Sustainablehomes-lot705-the-fjord: The Digital Self Heating Home system

This week is the start of the layout of the first significant sustainability feature for the home, the Digital Self heating Home system from Energy Efficient Homes Ltd. This system uses a solar heating system to heat all hot water, the home through the in floor heating system and all spare heat is then stored in the in ground system under the floor slab which stores heat and is digitally controlled and returned to either the hot water or the floor slab as required. The system once installed and up to heat will provide all requirements year round. The system requires a very good thermal seal of the whole building and insulation of the walls and roof is increased to ensure minimum leakage of the heat.

This first photo shows the sand base on which the under floor piping system is going to be laid. The colors designate one of the six 90 metre runs of piping for the hot water system.

In this photo the different pipes have been run and concentrated at the point in the laundry where the hot water tank and digital switching will occur. This is also where the floor slab pipes will also be terminated when the floor slab is poured next week. See the video at the end to see the overall marking of the site prior to the pipes being laid out.

The pipes are all laid out and sand is now being laid to cover the pipes and to provide the base for the heat system.

The colourful layout of the pipes

The concentration of pipes where all of the switching between the in-ground pipe system, the in-floor system and the hot water cylinder will occur through the digital system.

With the pipes all covered by the sand the polystyrene insulation then goes on to provide the thermal seal and then the reinforcing is being installed to hold the floor slab and the pipes for the in floor heating part of the system