IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v34y2009i9p2037-2043.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thermal behaviour of an earth-sheltered autonomous building – The Brighton Earthship

Author

Listed:
  • Ip, Kenneth
  • Miller, Andrew

Abstract

The benefits of reducing the thermal effect of global warming and structural damage by severe storms have renewed interest and drives to heavyweight constructions. One type of heavyweight construction using earth-sheltered construction known as an ‘Earthship’ has been developed and pioneered by US architect Michael Reynolds and recently introduced to the UK. The ‘Earthship’ takes on the concept of an ‘independent vessel’, which operates on a self-sufficient basis and is constructed largely from recycled and reclaimed materials. Although there are up to 3000 globally, only two Earthships have been built in the UK – one in Brighton and one in Scotland. The publicity resulting from the planning approval granted in April 2007 for the construction of sixteen domestic Earthships at the seafront of Brighton have raised public awareness to this type of unconventional construction. A key feature of the Earthship design is the use of a thermal store, which acts as a seasonal heat buffer to absorb heat in the summer and to release heat in the winter, to regulate the room temperature. This paper reports on the initial findings of a long-term study on the thermal behaviour of the thermal store and its effect to the indoor environment. It introduces the design and construction principles of the Earthship and outlines the process and equipment used in the thermal monitoring of the building. Indicative results from the analyses of the data collected at the early stage are reported and discussed. Initial findings have demonstrated the effectiveness of the thermal charging and discharging of the earth-rammed thermal mass, which appeared to moderate the extreme external temperatures.

Suggested Citation

  • Ip, Kenneth & Miller, Andrew, 2009. "Thermal behaviour of an earth-sheltered autonomous building – The Brighton Earthship," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 2037-2043.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:34:y:2009:i:9:p:2037-2043
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2009.02.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148109000652
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2009.02.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Szabó, J. & Kajtár, L. & Nyers, J. & Bokor, B., 2016. "A new approach and results of wall and air temperature dynamic analysis in underground spaces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 520-527.
    2. Menoufi, Karim & Castell, Albert & Navarro, Lídia & Pérez, Gabriel & Boer, Dieter & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2012. "Evaluation of the environmental impact of experimental cubicles using Life Cycle Assessment: A highlight on the manufacturing phase," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 534-544.
    3. Navarro, Lidia & de Gracia, Alvaro & Niall, Dervilla & Castell, Albert & Browne, Maria & McCormack, Sarah J. & Griffiths, Philip & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2016. "Thermal energy storage in building integrated thermal systems: A review. Part 2. Integration as passive system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 1334-1356.
    4. Serrano, Susana & de Gracia, Alvaro & Cabeza, Luisa F., 2016. "Adaptation of rammed earth to modern construction systems: Comparative study of thermal behavior under summer conditions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 180-188.
    5. Verbeke, Stijn & Audenaert, Amaryllis, 2018. "Thermal inertia in buildings: A review of impacts across climate and building use," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2300-2318.
    6. Kajtar, Laszlo & Nyers, Jozsef & Szabo, Janos, 2015. "Dynamic thermal dimensioning of underground spaces," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 361-368.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:34:y:2009:i:9:p:2037-2043. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.