and exit, through the Southern wall windows (transom) and thereby, fills the living space with fresh cool air. This is called "Passive Ventilation" and this can be perhaps 58 degree air coming in.
As the walls (etc) thermal mass is allowed to cool , as it will during Summer, due to the higher ark of the suns path in the sky unable to enter easily the Southern Windows, the room will naturally cool aided by the cooling effect of air being drawn from 8 to 10 feet down in the earth and through the house.
This saves the homeowner, {according to the US Department Of Energy Estimates (DOE)} that we've read, , is about 45 to 50% of the buildings electricity needs.
By the structure being earth sheltered and well insulated and full of thermal mass, the seasonal changes don't affect the living conditions very much. No sun can cool the walls thermal mass over about 15 days , but in Winter, the Sun is low in the sky, thereby it streams into the South facing living space, reheating the thermal mass. The thermal mass is not limited to just the walls, as that the floors, and the ceiling can add a great deal of heat or cool depending upon how it's charged and interior walls will also add thermal mass when built in the same way as paragraph describes. And mechanical heating of that space can be engineered too from solar and other methods.
The passage way above, IF enclosed by windows, can gain solar energy, but it can easily lose that free energy, without enough insulation and some major earth sheltering .
#2 "A BUILDING THAT CAN ACTUALLY HEAT AND COOL ITSELF"
Here below, is a VERY SIMPLIFIED drawing of an energy machine, that just looks like a house.
THERE ARE SLANTED EXTERIOR WALLS AND SINGLE ROOF PITCH'S SHOWN W/TOP VENTILATION, BUT there are HUNDRED'S OF OTHER DESIGNS, THAT LOOK VERY TRADITIONAL
BUT STUDY THIS, JUST FOR WHY CONVECTION MOVES AIR.
The simple drawing above shows the suns path in Summer (Left) and the Suns path in Winter (Right). The tires are always easily encased, in the same materials, that the tires are filled with. Thus on the exterior of the interior walls, when plastered with earthen mixes, they can never be seen as anything but earthen walls, if desired, as all can be in earthen colors, and look as if, its just an earthen wall component. If you wish, add a Lime plaster, which can whiten the interior, if desired and then the walls and ceiling can be painted too, with for example a naturalistic paint and or colors, so as to keep the entire structure hypoallergenic.
Note, tires (compacted into solid walls as above), do not off gas a tire smell, nor cause any breathing problems we know of when they are used tires, at or beyond around 30,000+/- miles of road use first and are then also encased in thick Earth plasters, as the pressure inside the structure, is at Earths normal atmospheric pressure (which swings widely during weather changes in our knees and joints), but this is actually a minor change, that does not change the tires effects on the building. Free building materials, give you money for other things !
BY RECYCLING, IMAGINE HOW MANY HOUSES CAN WE ALL CAN BUILD, WITH AMERICA'S SUPPLY OF TIRES ?
HEATING AND COOLING PASSIVELY