Jasper Georgia Earth Bermed Home For sale

SOLD

JASPER, GEORGIA

This is a unique, custom-built, 1728 square-foot EARTH-BERMED, PASSIVE SOLAR THERMO-SYPHON house that was completed in 1987. It is located on a private road just 4 miles from Highway 515 on 1.5 acres fronting Sharp Mountain Creek. It is a very low maintenance structure designed for self-sufficiency.

DEFINITIONS:

"Earth-bermed":

The house consists of an 8" concrete shell and slab poured to 4000 psi, reinforced with rebar on 24" centers, vertically and horizonally. The shell is waterproofed with bentonite, 2 inches of styrofoam, black plastic and French drains. It is bermed to a depth of eight feet on both ends and behind, and to four feet on the front.

"Passive solar":

The house is south facing with 225 square-feet of double-paned Anderson glass (3 sliding doors and 3 fixed windows) with a 32 inch overhang that shades the glass from approximately April to September. It also has vertical blinds on all 6 windows.

"Thermo-syphon":

This is the most important part of the system and provides for constant circulation of air, keeping the inside temperature even throughout, and the house dry. The system consists of 900 concrete blocks arranged in a tunnel system on the concrete slab under the flooring. Since the floors and the interior partitions do not meet the front and back walls and the ceiling, there is a constant flow of air around the interior of the house by convection without electricity.

OPERATION:

The house is never less than 55 degrees (ground temperature in Georgia) and never more than 86 degrees.

During the summer, the glass windows are shaded and any heat that enters the house is stored in the concrete mass (shell, slab and blocks), and is exhausted during the night through the windows (open or closed).

During the winter, heat enters through the unshaded glass, rises to the fourteen foot living area ceiling , circulates down the back wall and is stored in the tunnel system. At night the stored heat is pulled from the tunnel system, circulated up through the back rooms, across the ceiling and out the windows.

The Great Room Pictures one and two

An airlock entry also helps moderate inside temperatures.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:

The house is equipped with a Consolidated Dutchwest woodburning stove with a cooking surface, thermometer and catalytic converter, efficient enough to heat the entire house on one load of 18" logs. It also has a Majestic zero-clearance woodburning fireplace with glass doors, as well as Hunter ceiling fans and a conventional heat pump.

Annual electric bills average slightly less than $80 a month.

There is an oversize (5'x20') pantry/storage room off the kitchen.

The roof is insulated to approximately R-57, and is metal over a conventional rolled roof.

Canadian Hemlock and pine protect the north side of the house, deciduous trees provide summer shading.

The hot water heater is plumbed for a solar hot water heater, which is currently stored by the workshop.

The well house contains a bored well for easy access to water if necessary, and a stainless steel sink for washing garden produce (no faucet installed yet).

The 12x20 workshop has a built-in workbench and an attached tractor shed also with a workbench.

There is an oversized metal carport with partial sides that can accommodate at least three cars or boats, a motorhome or trailer.

Exterior wood surfaces are painted with a water-resistant, wood preserving paint. It has had annual termite inspections.

There is a garden spot with asparagus; blueberrry and gooseberry bushes, and fruit trees.