I've been dreaming of building a Timber frame house for a long time. My over all goal was to be as independent as possible when building this house. For years I have been trying to keep up with the latest and greatest when it came to energy independence. I've purchased 30 acres in North Carolina, which borders Sandhills gamelands in Richmond county 3 years ago and moved into a double wide on the property until I was ready for my next step.

Currently I have hired an architect and landscape designer who are jointly working on the designs of my house with my goals in mind. I'm estimating the overall heated square footage to be 3200sqft including the walk out baement. The entire house is an open floor plan which allows light into everyroom through the southern windows.  I wanted the back of the house facing south so I can capture the winter sun to heat up the interior. I requested 2 ft over hangs for the soffits to prevent the summer sun from protruding into the house at the hotest part of the day. The south of the house has the most windows and the rest as very minimum windows.

I have a walk out basement with a small natural swiming pond(35 x20) and water fall to capture and cool any breeze that happens to blow by and cool it. With the addition of a glass green house and retaining walls, I was able to divert any breeze blowing by, towards the basement. The interior of the house is designed to allow for a chimney effect, with the property ceiling fan placements I will circulate the cool air in the basement up through the house and push the hot air out through the top, creating a passive heating and cooling effect or vise versa.

I have also incorporated a rain harvesting system using aquabox (6000 gallons) to irrigate my green house and possibly provide additional potable water to the house. I also have a 1 and half acre pond near the house which I plan on stocking with fish, but possibly use for a geo thermal cooling and heating system.

I was thinking of installing a Geothermal system with a radiant floor heating system for the basement floor. I wasn't sure if I should use a hot water tank or hot water on demand system. The over all goal was to use as very little power as possible. I don't want to use an air conditioner and completely rely on the geothermal and house design to keep me relately cool in the summer and warm in the winter (70-76 degrees).

I'm using superior walls for the foundation and SIP panels for the envelope so I'm hoping I will be alright. Depending on the over all cost of the geothermal unit... I might also install a on-grid solar system on a UNI-track system.

I plan on building this house next summer so I want to be able to find contractors and suppliers that support my area so I can get competive bids on the main systems.

So fi you guys know of anyone who are reliable or if you have warning for me of certain companies, please post them here or PM me with the details.

THANX

Geothermal and Very Little Power are not likely to coexist. Please remember that Geothermal == Heat Pump...

Paradisecreek;
Did you receive my e-mail? I do have a lot of info to give you that just won't fit here.
Rich

I would be interested in speaking with you on this project. I have a few ideas of how you could optimize your energy efficiency, while maintaining a conservative budget. If you would like more information, please feel free to PM me.

This design sounds amazing, and it seems to me there are a great many things that could benefit everyone here to know, why don't you guys just provide links to your resources or something along those lines so that everyone can benefit? I'm very interested! But I can't learn or contribute this way... :(

This first link brings you to a slideshow and description of a timber frame house built in Chapel Hill, NC by Synergy Building Company.

The Second is a blog of a home with Radiant Floors also built in Chapel Hill By Synergy. It includes a slide show of the houses construction process.

http://www.synergybuilding.com/custom-homes/energy-efficient-timber-frame-home/

http://www.synergybuilding.com/2009/08/moving-day/

Please contact Synergy at 919-933-6569 or Rick@Synergybuilding.com if you have questions.