"Cloud Hidden" Receives Quality Home Comfort Award
September 9, 2003
by Rebecca South and Jim Kaslik
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It is well known that Monolithic Domes require far less energy for heating
and cooling than conventional housing. And now that fact is recognized
by the HVAC (Heating, Venting, Air Conditioning) industry.
The winning contractor is Guy Cox, owner of GLC Services in Canton, NC, and the winning house is Cloud Hidden, designed,and built by Jim Kaslik, of Asheville, NC. The house and contractor were this year's winner in the New Construction--4001-6000 sf. category.
The article makes several interesting observations that will sound familiar to dome aficionados:
- These domes, by their very nature, are naturally passive solar.
- Orientation to the sun, tempered with appropriate overhangs, is a key to optimizing the passive solar effect.
- It is easy for HVAC contractors to oversize a system in a Monolithic Dome if they're not used to dealing with the mass of concrete.
- Proper HVAC system design has to consider the load, the curves, the tightness, and the acoustics of a dome. Anything less, and you sacrifice comfort.
That all these factors were considered in the design of the HVAC system for Cloud Hidden is not surprising when you learn that Guy Cox had prior experience building domes. So rather than hiring a contractor out of the yellow pages and trying to convince him of the benefits provided by Monolithic Domes, the Kasliks were able to find a contractor who already understood how the domes worked. That meant that they could spend their time optimizing the design of the system rather than worrying if the contractor was going to provide too much or too little heat and A/C.
As Jim--a leading designer of residential Monolithic Domes--explains it, the design of the house and the HVAC system should be a cooperative process: "When a house design doesn't account for the HVAC considerations, the owners end up paying too much either in the cost of an excessive HVAC system, or in a lack of comfort. When I design a house, I try to account for all the factors that influence the client's comfort, including sun angles, window placement, type of heating and cooling, equipment noise, energy costs, and a host of other factors. Finding a great contractor like Guy makes the process so much easier, because he understands how to properly design and size the system to get the right balance for temperature, humidity, and air quality."
Guy adds that while he was the lead contractor, he didn't work alone. "To verify the load of the house--how much heating and how much cooling it will need throughout the year--I worked with three other companies. Carolina Power and Light, the local power company, visited the house during construction and provided their own load calculations. Wirsbo, the leading supplier of PEX tubing for radiant floor heating, also made a site visit and provided engineering. And Unico, which makes a super-quiet cooling system, also visited the site and provided guidance. Jim made whatever modifications to the design that we requested to make the equipment fit and work in the best way. Then together with my partner Chris Kannenberg, who's an expert with all forms of alternative energy, we were able to install and balance the system."
The process must have worked, because Cloud Hidden is able to operate with a fraction of the HVAC system size required by the other QHCA winners. Using a ground source heat pump as the source for both heating and cooling, this dome is able to condition nearly 6000 square feet with only 4 tons of capacity. By contrast, a house of the same size built with conventional construction methods would typically require about 10-to-12 tons of capacity. That represents a huge savings, both in initial capital cost and monthly utility costs.
Guy adds, "I think what's most gratifying is that even though we took a risk by sizing the system so small, it has turned out to be the perfect size. It still surprises my fellow contractors when I tell them how much space we're conditioning with that small of a system." And he'll have plenty of opportunity to surprise more of them, because the award he won comes with a monetary prize and a trip to a national conference of HVAC contractors in Dallas this month.
The final word though, comes from Melanie Kaslik. She brushes past the equipment list, the btu/h load calculations, the acronyms like RFH, GSHP, and PLC to focus on what counts the most: "Our dome house is just comfortable. It's something we don't have to think about. There are no loud motors. There's no hot air blowing in our faces. There's no dust blowing around. The floors are warm in winter. We're never too dry or too humid. There's just an even level of comfort throughout the house. Any more, I take it for granted. But I do think of it each time a visitor comments, 'Wow, it feels really comfortable here!' I smile when I hear that." That should be the goal of an HVAC system. And that's why a Monolithic Dome is the 2003 winner of a Quality Home Comfort Award.
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