ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDING DESIGN
The present invention relates to an energy efficient housing and to a method of providing an energy efficient housing wherein building material and house structure aim to provide a system effectively using external temperature for house needs. The house is built of multilayered blocks having layers of concrete and layer of mixture of concrete, cellulose fiber and sand surrounded with exterior and interior stucco finish layers prepared by a simplified process. The concrete layer has a plurality of air passages with baffles used for transferring of hot and cool air which change the temperature from the house walls and roof heated with sun radiation or cooled by cold outside air. The hot air is transferred to a hot air reservoir for further household needs and cool air is transferred to a cold air reservoir.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to energy efficient housing and, more particularly, to a method of providing energy efficient housing wherein building material and structure provide a system effectively using external temperature for heating and other energy needs of the building.
2. Background Description
Efficiency of buildings in terms of energy consumption is affected mostly by two major factors: source of energy and insulation. In terms of energy source, contemporary housing usually relies on central heating systems which can be run on gas, oil, electricity or solar energy. However, all the above sources are costly and largely inefficient. Even buildings which use solar panels for collecting energy still require very expensive equipment which is usually susceptible to damage in order to collect and preserve energy of the sun in electrical form. However, conversion to electrical energy introduces additional inefficiency as well as being costly and, therefore, such systems are not in widespread use. More typically, the equipment necessary for using solar energy usually includes solar panels which heat water or air as an energy transfer medium for further use in the building. During the day, the sun heats all outside walls and roof of the house but the solar panels can capture only a small fraction of this heat since it is not practical or aesthetically acceptable to cover all outside building areas with solar panels even though solar energy can be used more effectively than other energy sources.
Solar energy collection systems which use air as an energy transfer medium are generally more convenient than systems using a liquid energy transfer medium. The use of an air solar panel system in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,798 presents the advantages of solar heat but eliminates the problems which can occur if water is used as the heat transferring medium. However, the system still requires solar panels which should be installed on a roof of a building and does not collect energy incident on the remainder of the building. Storage of heat also presents problems since solar energy cannot be collected at night and known collector panels are structurally, by their nature, good radiators of heat energy to the environment.
It is well understood that energy efficient buildings should have particularly good insulation qualities. Unfortunately, many materials having good insulation properties cannot carry significant structural loads and vice-versa. However, superior insulation qualities can be achieved by using a special materials. For instance, cellulose as an additive to concrete can provide advantageous insulating qualities but has proven difficult to suitably prepare. U.S. Pat. No. 6,843,844 discloses a method and process of making a lightweight cellulose modified aggregate cement. According to the method, dry pulp fiber is saturated with a fortifying solution in order to yield moldable material suitable for use in the formation of molded construction components. Such fortifying compounds are finely ground prior to mixture and cellulose fiber is prepared prior to fortification by purification. The purification is accomplished by mechanical grinding and application of an ammonia solution. Afterwards cement is added to the mixture. The resulting mixture is used for molding construction blocks. However, such blocks cannot be used on outside building surfaces since they contain cellulose fibers which can be affected by moisture.
Therefore, there is a need for simple, energy efficient housing wherein the solar energy can be collected and preserved more effectively using materials which are more suitable for construction. Specifically, a system is needed wherein all heat given by the sun to the outside walls of the building is effectively collected and preserved for household needs. Moreover, there is currently no known construction method or structure which can effectively use a building environment as an energy source or sink consistent with simple and inexpensive construction techniques.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a building construction made of multilayered blocks or panels having an interconnect for transferring heated or cooled air from the outside part of walls heated by the sun or cooled at night time, thus using solar energy or the absence thereof for heating or cooling purposes in the building.
It is another object of the invention to provide a structure which provide such advantages while being fabricated by a simple method suitable for mass production as well as a simplified procedure for preparing materials fro the same.
According to the invention, in order to perform energy transfer, special building blocks or panels are used. Specifically, the part of the block or panel facing the interior of a house or other building is made of a mixture of concrete with fibers such as cellulose fiber, preferably from paper, which provides exceptional insulation properties while the outer portion is formed from a dense concrete mixture capable of heat transfer and which is resistant to moisture as well as being capable of bearing substantial structural loads. Generally, the proposed block or panel has an exterior part about 7 inch as thick, made of dense concrete and an interior part of a block approximately 9 inches thick and made of mixture of cellulose (e.g. paper) fiber, sand and cement in particular proportions. The walls also have exterior and interior finish of stucco or other moisture resistant material about ½ inch thick which provides an aesthetically pleasing appearance. The dense concrete part preferably includes air passages or tunnels with baffles penetrated by a plurality of small holes about 1 inch or less in diameter with about 1 inch in between holes in a vertically spaced layout. When the outside wall is heated by the sun, these small holes and baffles are used to transfer as much solar heat energy as possible to air passed through the holes and then to a reservoir filed with river stones or analogous material which is inexpensive but has a relatively high specific heat (the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of a given quantity thereof by a given amount). The portion of the block or panel facing the interior of the building, due to containing cellulose fibers (e.g. from newspapers), has good thermal insulation properties and has one or more channels for utilities, vents, air passages to reservoirs and cutouts for doors, windows etc.
Mid floors of an energy efficient building in accordance with the invention are preferably formed with structural steel and preferably have three layers, one of which will be a mixture of paper, concrete and sand. A roof of an energy efficient house in accordance with the invention is built with structural steel and paper-cement layer with a dark waterproof, monolithic membrane to capture as much solar energy as possible. A triangular or gabled form of this roof provides internal tunnels for air passages to and from the reservoirs to the walls and roof piping. According to the present invention, reservoirs preferably include well rings filled with river stones or some dense inert material. Preferably sump pumps are placed around the perimeter of the reservoirs to remove seepage. Well rings can be also placed inside this perimeter and act as a support for the foundation if local construction code allows. Pumps or fans are used to move air in and from reservoirs, if heat or cooling is needed in the house, air can be moved either directly from the wall system and/or the reservoirs to the building interior during the day. Air from the wall system can also be used to heat water for household use.
The wall sections are made in a plurality of pours. The outer wall thickness is first poured as a slab, over an outer finish surface such as stucco, if desired. Forms are added for the baffles and rods inserted to form the holes in the baffles and the baffles are poured in a second pour after which the rods are removed to complete the holes in the baffles. The inner wall sections are poured separately in a manner similar to the outer wall sections except that pipes, conduits and/or raceways and electrical and plumbing hardware are included. Depending on the nature of the baffled forms, the outer wall section can be inverted and placed on top of the inner wall section before curing or, preferably, the inner wall section can be poured on top of the outer wall portion and the baffle forms removed thereafter. According to the present invention the pouring could be performed in a substantially continuous process.
The process of preparing a mix of cement and cellulose fiber preferably involves placing newspapers and sand in a device for mixing concrete and adding excess water (relative to the amount later required in the concrete) and allowing the sand to abrade the wet newspaper by normal operation of the mixing device. When the cellulose fiber reaches the proper consistency, the excess water is removed and the proper amount of Portland cement is added and mixed with the sand, cellulose fiber and remaining water which can be supplemented as needed.
The foregoing and other objects, aspects and advantages will be better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which:
The principal purpose of the present invention is to capture, store and use as much solar energy as possible during the day, when the sun heats outside walls of a house and/or radiate heat therefrom at night or when solar energy collection is not needed or possible. Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to
As shown in
The capture, storing and usage of solar energy is made possible due to the special structure of the building blocks or heat transfer panels from which an energy efficient house or building in accordance with the invention is made. As shown in
The layer 33 of a building block or panel can preferably be fabricated 9 inches or thicker and includes a mixture of cellulose fiber, sand and cement. More specifically, newspapers and other paper products can be used for this mixture. The proportions of paper, sand and cement in this mixture are preferably approximately 1:8:2. With this amount of cellulose in the mixture a fire resistant layer is produced which, at the same time, can securely hold nails and other common construction fasteners and provide good insulation for the house compared with regular dense concrete. The layer 33 also preferably contains support columns for the upper floors 112 and roof 113 and also contains channels 36, 37 for utilities. If it is necessary in view of ambient climate, the layer 33 can contain voids filled with insulation such as fiber glass or plastic foam. Cutouts for doors and windows are also made in this layer as well as layers 31 and 32 with air passages around the perimeter thereof in layer 32. The layer 33 is covered with stucco, plaster or other finish material layer 34 facing interior of the building. Interior walls or other surfaces which could be applied inside of the energy efficient building are preferably made of the paper mix and stucco, omitting or reducing the dense concrete layer to the extent possible in view of anticipated loads and/or heat transfer needs. These wall panels also contain channels and fittings, as desired for vents, air passages to reservoirs and cutouts for doors, etc.
Intermediate floors are formed with structural steel and panels suitable therefor preferably comprise three layers. The upper surface would preferably be poured first with stucco to form a stone like surface. Other layers in all interior walls, ceilings and floors which are not to be used for energy transfer as described above comprise concrete containing the paper filler and can contain ducts for air distribution which may or may not provide for heat transfer. For some building panels where load-bearing strength is less important, the proportion of paper filler could be increased to reduce weight.
The roof of an energy efficient house is built principally with structural steel (some or all of which may be provided as reinforcement for the block, as generally (e.g. omitting dense concrete layer depicted at 32 of
The reservoir for collecting heat 12 and for collecting cold air 13 are preferably placed under the floor of the building and preferably made in the form of well rings. The ring structure allows a fairly deep placement with a prefabricated aspect that allows efficiency in construction. The rings are filled with river stones or some dense inert material such as concrete chunks. The rings can be placed side by side with gravel or insulation between. Gravel around the bottom of the rings is preferred with one or more sump pumps to remove seepage. Rings can also be placed around the perimeter of the excavation and a large reservoir of stone placed inside this perimeter. This perimeter placement can act as a support for the foundation if local construction code will allow. The order of construction during installation of well rings preferably is: first, to pour the main foundation at the bottom of the excavation, place the rings, pour a floor over the rings filled with stone with appropriate tunnels for air movement and access to pumps 14, and 15. The warm air is delivered to the bottom of the reservoir 12 and removed from the top. For cool air reservoir 13 the procedure is reverse, e.g. the cool air is delivered to the top and removed from the bottom of reservoir 13. Otherwise the structure of the warm air reservoir and the cold air reservoir are substantially the same. For that reason, it may be desirable, depending on seasonal climate differences, to provide a plurality of reservoirs and which can be used for either cool or warm air and to vary the number of reservoirs used for each of cool or warm air from season-to-season depending on anticipated building needs. It is also preferred that the reservoirs be constructed such that the filler in the rings can be washed periodically in order to remove dust.
In applications where temperature stability is of high importance (as distinct from achieving a particular temperature with improved economy), it has been found by the inventor that the structure of
The formation of an exterior wall panel begins with step S1, a stucco layer 21 formation, shown in diagram on
The next layer 23 could be about 9 inches thick and made of special mixture of concrete with paper and sand. The process of preparing this mixture is started by mixing cellulose fiber (paper, newspaper or like) with sand and water in a concrete mixer or the like until paper is abraded into fiber, step S7. An appropriate size mixer is loaded by weight with one part of newspaper, eight parts of sand suitable for making concrete and thirteen parts of water. After mixing, the prepared slurry is put into a press for removing about five parts of the excess water in step S8. After excess water removal two parts of Portland cement is added and mixed with slurry in step S9. Before the paper-cement mixture is poured into the form or at any time the curing of the dense concrete is adequate, rods, placed for forming tunnels 25, are removed from the structure in step S6. The part of paper/cement mixture is poured into the form and raceways 26 are added in step S10. After that, the rest of the mixture is poured into the form, the form can be removed in step S12. The process is finished by formation of interior stucco layer 24 in step S13.
While the invention has been described in terms of a single preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
Claims
1. An energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and/or roof surfaces heated by solar radiation, comprising:
- walls made of multilayered panels or blocks having a plurality of air passages for transferring heat from the walls heated by solar radiation in at least a first layer and an insulating second layer;
- heat reservoir means for collecting heat transferred from said walls through said air passages;
- cold reservoir means from which heat is transferred to said walls through said air passages;
- heated air distributors comprising a first plurality of pumps.
2. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 1, further comprising roof panels made of structural steel and multilayered panels having a plurality of air passages for transferring heated air from the walls heated by solar radiation.
3. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 1, further comprising floor panels formed of structural steel based multilayered panels.
4. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 1, wherein said multilayered panels have four layers: internal moisture resistant finish layer, mixture of concrete with paper and sand layer, concrete layer and external moisture resistant finish layer.
5. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 1, wherein said multilayered blocks have four layers: internal moisture resistant finish layer, mixture of concrete with paper and sand layer, concrete layer and external moisture resistant finish layer.
6. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 1, wherein said multilayered panels have six layers: internal stucco layer, first layer of a mixture of concrete with paper and sand layer, river rocks filling, second layer of a mixture of concrete with paper and sand layer, concrete layer and external finish stucco layer.
7. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 6, wherein a plurality of baffles between river rocks filling layer and inside a house and layer with plurality of air passages are provided.
8. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 1, wherein non-heated air is distributed by a second set of pumps.
9. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 1, wherein said heat reservoir and cold reservoir comprise spaces containing with stones.
10. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as in claim 2, wherein in said mixture of concrete with paper and sand layer contains two parts of concrete, eight parts of sand and one part of paper or cellulose fiber.
11. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as recited in claim 2, wherein said internal moisture resistant finish layer and external moisture resistant finish layer are stucco layers.
12. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as in claim 3, wherein in said mixture of concrete with paper and sand layer contains two parts of concrete, eight parts of sand and one part of paper or cellulose fiber.
13. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as in claim 1, wherein said heat reservoir means in formed separately from said walls.
14. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as in claim 1, wherein said heat reservoir is at least partially included within said walls.
15. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as in claim 14, when said walls include baffles adjacent a top or bottom of said heat reservoir means to regulate heat transfer to or from said heat reservoir means.
16. The energy efficient housing heat from exterior walls and roof surfaces heated by solar radiation as in claim 15, wherein said baffles further control air exchange with an interior of said energy efficient housing.
17. A multilayered building panel for building an energy efficient housing, comprising:
- an exterior stucco layer;
- a dense concrete layer having a plurality of air passages;
- a paper, sand and concrete layer;
- an interior stucco layer.
18. A process of making a multilayered building panel comprising the steps of:
- forming an exterior moisture resistant layer;
- placing a metal mesh on said exterior stucco layer;
- forming a dense concrete layer;
- adding rods to said concrete layer in order to form a plurality of passages in vertical plan of a panel;
- preparing a cellulose fiber, sand and water mixture;
- removing excess water from said paper, sand mixture;
- adding Portland cement to said paper-sand mixture;
- forming a paper/cement layer;
- introducing raceways into said paper/cement layer;
- forming interior moisture resistant layer.
19. A process of making a multilayered building panels described in claim 18, wherein said exterior and interior moisture resistant layers are stucco layers.
20. A process of making a multilayered building panel as in claim 18, wherein said cellulose fiber is paper.
21. A method of preparing cellulose fiber for use in a construction material comprising the steps of:
- combining one part cellulose fiber and 8 parts of sand;
- adding 13 parts of water;
- mixing cellulose fiber, sand and water until said cellulose fiber is abraded;
- putting the prepared mixture into a press for removing about 5 parts of excess water;
- adding 2 parts of Portland cement to the mixture of cellulose fiber, sand and water;
- mixing Portland cement, cellulose fiber, sand and remaining water until all ingredients are mixed well.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 25, 2006
Publication Date: Feb 21, 2008
Inventor: James R. Brock (Ranchos de Taos, NM)
Application Number: 11/459,735
International Classification: E04D 13/18 (20060101);