Is Anyone Using Sips Or Building A Passive House?

[Kf6vci]

SIPS = structurally insulated panels, what they use in Antarctica.

There are many advanced energy saving solutions in Europe, where the enemy is cold weather. Here in LOS, we need to keep the house cool...

Just wondering if anyone kniows of any initiative or model home etc.

Cheers, Chris

[fredlk]

If the sun is kept off the walls then there are no expensive panels needed.

[richardt1808]

Hi,

Unfortunately, I dont think you are going to have much luck getting anything like this here. It would make perfect sense to use this kind of insulation to keep houses cool, but there seems to be no interest in it at all on the part of home-builders here.

You can buy ceiling insulation at HomePro. I think I have even seen the pink fibreglass type there which you may be able to use between standard fabricated wall panels, but it is pretty expensive.

Maybe someone else will be able to shed more light on this for all of us.

[elcent]

some use coating with some nano tech recipes.

[Khun Jean]

Sips work great in countries with large differences in ambient temperature, especially between night and day.

The basic old style Thai house has all the thing needed to have a cool house.

An open area under the house, high ceilings with vents, overhangs to protect the walls and windows from direct sunlight, strategic orientation, trees for shadow.

This way you can keep a house at ambient or a little lower.

If you need to live in a fridge, build the rooms where you need it like a fridge. Isolation on the inside with proper precautions for moist buildup.

[gregb]

Many people here build with superblock. This is a large block with an open air interior to provide insulative properties. Another technique is a double walled redbrick. This is slightly cheaper than superblock, but less convenient and more difficult for the construction workers.

Prefabricated panels are too expensive to use here, as the import duties combined with the low cost of labor make them very uneconomical.

Note that insulation is only helpful in Thailand when combined with active cooling. The best passive approach is to keep the house as open as possible so that the heat built up during the day will be evacuated as quickly as possible when night falls. During the heat of the day, the best approach is to sit outside under a tree where evapotranspiration by the leaves helps to keep the temperature down.

And as Khun Jean says, there are various techniques used for centuries in Thailand to try and keep a house from absorbing any more heat than is absolutely necessary. Unless you are planning on an active process (e.g. air conditioning ) it will be difficult to improve on this on this style.

[jaapfries]

Yes; there is one company in Chonburi who is active in the field of SIPs.

I have seen their (EU-Approved) panel-system (50mm/75mm/100mm) which has a smooth colorsteel inner-skin and a wide choice of exterior finishes, such as "Wheaterboards white", Wheaterboards timber, straight Planking and even a beautiful Log-Home look.

They have a little display set-up in Pattaya, which really impressed me.

This system is very suitable for any type of new-home construction and they also have a range of "Transporables". These are small, pre-fab cabin-like housing units, which are 100% self-contained. In other words, one could place one of these on the GF's property in the country-side, but YOU, the Farang retain he legal ownership of the actual dwelling. If the relationship should "souer", you simply pickup the phone to this company and they will relocate this dwelling to anywhere you desire. For some reason, they are very successfull with this system.

Not only do they offer the "total package", but they go a lot further with proven technologies such as Geothermal-Cooling (heat-exchanger at about 4 meters deep; rendering an airflow into the house of some 10~12 C cooler that the ambient temp.), Solar Hot Water systems (without the unsightly tank on your roof !), PV-Systems - and a number of other innovative energy-saving and extremely cost-effective construction & design disciplines.

I believe the name is EcoBuilt, but just PM me for their contact-information, if you wish.

Cheers.

JK/Chonburi

Edited January 11, 2010 by jaapfries

[katabeachbum]

Sips work great in countries with large differences in ambient temperature, especially between night and day.

The basic old style Thai house has all the thing needed to have a cool house.

An open area under the house, high ceilings with vents, overhangs to protect the walls and windows from direct sunlight, strategic orientation, trees for shadow.

This way you can keep a house at ambient or a little lower.

If you need to live in a fridge, build the rooms where you need it like a fridge. Isolation on the inside with proper precautions for moist buildup.

agree on thai build traditions

and add

double walls of redbricks or Superblocks, with an airgap between the walls.

Nanotech white exterior paint

Ceiling insulation with aluminum cover, and vent over ceiling

heat reflecting glass, one way mirrored if exposed to sunshine

when exterior temp is 35C and desired interior temp is 25C, this is all needed

[Trickcyclist]

wonder if they could be used as solar energy gatherers to provide power, hot water etc and bi-pass the grid??

[Kf6vci]

Thanks you All for excellent answers! Much appreciated...

there are new solar powers aircon and clever heat pump and vent systems out there...

Chris

[OKF]

To my knowledge there ar no solar driven air cons available which could cool down a decent size room (ore then 15-2 sqm) down just o solar. This has to do with the starting poeryou need. ALternativel you gooverboard with very pensive batteries. Corrct me if I am wrong. I am planning to built and I want an island solution to be totally independent form energy but still need to aircon for renting out the propety. Unfortunately it does not work without haveing a diesel to back up.

[ClaudeFeller]

"Solar cooling" is a dream and far from reality because

- you need hundreds of sqm of solar collectors

- you must store energy for after dark

There are some EU financed projects in Europe, no one works without backup. Here also the projects are only for office buildings, means cooling from 8 am to 5 pm.

Wait twenty or more years until R&D in Europe will provide a cost effective solution with solar parabol mirrors and new types of batteries.