CORE House

The CORE house is 48 ft by 24 feet with 40 ft long raised beds inside.

Similarly to the Seed Start House, the CORE house has an energy transfer system called a climate battery, which necessitates the raised beds because we don’t want to grow directly into crushed rocks. 

Before construction, the ground was excavated two feet and a concrete foundation was laid.  A network of air pipes, which are connected to an input/output pipes and fans above ground, were laid in this excavated ground.  Crushed stone was then backfilled to cover the pipes.  The foundation is also insulated on all sides with foam insulation. It would be ideal to excavate deeper and have greater thermal mass, but due to our high water table, it is only excavated 24 inches.  When the house heats up during the day, a fan pushes hot air down into the ground storing heat energy in the crushed stone floor.  As the house cools, the fans pull the hot air back up, heating the house.