Housing posts

The versatile home is a type of home which can be changed easily to fit any needs of the user. Ideally,

• Quick and easy: anything can be changed quickly and easily enough that it can be changed for testing purposes, and changed back if need be.
• Non-destructive: should require no materials to be wasted in the process.

Layout

Layout of anything and everything ideally would be able to be changed.

• Rooms: the walls in the house should be easily movable and removable to create any floorplan. Any given room should be expandable or shrinkable depending on the needs for it and adjacent rooms.
• Utilities: any sort of appliance should be placable anywhere in the house, regardless of utility needs. Electricity would be the easiest to deal with, and should be easily accessible anywhere on the floor, walls, ceiling, or outside walls. Phone and the like wouldn’t be hard either. Water and gas would pose quite a challenge, especially with water requiring sewer connections as well. But ideally you could put a toilet, shower, heater, whatever anywhere in the house, even move them around in a room, without much more consideration than moving a table.
• Outside walls: these go along with the layout, but pose far greater challenges than interior layout. Any expansion or subtraction of total area of the house would require addition or subtraction of both floor and ceiling in addition to the walls. Also, utility hookups would need to be expanded or subtracted, as would heating ducts or pipes. This type of modification would probably be left as the hardest to do. Still, changing needs deem it important for a versatile house, so it must be left with the capabilities of doing so, preferably non-destructively as well.

Modules

It would probably be easiest if every part of the house could be created and then installed and removed as easily connecting modules. Utilities would connect from one module to the next. Structural modules (structure of walls and ceilings, subfloor) would be seperate from the visible facings (wall and ceiling painting, carpet or wood on floor) of them, allowing easy change in appearance of area or the ability to change the size and shape of a room without having mismatched visible facings.

It would be good if companies produced these modules, standardized. The companies would deliver or take them back as the users added or removed them. This would eliminate much wasted materials, make the system more cost effective, and also make it much easier for the user.

With company produced modules, there would have to be industry standards so that no user would be stuck buying modules from any given company, especially with the possibility of companies going out of business. With changing technology, new versions of the modules would need to be created. This should happen at a relatively slow pace, and the new versions should be relatively backwards compatible with old versions. All modules should be designed for relatively easy upgrades to possible future versions.

Need

The need for versatile housing is evident in the variety of ways and things people use houses for, the changing needs of a user, and the need to be able to accommodate multiple users over the lifespan of the house.

The operating systems of the user should not be dictated by the layout and setup of the house: Rather, the operations should be set up to be as efficient or comfortable (or whatever other criteria you want) as possible, then the layout and setup should be modified to best fit these needs. If a layout doesn’t fit these needs as good as it was thought, it should be modifiable to better accommodate.

i have been interested in vacuum insulation for a long time now. A full vacuum would allow absolutely no heat transfer through conduction (or convection, a special case of conduction). Completely full vacuums cannot be created, but a near vacuum can be achieved economically even in mass produced items such as vacuum thermoses, and provide a very high level of insulation in a very thin layer. A reflective foil layer, even thinner than the vacuum insulation, then prevents most radiation leakage, creating a very effective level of insulation.

Vacuum insulation of housing appears to have only been recently moving into a commercial existance. VIPs (vacuum insulated panels) are mass produced panels that are vacuum insulated for use in housing, with exterior materials to prevent damage (damage to a VIP to the point of allowing air leakage would result in complete insulation failure). They claim an R-Value of about 30 per inch (compared to up to 8 for foam or 4 for fiberglass). They have been used in a few select applications, but have not made mass progress yet. Mass sales are planned for use in floors, ceilings, and walls, especially in manufactured homes, in metal roofing, and in exterior doors.

There doesn’t appear to be vacuum insulated windows. Such an item would turn what is normally the largest point of heat loss in a house to a not-so-significant insulation problem. This would allow more window to be installed to provide a much more powerful passive solar heating system without the normal night heat loss problems. Glass, though weak against pressure at a point, is strong against the uniform pressure of holding gases or vacuums. With a proper thickness of glass and well sealed housing, a normal looking window could have an insulation value potentially much greater than a well insulated houses walls or ceiling.

I plan to attempt to make some vacuum based insulation, both wall/ceiling/floor panels and windows, for my home (which is very poorly insulated currently) until I succeed or until commercial alternatives become available and affordable. I only have to wait until I have the money and know-how to do it. For me, this insulation would be extremely benificial. I plan to move into a truely mobile home (mine is one of those more stationary types) which would greatly benifit from thin but highly effective insulation. I also like passive solar heating, and this would help immensely with it.

******** Walls **********/

/******** Interior Panels **********/

able to attach and detach large and small items without damaging walls

able to flip panels – one side’s black, one’s white

air and water tight seems, retained upon removal then replacement

water proof material

resists basic scratching, denting, and breaking from common bumping while moving stuff

somehow deals with problem of holes for lightswitches, outlets, etc needing to be made and unmade

kitchen

Freezer

Shelves to help organize stuff – one at top should be good

Counter

Under counter slide out counter

Near counter depth, right side width board of nice, cleanable counterlike material slides out from beneath counter, with strong heavy-duty top connect sliding tracks on side.

Will have replaceable cutting board materail over entire useable surface. Possible knife storage at one side or back. Possible slight downward tilt.

Stove

Try to get the hurricane 2 burner. Mount permanently in place, with small slide out catch tray beneath, above under counter counter.

Microwave Shelf

Look into putting shelf above counter, below cupboards, in small cubby just bigger than it. Must have adequate airflow space.

outside

lighting

under porch, motion sensing lights with photocell turn on only at night, with adjustable timer. Use compact flourescent spotlight bulbs. will light for when coming home or leaving as well as for spending time on the porch. must be switchable offable, and preferably able to be turned on (switch off, on, auto).

storm door

foam insulation with waterproof, strong exterior sheathing, such as aluminum or painted hardboard. has lips all around facing that, when door is closed, seal tightly against door frame, with foam backing. foam backing is also on inside stop (where it normally is) for double protection. door is on tracks that allow it to be pulled straight out from doorway, then slid to the side against the wall.

screen

screen will be roll up/pull out whole door cover kind like seen at lowes. will buy a durable fiberglass screen. will roll up on thin pvc pipe, inside another larger pvc pipe with slit along side for fiberglass to come through. ends of pipe will be capped with spring rotating device in center to hold screen rod. unattached end of screen will have pulling device along whole length that won’t allow screen to go into the tube, will connect (perhaps via magnet strip) to door frame on other side.

living room

boot bench

simple wooden bench with shoe/boot storage beneath for all (at least important) of my shoes as well as those of a few guests. board behind will go up behind back and hold coatrack.

solar collecter/table

for middle of living room. will store ‘tv’ and other items on top. base will be made of plastic drums colored black that will hold water, which will collect solar heat during the day and release slowly at night. must be easily drainable and fillable (must be able to drain and fill from kitchen sink, or dissassemble and use dolly to take to bathroom). Top will also be black, easy to clean surface, thin but durable. will have white cover for warmer days.

solar collecter screens

alternative or addition to above. black screens come down from ceiling – able to pull down desired distance to get desired absorption. fans may blow across to spread absorbed heat, which otherwise will likely not spread readily through house.

heating device for heating water, air

water-on demand water heating-will fire up when hot water drawn through

-70°F raise @ 2+ gpm

air-radiated heat will heat air through floor

-steam radiating tubes ran throughout floor, insulated below

-thermostats in each room send signals to control unit, opening valves to desired level for heating pars in each room [ex. turn up heat in bathroom to take shower: device produces more heat, valve opened more for bathroom (if valve max opened, all other valves close some)]

-always on method- heat output = heat loss continuosly

-outside temp monitor compared to desired inside temp and estimated insulation of house/loss through air ventilation system to calculate needed heat output, adjusted automatically as temperatures move away from desired levels (heat loss = loss through inulation + loss through ventilation + adjustment value).

-stainless steel construction allows to prevent rust from condensation of combustion, thus allowing it to not need to run at higher temperatures to prevent condensation like conventional furnaces do.

burners variable heat output from near zero to 70°F raise for water at 2 gpm and 70°F raise for air throughout house at same time.

burners run continuously to make up for heat loss in winter, fire up further to fill water heat needs when water run.

in summer, turns off until water run. pilotless-electic ignition

Heating system will run continuously, providing heat to the house at the rate at which it is leaving. Output will be able to be varied very precisely to hone in on proper heating rate. Should not need as much ‘power’ (needn’t be as big of a maximum source of heat), as it will be matching outflow only.

Proper heating rate determined by monitoring carefully the temperature. If temperature starts to go down, need more heat. If it starts to go up, need less. uses interior and exterior temperature for better control.

Should be able to run very efficiently by running continuously.