Self-Heating Ecological House

Self-Heating Ecological House: "March 11th, 2009

Ecological House We come across scores of people unmindful of giving back to nature what they are taking and consuming the resources of nature, haphazardly. But we also come across a privileged few who care about environment and their surroundings and they believe in consuming less and utilizing the resources of nature intelligently. Veljko Milkovic belongs to that rare category of people who believe in and practice clean and green living. He has also written a book known as “Ecological Houses” discussing the details of self-heating sod houses.

Veljko Milkovic was instrumental in building ten sod houses in Serbia, and the first one was constructed in 1979. The experience tells us that one can save 85% in heating, 30% in lightning, and 18-40% in building materials. As a side effect, tenants are not complaining and happy with the accommodation! The over-ground house costs you more in terms of material and space. As we all are familiar that a traditional house requires deep foundation, more space for heating installation and heating material. But a self heating ecological house is almost free from all these necessary vices! An ecological house has a stratum of soil; this soil shields the house from extremes of weather. They don’t get too cold during winters and too hot during summer. This soil layer also protects the walls of the house from wear and tear or erosion.

A self heating ecological house’s strength lays in reflecting surfaces i.e. surfaces that reflect direct and diffuse radiation of the Sun (around 80%). Glossy coats (of lacquer and paint), aluminum foils and metal sheets are used on hard surface for reflecting surfaces. Milk-white paint is also good enough for this purpose since there is not much diffusion loss because the reflecting surfaces are positioned next to the window. Special consideration is given to the reflecting surfaces. They are not only cost-effective and act as heating agent but they also increase the amount of sunlight entering the area. The Eco house in Novi Sad (Serbia), saves up to 30% in lightning. The upper reflecting surface is built into the eaves of the object and is fixed. The lower one is positioned under the window and acts as a shutter.

The greatest experience from living in a self heating ecological house can be peace of mind and a great feeling that you are living light on this planet! According to Aleksandar Nikolic, “The owners of self-heating solar sod houses or eco houses do not have to worry about the heating material, they are protected from noise and vibrations, which places this solution amongst best achievements in the world.”

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