Earthbag Building with Earthen Hand | Construction and DIY projects | Forums

Yeah, that's a lot of tamping involved. I do like the design and the large bermed area on the North side like what you used KVR. Being in Texas I'm still trying to find a way to calculate the size of my "earth battery" for cooling the house in the summer. The 2" T&G roofing seemed excessive until I saw the amount of soil they were adding. Only problem without any connection to the house is maintenance I would imagine. Either way, should reduce the cooling needs mid summer.

KVR said
I saw some calculations years ago if you wanted to build a heat sink under your floor, I believe the required space was 2 cubic feet per square foot of floor space, using a hot water solar array, you run the piping through a bed of sand 2 feet deep under your slab, with thermal lag and flywheel, it will release heat during the middle of winter, I will look for that

KVR before you spend any time looking, do you think something comparable could be used for cooling? I'm fairly certain that I can get enough solar heating in the winter time but my concern, even with deciduous trees and a hefty overhang, is that I will overheat in the summer without auxiliary cooling. I would like to run some earth tubes but haven't found any formulas I can use based on soil composition and temperature (I'm lazy and don't want to get out my heat transfer textbook). Maybe I'll design a few experiments when I get back.