Driving around the Hudson Valley, I see a lot of old barns that were built into hillsides. This isn’t the result of poor planning but of really smart planning.
The top floor, with direct access to the hillside, was used for hay storage. Hay could be forked over the side of the loft to the animals who sheltered below. But it’s not just clever space design. These “Bank Barns” typically had four separate heating systems, all courtesy of Mother Nature.
Two passive systems were at work: passive solar, because the large doorways typically faced south, and passive geothermal, because remember, the barns were built into hillsides. The Earth’s constant soil temperature of about 55 degrees Fahrenheit provided protection from cold and also provided a barrier against wind.
The third heat source came from the animals sheltered in the barn. And the fourth is the compost mat created by animal waste, which grew thicker all winter, and as microorganisms metabolized the waste, it would get hotter.
The heat from these four sources was trapped inside the building by the hay upstairs. Ten feet of hay has an insulation value equivalent to 10 times a typical house today.
On nights when it got to be 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, these hillside barns would remain a comfortable 60 degrees. All without burning wood or fossil fuels, or relying on electricity.
These barns are a testament to the ingenuity of humans who understood how nature works. They can inspire how we design buildings today to minimize their environmental footprint.
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Photo, taken on June 25, 2007, courtesy of Fizbon via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, with partial support from the Field Day Foundation.