Sustainable Green Building solutions for inexpensive heating and cooling designs. 
Passive solar / Direct gain /Passive solar designed homes. You have noticed the heat that can build up in your car on a sunny day, even in winter, that is solar gain. Why not capture that heat in your home, but only in the winter, through passive solar design? Notice how cool shaded concrete is even on a hot summer day, that is thermal cooling storage! These are the simple concepts behind passive solar heating and passive geocooling that save on energy costs, make your home more comfortable, and are very inexpensive to incorporate into your log home design.
Passive systems have no moving parts, are environmentally sustainable, may provide tax credits, and entail no more expense in the construction to lower utility bills with cost saving comfort. It is really that easy! Yes of course there are certain tricks though, that make it most effective.
When building a log home, most people plan to own and live in them for an extended period of time. Their log home may be a family retreat or a retirement home that they intend to own for the rest of their lives. The turnover rate of log homes is much lower than the average conventionally built house. Let's look at the common sunroom for starters. Designs are most efficient when the room faces directly south and has a lot of windows. Dark floor tile absorbs more heat. Deciduous trees around the sunroom allow warming sunlight to get through when the leaves are gone in the winter. I the summer, the eves provide shade and assist in the geocooling cycle.
With such a long term outlook, the decision to build green and live in a energy efficient home is smart. Passive solar or direct gain design and a well insulated structure makes good sense for the health of the environment and a families future, green homes.  We are proud to construct our green built log homes with reclamed forest products. Our exterior and structural timbers are from reclaimed “dead stand” trees. These damaged forest areas have perished due to fire, or by other natural causes.
In our northern hemisphere, the sun is lower on the southern horizon in the winter and higher above in the summer. In California, Neveda and Utah, for example, a two-foot eave on the southern side of a ranch-style log home will shade the floor inside in summer and allow the sun to radiate warmth through the southern glass windows or doors to the floor in the winter. If the floor has dark tile, it will best absorb the heat in the winter. If the tile is on an insulated concrete pad, it will store even more heat in the winter. In the summer, the shaded 55-degree ground temperature will help cool the home.
Direct Gain / Passive solar. Passive solar design refers to design and material choices that use and or avoid the sun's heat to promote thermal comfort and energy conservation to reduce the need for costly mechanical heating, cooling, and ventilation systems. It is the traditional method used throughout the world to cost effectively increase comfort. Passive Solar Heating does not require solar panels. The primary elements required are south facing glass and a thermal mass to absorb, store, and distribute heat. The easiest and least expensive approach to solar is a passive system-- direct gain. The goal of all passive solar heating systems is to capture the winter sun's heat within the building and release that heat during periods when the sun is not shining. At the same time that the building is absorbing heat for later use, solar heat is available for keeping the space comfortable, but not overheating the living space. 
In this direct gain system, the actual living space of your house becomes a solar collector where heat is absorbed and distributed through a simple system. South-facing glass admits solar energy into the house where it directly and indirectly strikes thermal mass materials, such as masonry floors, a stone hearth, fireplace and walls. The direct gain system utilizes 60 - 75 percent of the sun's energy striking the windows. With our Log Homes we offer gable and eve window feature walls that help provide this solar gain potential! In addition, our gable-end overhangs extend out 4 feet as a standard to offer shade from the summer heat.  Advantages from building with pre-built 1/2 log homes system; Less Cracking
Our logs are carefully selected to contain less than 19% moisture content - the most significant cause of cracking and warping.
Sealed Tight From the Elements
High quality chinking between the log siding, conventional R20+ insulation, and an interior vapor barrier ensure that only invited guests make it into your temperature-controlled home.
System-Built in Idaho
We employ highly skilled craftsmen at reasonable labor rates. Lumber costs tend to be much more stable where where we run our sustainable timber harvest program. No Settling
Our framed wall sections, unique fastening systems, and center-beam construction eliminate settling. A stacked log home can settle as much as 6". This settling must be constantly monitored and adjusted during the initial several years after construction otherwise windows may break and doors may not open or close. System Built Quality Control
Quality and craftsmanship is carefully monitored in our state of the art 55000 sq. ft. ICC HUD certified building facility.
 Building Green makes sense Today! Passive solar construction is built into the design of your home, so why not think about it before you start your design process? http://www.ncat.org/ncatimages/pdf/buildgreentoday.pdf Norm Clover, a Northern California Log Home Dealer/ Developer and Contractor, has extensive experience building a variety of solar energy efficient and environmentally friendly green homes including: Rammed Earth homes in Sonoma County's wine country; Straw Bale homes; and SIP Panel high insulated passive solar homes. He has been incorporating passive solar into all of these home designs. Below is an example of a SIP Panel passive solar assisted home in Park city Utah . This home with a winter temp. of 10 degrees F. gains 5 degrees in temperature daily from 65 degrees in the morning to 70 degrees by sundown on sunny days when the external temperature is only 10 degrees. The night heat loss is less than 1 degree / hour. This home was designed and built by Grizzly Log Builders. The siding on this home is Hardie Board, fire resistant material. Grizzlylogbuilders is now offering this material as an alternitive to the exterior 1/2 log and timber siding. http://lowes.jameshardie.com/map/default.htm  With energy costs on the rise and no end is sight, it makes good economic sense to design passive solar and build with conservation in mind. There is a great deal of documented evidence supporting the energy efficiency related to the construction of panelized prebuilt and insulated log homes. Studies conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other testing organizations have compared panelized insulated log homes to other types of construction such as stacked log homes and masonry homes. Test results prove the energy efficiency of well insulated walls. Panelized insulated 1/2 log walls better utilize the available energy in both summer cooling and winter heating. Contact us for your passive solar home kit! http://www.grizzlylogbuilders.com/Contact_Us_about_Log_Homes/page_669321.html Sierra Green Building Association www.SiGBA.org Green Building rating system http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/LEEDdocs/LEED_RS_v2-1.pdf |