This is a system that has similarities to OM Solar. Oil is heated under the roof and this is run under the upper and lower floors and through the hot water tank. In this way it does the same job as OM. Where it does not perfom is in cooling the house. For this we would require air conditioners.
It is the system that Heartful Construction uses. We started talking to them in September 07 and are awaiting a first plan from their designer.
The biulder says that he can build the size we are looking for (40 tsubo) for around 80% of the price we have been quoted by OM builders.
Friday, 19 October 2007
Finding a builder - Yutaka
In August, 2007 we contacted Yutaka Construction - the company that built our friend's house.
Being a larger company than the one-man-show of Katou, they immediately seemed more professional. Like Katou though, they were mostly positive about the contentious issues of an upside down house using OM solar, log fire, jacuzzi, wind power and LED lighting.
The second plan that their designer came up with met a lot of our goals. We both really like the layout of the house. The area under a roof, but outside the kitchen and living room is a great extension to the inside of the house, yet is outside. The jacuzzi has been accommodated. We have large windows that look out in the right direction. There is a loft. The kitchen is sociable. All the bedrooms are large. We have a pantry and storage.
What surprised us is the washing areas are all upstairs. This works well in terms of layout, but there is a problem with heating these rooms. OM solar relies on air flowing inside the house. These rooms will not have any warm air flowing through them and thus will not get heated. Yutaka's solution is to put in heaters. I am uncomfortable with this as it will use electricity to do the job of what the OM heating should do. If these rooms were downstairs then they could be heated through vents in the floor.
On the subject of airflow, there are concerns that we do not have a mezzanine and there is not a big enough passage for warm air to rise to the upper floor. A suggested solution has been to disperse some of the heat under the 2nd floor floorboards as it is being sent down the duct to the concrete under the house. We would be able to control the percentage that is used upstairs and downstairs. At the moment we are awaiting calculations on whether this would allow for sufficient heating of both floors. As the night time heating of the house requires the concrete to be heated throughout the day, we need to make sure enough heat is getting to it.
A quote from Yutaka has come in to just about fit in to our budget (depending on survey and ground work). So now we are eagerly awaiting news of the efficiency of the OM system in this plan.
Some notable absences from this plan are the fireplace - deemed unnecessary, expensive and labour intensive by Yutaka; and wind turbine to power the 12v LED lighting, omitted on the grounds of it not producing a reliable source of electricity.
I am not convinced of the last two arguments yet.
Being a larger company than the one-man-show of Katou, they immediately seemed more professional. Like Katou though, they were mostly positive about the contentious issues of an upside down house using OM solar, log fire, jacuzzi, wind power and LED lighting.
The second plan that their designer came up with met a lot of our goals. We both really like the layout of the house. The area under a roof, but outside the kitchen and living room is a great extension to the inside of the house, yet is outside. The jacuzzi has been accommodated. We have large windows that look out in the right direction. There is a loft. The kitchen is sociable. All the bedrooms are large. We have a pantry and storage.
What surprised us is the washing areas are all upstairs. This works well in terms of layout, but there is a problem with heating these rooms. OM solar relies on air flowing inside the house. These rooms will not have any warm air flowing through them and thus will not get heated. Yutaka's solution is to put in heaters. I am uncomfortable with this as it will use electricity to do the job of what the OM heating should do. If these rooms were downstairs then they could be heated through vents in the floor.
On the subject of airflow, there are concerns that we do not have a mezzanine and there is not a big enough passage for warm air to rise to the upper floor. A suggested solution has been to disperse some of the heat under the 2nd floor floorboards as it is being sent down the duct to the concrete under the house. We would be able to control the percentage that is used upstairs and downstairs. At the moment we are awaiting calculations on whether this would allow for sufficient heating of both floors. As the night time heating of the house requires the concrete to be heated throughout the day, we need to make sure enough heat is getting to it.
A quote from Yutaka has come in to just about fit in to our budget (depending on survey and ground work). So now we are eagerly awaiting news of the efficiency of the OM system in this plan.
Some notable absences from this plan are the fireplace - deemed unnecessary, expensive and labour intensive by Yutaka; and wind turbine to power the 12v LED lighting, omitted on the grounds of it not producing a reliable source of electricity.
I am not convinced of the last two arguments yet.
Finding a builder - Katou
In November, 2006 we first talked to Katou Construction. Beofre our first meeting we had an idea of what we wanted the house to look like, but nothing that we had tried to describe to others before.
Mr Katou was very patient with us and helped lead us down the path of thinking what we want to use the house for and what purposes the different spaces in the house will serve. Over the next 8 months we worked through 7 different plans. The most recent plan (June 07) can be seen below.
The kitchen and living room are upstairs so that we can enjoy the view over the levy to the river and the lake. The large deck is accessible from two sides of the living room by doors that open completely to leave a large 'hole'. As the road-side of the house - that with the narrower (2M) part of the deck - is under a roof we would be able to leave these doors open evein when raining.
The biggest headache with this plan was fitting in the kitchen and the OM duct. The duct seems to be plonked in the midle of one of the entries to the kitchen.
A 2M wide open loft runs the length of the house above the kitchen and rear of the living room. This would house the OM handling unit and be used for storage/study.
With the sensible place to dry clothes being on the deck (under a roof), the distance from the washing machine is a drawback.
We liked many things about this plan - space for a jacuzzi on the deck; open living, dining and kitchen; large loft; high ceiling; view; large room for children. However, as yet we have not been able to get it within the budget. That couple with the location of the kitchen/pantry and OM duct prompted us to start looking for other builders.
Mr Katou was very patient with us and helped lead us down the path of thinking what we want to use the house for and what purposes the different spaces in the house will serve. Over the next 8 months we worked through 7 different plans. The most recent plan (June 07) can be seen below.
The kitchen and living room are upstairs so that we can enjoy the view over the levy to the river and the lake. The large deck is accessible from two sides of the living room by doors that open completely to leave a large 'hole'. As the road-side of the house - that with the narrower (2M) part of the deck - is under a roof we would be able to leave these doors open evein when raining.
The biggest headache with this plan was fitting in the kitchen and the OM duct. The duct seems to be plonked in the midle of one of the entries to the kitchen.
A 2M wide open loft runs the length of the house above the kitchen and rear of the living room. This would house the OM handling unit and be used for storage/study.
With the sensible place to dry clothes being on the deck (under a roof), the distance from the washing machine is a drawback.
We liked many things about this plan - space for a jacuzzi on the deck; open living, dining and kitchen; large loft; high ceiling; view; large room for children. However, as yet we have not been able to get it within the budget. That couple with the location of the kitchen/pantry and OM duct prompted us to start looking for other builders.
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