House insulation?

[Judas Maccabeus]

I've always wanted to live in one of those earth-bermed houses with windows in the front for the living/kitchen. We even looked at one for sale but my wife said no. She said she isn't a bear. I thought it was great.
The bedrooms were in the back, had no windows, and it was pretty much complete silence. With my favorite mattress I could get a serious night's sleep there. The realtor showed us copies of the heating and cooling bills and they were less than $20/month.
I want to be like a bear and live in an earth-bermed home.

I have a friend that lives in one.

[R7ehr]

I've always wanted to live in one of those earth-bermed houses with windows in the front for the living/kitchen. We even looked at one for sale but my wife said no. She said she isn't a bear. I thought it was great.
The bedrooms were in the back, had no windows, and it was pretty much complete silence. With my favorite mattress I could get a serious night's sleep there. The realtor showed us copies of the heating and cooling bills and they were less than $20/month.
I want to be like a bear and live in an earth-bermed home.

I have a friend that lives in one.

Do they like to eat salmon and huckleberries?

[JohnL]

I've always wanted to live in one of those earth-bermed houses with windows in the front for the living/kitchen. We even looked at one for sale but my wife said no. She said she isn't a bear. I thought it was great.
The bedrooms were in the back, had no windows, and it was pretty much complete silence. With my favorite mattress I could get a serious night's sleep there. The realtor showed us copies of the heating and cooling bills and they were less than $20/month.
I want to be like a bear and live in an earth-bermed home.

I have a friend that lives in one.

Do they like to eat salmon and huckleberries?

They probably get an excellent night of sleep. Plus they’re good housing in tornado country.

[JohnH]

I've always wanted to live in one of those earth-bermed houses with windows in the front for the living/kitchen. We even looked at one for sale but my wife said no. She said she isn't a bear. I thought it was great.
The bedrooms were in the back, had no windows...

Unless the house has a sprinkler system, that's a code violation.

It’s also a great way of to have endless humidity / mold problems.

[JohnH]

I’m a big fan of thoughtful design in buildings.
Pay attention to orientation. Which side will the weather hit, the sun hit, etc. For example plan your outdoor sitting area on a unshaded south side for summer afternoon use. It will be blazing hot. Kitchen window on the east might be nice for the morning, a north kitchen will not be a light, a south or west one may be plenty of light and hot.
Plate glass/picture windows are tighter than windows that open. Consider if you actually are going to open that window. If now, maybe a non-opening window is better. If the home is large, careless design may leave you with unnecessary number of exterior doors. They are leaky. A southwest bedroom may be warmer than a northeast one.
A wrap around porch will shade the first floor windows, and reduce heat coming in from the sun.

Problem is that on homes built on small city lots, there isn’t a lot of flexibility in the design.

In urban settings on small lots, old fashioned row houses are more energy efficient, both to heat and to cool. Shared walls insulate against both heat and cold. People knew this back in the day as well which is one reason why that building form is so common in older cities in the US and around the world. Especially if you combine them with narrow streets and lots of street trees to provide more shade and minimize the heat island effect of pavement.

I generally did not enjoy living in a row house since I didn’t enjoy being a party to listening to my neighbors’ (on both sides) musical selections, particularly at 2 AM. While they didn’t seem to need to get up in the morning to go to a job, I did.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I've always wanted to live in one of those earth-bermed houses with windows in the front for the living/kitchen. We even looked at one for sale but my wife said no. She said she isn't a bear. I thought it was great.
The bedrooms were in the back, had no windows, and it was pretty much complete silence. With my favorite mattress I could get a serious night's sleep there. The realtor showed us copies of the heating and cooling bills and they were less than $20/month.
I want to be like a bear and live in an earth-bermed home.

I have a friend that lives in one.

Do they like to eat salmon and huckleberries?

Not to my knowledge. But I have seen a picture with a tractor parked on top of it.

[Judas Maccabeus]

I have a friend that lives in one.

Do they like to eat salmon and huckleberries?

They probably get an excellent night of sleep. Plus they’re good housing in tornado country.

Lancaster county is not tornado country. But. I could think of no better place to be.

[Robert]

For cooling, I have started to install UV film on the windows. It does really help. Low-E film is not real expensive and can really cut down the heat transference into the house from a hot sun. Does nothing for winter. Actually reduces the warming of the sun in winter. Texas has such short winters that it does not matter here.

Blown in insulation in the attic is good, but not real good in walls. Gravity will make it settle and you loose it. This is why fiberglass insulation is paper backed. It allows you to create a air barrier and keeps the insulation from sagging in the walls.

I also put up radiant barrier in the attic. That really made a big difference on heat transference from the attic. All southern homes should have it. I tried to talk my youngest into starting a business putting it in for people.

atticfoil.com

[JohnL]

Geofoam Houses. They claim they're earthquake resistant.
Maybe I should save the styrofoam every time I replace an appliance.
On the other hand our cat would have it shredded by the end of a month.

[Neto]

Our son-in-law's dad put up a small house that was not only built into a hill and had spray foam in the rafters, but was also constructed with foam blocks. (There are voids in the blocks where you put rebar, then pour full of concrete. The only thing I would change would be to cover the below-grade areas with cement-board, like you use to lay tile over a wood sub-floor. That would protect the blocks from gouging in the event that any excavation is needed.)