Is your building site near a major highway or an airport? Creating a serene interior is one of the major attributes of a strawbale home: sound deadening. But there are other attributes that have made strawbale houses attractive to more and more people: re-use of a waste material (straw from wheat, rice and other grains is typically burned in the field), flexibility that allows curved walls, and superior insulation compared with standard two by six construction.
Exterior stucco and proper overhangs and foundations make strawbale homes as weatherproof as any other. Anthony Stoppiello designed the first code-permitted strawbale house on the Oregon coast—the Gibson residence, featured on our website—and is in the design phase for a new strawbale home and shop in Lane County, Oregon.
Anthony Stoppiello has been a pioneer in passive solar homes in Oregon and Washington for 30 years.
Seattle is notorious for being a wet, cold, dark environment in the winter. However, Seattle, and all of western Washington, still has ample “insolation” for passive solar buildings. In fact, Seattle has better solar potential than northern Germany, where glassed-in porches have been part of housing for roughly a hundred years.
As opposed to solar electric systems that require sunshine to be effective, “solar thermal,” meaning space heating or water heating, doesn’t require bright sunlight…just light, which is transformed into heat when it passes through glass. There are straightforward principles of passive solar house design in Washington: Identify the volume of the space to be heated, size appropriate south-facing glass, and then size the proper amount of thermal mass to store the accumulated heat overnight.
Anthony Stoppiello has been involved in passive solar house design in Washington since 1993, including major remodels of existing houses to enhance their solar potential. The Kess-Spackman home on the eastern shore of Willapa Bay is a good example of incorporating direct gain passive solar principles, excellent natural light…and disabled accessibility, including an elevator for one of the home owners.
A new house is easier to design and build, but still requires an experienced solar architect to evaluate the site and work with the client to develop their functional and aesthetic requirements.
Contact Anthony at 503-368-6141 for more information on passive solar homes and for on-site evaluations.
Anthony Stoppiello has been a pioneer in passive solar homes in Oregon and Washington for 30 years.
Passive solar house design is a holistic approach to creating a home that maximizes natural light and heats itself. Anthony has been in the business of passive solar house design in Oregon for over 30 years, and has designed homes in Oregon’s various climates—the coast, eastern Oregon, the Willamette Valley—using passive solar home design principles that accommodate homeowners’ aesthetics.
The style of home is dependent on the clients’ preferences. Passive solar home design is a straightfoward formula that, however, needs to be applied with rigor, while at the same time creating the spatial function and aesthetics the home owners desire.
The formula: Identify the area to be heated passively, calculate the appropriate glass area to heat that area, then size the thermal mass that will store the heat overnight to warm the home the following morning.
One of the more successful passive solar houses that Anthony has designed in Oregon is the Laakso house in the upper reaches of the Crooked River drainage east of Prineville. The house is off-grid, heated by the sun, with lighting provided by a photovoltaic system. The Laakso residence is featured on our website banner.
Contact Anthony at 503-368-6141 for more information on passive solar homes and for on-site evaluations.
Anthony Stoppiello has been a pioneer in passive solar homes in Oregon and Washington for 30 years.
