Akos Nemcsics, College of Engineering Budapest, Tavaszmezo str. 17, H-1084 Budapest, e-mail: nemcsics. akos@kvk. bmf. hu

In this work presents two earth houses which are planned in a natural hill. The houses are supplied with equipments for solar energy. The house is entirely sunk in to the earth where only one facade is free from the earth.

Energy Balance of Earth House

The property of energy storage and heat balance of earth is a well known and often used concept in the ecological and solar architecture [1]. The humid earth has a large specific heat, so this medium as building material has a very large thermal inertness. Though this medium has approximately constant temperature, the feeling which it causes is different, depending on the enviromental temperature. We have the feeling that the earth radiates warm and cold in winter and in summer, respectively. This work presents two earth houses which are planned by the author in a natural hill in Hungary. Both houses are provided with equipment for solar energy utilization such as solar cells and solar collectors [2]. The houses are entirely suk in the earth where only one or two facades are free from the eath. The natural illumination of this house is solved from the facade side and from above with the help of flues. One of this houses is in highlands and another is in structured lowland. Both houses are under construction.

Earth House in Highlands

This house is being built in a mountainous district of Hungary, called the Pilis. The house is entirely sunk in the earth where only one facade is free from the earth. The house has one level, which contains three rooms, a kitchen with dining room and a living room, two baths and a study [3]. The living room, the dining room and the study receive the light from the windows on the facade. The serving rooms receive their light from the lighting flues. The house provided with natural ventillation. The walls and ceiling are from monolite steel concrete shell. The isolation against moisture is made from special recycling plastic foil [4] which perfectly operated in some similar estabilishments. We have to reckon on radon diffusion. The above mentioned foil serves for the isolation against the radon gas leak, too. Great part of the energy need is met by sunshine with active and passive utilization. The frame over the terrace is covered by solar cells [5]. The height of the retaining wall on the facade changes. The arched edge of the retaining wall follows the silhouette of the surrounding hills. According to the author the ecological building suits the enviromental not only energetically but also easthetically. The waste management is solved with root zone method. The ground-plane and the facade are shown on the figures 1 and 2, respectively.