Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Inventor and researcher, academician Veljko Milkovic
is a great authority on Petrovaradin fortress's underground gallery.
While he was researching this place, in the distant 1960 he noticed certain differences in temperature.
academician Veljko Milkovic, inventor: I noticed what everyone else noticed.
So, in summer there was a pleasant coolness,
and in winter on the other hand it was much more pleasant than outside.
And, that made me think if this could be applied in modern architecture.
So, the academician has devised and patented the concept of self-heating ecological house,
a sod with earth sheltering and reflective surfaces.
Such solar sod was, after detailed mathematical calculations,
projected and built by an electrical engineer and solarist Aleksandar Nikolic.
And, he has been happily living in it with his family for 14 years.
Mr. Aleksandar Nikolic, the owner of the house: The sod has an incredibly small total net living space of only 110m2,
although it seems that I have far more.
That is only because it is in fact shallow, as it is said, it has the depth of only 5m,
and everything else is this wide sun front,
which captures all the sun energy, used for the heating of such a house.
What you see here are upper and lower reflective surfaces.
So, there are upper and lower surfaces on the first floor,
and there are also both upper and lower reflective surfaces on the ground floor.
Lower reflective surfaces are in the shape of a window shutter,
which can be shut during winter blizzards
and at the same time, it protects and keeps the heat in the sod.
The total sun energy which enters through the windows is not enough to heat the entire sod
so, thanks to this exceptional invention, the quality or, the quantity of the sun
that comes into the sod has been raised, especially in the winter period,
for which the angles of these surfaces have been calculated.
Therefore, in comparison to a simple window, the entire sun energy that enters is 2.4 times bigger
than in any other classical house.
Thanks to this front of, let us say, 30m2 of glass surfaces of windows,
times that famous factor of 2.4, you get an amount of some 40m2,
which in comparison to a simple house that can have only 4m2 of windows on the southern side,
is definitely an impressive heating effect.
Direct heating with sun energy comes exactly through the windows we have just seen.
Those are the shutters and this is the solar heating front.
Lower reflective surfaces diffuse light up on the ceiling, which than reflects further.
And, upper reflective surfaces, which you don't see now,
cast the light exactly here on this front and heat this space.
What you can see here, is the thickness of double reinforced concrete slab,
from which the entire sod has been made.
So all the walls, all the slabs, even the dividing walls are made of reinforced concrete
and this is a special concrete - waterproof, used for swimming pools.
So the hydro insulation of the sod is exceptionally solved in this way.
What you can see now is the thickness of the earth layer
that spreads along the entire sod and all over it.
Of course, it is far thicker behind the sod. It reaches even 5m deep, behind the sod.
Now we are on the roof of the solar sod.
As you can see, this is the grassy earth layer and it is half a meter thick.
The total weight is 100 tones.
Therefore, you have to pay attention when you make the project,
in order to be able to sleep tight.
It is also necessary to diligently take care of this grassy layer,
which, regardless the fact that when it is cold, in winter, it doesn't play an important role.
It is particularly important in summer when temperatures are extremely high.
Besides the advantages in terms of heating and energy savings of up to 70%,
according to engineer Nikolic, this house also has some flaws.
First, there is the problem of finding such a beautiful and big piece of land,
which also has to be strictly orientated towards the south.
The second problem is that, in comparison to a simple house,
you need a great amount of money at once during the first phase of building,
that is, during the first year.
Another minor problem is that you have to be experienced
or have people who know the technique of pouring concrete
and making double constructions of reinforced concrete, from which such a sod is made.
In addition, when you build it and move in such an edifice there is something else.
That is the maintenance and up keeping of so big areas: lawns, woods, hedges, watering, nurturing, etc.
- everything that goes with such big pieces of land with a lot of grass.
We should think about protection of the environment,
have as much greenery as we can, as many eco houses as possible.
According to some journals and some statistics,
people live longer in houses that have climbers on them.
We shouldn't be afraid of the nature,
we should be closer to it so that things get better for everyone.
Veljko Milkovic's Self-Heating Eco-House Concept www.veljkomilkovic.com