Home in the Earth Ealk-Thru: December 2020 w/ FLIR One Pro

Many of you have been asking for another walk thru video and, quite frankly, they are a lot faster and easier to produce than a time lapse video. ;)
Since the last time, we have added the eyebrow windows and closed the whole place in. We have also finished the two lower roof sections and I’ll be starting on the upper roof later today. Then we’ll leave outside alone until spring comes around again.
I recently bought a FLIR ONE Pro heat vision camera, so we’ll be able to take that for a test drive also…
To learn more about our project, please see www.HomeInTheEarth.com
For weekly updates, photos, etc. you can like us at / homeintheearth

[@Weird_guy79]

I love a good Ealk-Thru.

[@juliemell2959]

Me too

[@treenopie]

"The boys are framing out their closet..." That deserves a thumbs up all by itself.

[@fredotto518]

Sounds like "Joy to the world" nice

[@LoderMike]

It's five different things :) medley child.

[@fabiancbarrio]

Thanks!

[@leroybrown9873]

I have been watching from day one. You and your family are awesome. You inspire me and my family with this project. We love these updates. Keep on trucking. You’ll get there eventually.

[@bdmenne]

gorgeous

[@DrGonzosCondiments]

brilliant! love the progress and thanks for sharing your journey!!

[@user-jc2ez6ig5z]

Amazing. Something you and your family can be proud of for forever

[@Mrcaffinebean]

Man what a house, gorgeous work. Really special place

[@kevinwilliams8662]

Enjoying watching your build

[@fintan3563]

Fascinating!

[@nickhubbard3671]

10:05 - Don't insulate - uprate the cable. Excellent content. Thanks.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

The insulation would be for the hot water line. The electrical cables are already 8 gauge (As specified by the manufacturer) and were only a degree or two more than ambient. The temp delta probably won't even be detectable once the place starts to warm up to room temperature.

[@SalemWoodworks]

The house itself is incredible. FLIR camera a cool tool. Would be interesting to see how my little sauna building looks when we have it fired up. I suspect I'd see more heat leakage than you do, both because of the very high heat levels, and due to the fact that I don't think I was as careful about insulation and sealing as you were.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Happy to bring it over and let you borrow it over the Christmas break if you like. This coming week I plan to use it when I install and start up the heating system. Not sure when you plan to fire up your system.

[@SalemWoodworks]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth lately, we use it pretty much every day.

[@SalemWoodworks]

I'll be around over the holidays. Would love to try it out. Would make fun addition to one of my own KZbin videos.

[@BorisFett]

I have been thinking about getting FLIR One Pro. This is a great affirmation that i should get one.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yup, what do you want to use it for? I have been wanting this for a couple years now and getting the radiant tubes going was my good excuse.

[@BorisFett]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth I bought an old house and have been replacing/upgrading everything. Most recently attic insulation and air sealing. I want the camera before I start on wall insulation to get a good idea of how it preforms. Especially want to have it when a blower door test is done.

[@BorisFett]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth Also I've been following for years. Great build and you are really inspiring me on my own projects. Thanks.

[@smokeyrobinson4918]

Ah my oasis channel!🙂

[@nobreighner]

Looks like you still have energy left to finish! Almost ready to follow though on the name. The scallop valleys draining may stain the stucco, but I am sure you already have something figured out for that.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, the dirt isn't really supposed to go on the stucco, at least not much, and where it does, it will stay there so we won't see the stain. The stucco part should stick out like dormers on a shingled roof. Lots of water redirection, etc. required to keep it all in place but I hope it is worth it see the green roof and to avoid the flat wall look.

[@nobreighner]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth Thanks, I was referring to the acids etc in the soil that can drain down to the wall. I just stained a concrete deck with tannic acid. It is a very permanent dark brown - looks very nice if you are doing the whole thing. Though I am concerned it may continue to stain the painted-hardiplanked supporting walls. The green roof will look nice. One house here had to get rid if that because their insurance would cancel otherwise - the insurer considered it a fire hazard.

[@FreekHoekstra]

There is an expected divergence between wall and air temperature, especially if just arrived, the air heats up much more quickly then the walls which have to get heated by the warm air itself. Best way to really test is either in the morning just before break of dawn after a cold night, so no solar influence affects your readings. Alternatively a cloudy day works well too ^^ best is to have a combination due to your high thermal mass making it hard to read.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, for sure. I just have yet to get out there that early.

[@jennifernylen6482]

Thank you for sharing the videos. I also watched the video of the crew pouring the concrete floor. I was wondering if there would have been less condensation if it would have been done in the summer time. Or, would there have been more condensation. Thanks

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Condensation is because the humidity from the concrete condenses on the cool walls. The walls were cool because the structure was unheated and it was well below freezing outside. If the walls were warmer than the dew point (because it was summer outside), there would be no condensation.

[@mikesimpkins7919]

I would love to see another walk-thru. Also -- I was intrigued by your use of the water heater to heat both potable water and use in your hydronic heat. It has me thinking for my own situation. Is it a problem pumping 120° F water into pipes embedded in the concrete?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Nope, no problem. The concrete absorbs and distributes that heat pretty quickly. It goes in one side at 120 and comes out the other side at 70 (and then turns off). The only trick is that you need to make sure (by code and common sense) to use the radiant pex tubes with the oxygen barrier to prevent your water from corroding in the pipes. If you don't have the o2 barrier, you need to use a closed circuit.

[@O-cDxA]

You built a castle ! It's huge ! Is this home connected to the original quonset hut home you built years ago ? I posted a lot of questions on your other videos, I'll go back and delete them, since I'm finding more of your videos and see you have answered the questions.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

The quonset is the garage on the left side of the opening shot. I used it as a workshop during construction. It also houses our first toilet so we could get rid of the porto-potty during construction.

[@joaocunharamos]

Try using a fixed scale 30-90°F and the Artic color map/palette. The fixed scale will make it easier to compare snapshots and the scale will make ice (30°F) and body heat (90+°F) evident.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yea, good tip. Saturday was the first day I took it out and I published my first go ;) I'll get the hang of it for future vids.

[@LarsKiel]

👍

[@treenopie]

Sun-warmed walls? That must be outstanding "insulation"!

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Filmed my current house with the camera and the warmest thing (near the end of the day) was my black driveway. If I didn't have some understanding of what was going on, I'd think that was leaking a lot of heat! But pretty sure no one bothered to put insulation under my driveway.

[@bobjoatmon1993]

I've followed you all along in this amazing build but I STILL have so much difficulty hearing your quiet voice. In fact, I'd estimate that I only hear and understood half. I sometimes run the video backward and replay a section but less and less as it usually doesn't make any difference when you speak in your 'secret agent voice'. I'm not a videographer in any way and don't have anything to show the build I'm doing which is earth sheltered, not underground and your videos have stimulated my creativity, even with the awful sound volume.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Sorry, no idea why. Many people say it is fine, but others say it is too quiet. I guess the real kicker is how it compares to other videos you watch. I assume you are saying that the sound is fine with other videos? What sort of device are you watching on? Maybe the people who think it sounds fine are on one sort of device and the ones who think it is too quiet are on another?

[@bobjoatmon1993]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth I'm using my Pixel 3xl phone, I've retired my PC entirely. I watch about 1 1/2 to 2 hours of shows a day on it and can hear most just fine. Keep the volume about 80% but for yours I have to turn it to 100% and even then can't hear it. I have a bluetooth speaker too but have to go full volume with it for your channel when I don't for others. Honestly, it's better than it used to be, your earliest videos your voice was so soft I couldn't make out ANYTHING but they were still interesting to watch.

[@martincramer7756]

Maybe it is smart to do a blowerdoor test, to make visible where you loose the heat.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yes, a blower door test is on my list before I can move in. But that is about air leakage. This house is buried concrete and has very little leakage. It loses most of its heat thru conduction or radiation.

[@martincramer7756]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth you will see that under pressure the spreading of heat different is than under normal conditions, you can easily see this with your flir. It makes great pictures.

[@stetee4238]

3:56 dang your misses is hot ... under the FLIR ill see myself out

[@TheKajunkat]

It is really coming together. Moving in the Spring?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yes, that is the plan. Still need to complete the bathroom and kitchen and a couple other big ticket items.

[@rikkispence7049]

Wow!!

[@LucidTactics]

Simon, i was wondering - how did you handle pluming and electrical either beneath or penetrating the concrete. Even though PVC lasts a really long time i was thinking it would be a horrible pain to have to jack hammer out the concrete to replace a sewage line etc when it eventually fails...

[@1STGeneral]

Phil Swift and the flex seal family of products

[@LucidTactics]

@@1STGeneral For a cracked sewer main under slab?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

My thought for questions like this is how do you deal with it in your house? The vast majority of homes in the country have a pipe that goes under concrete. Those are just rarely the ones that fail. I guess my only reply to this question is that we made sure things were done as well as we could so they will last as long as possible. I guess if I had to run some new lines, I would just have to figure it out when the time comes ;) It just isn't practical to make it so the plumbing is easy to replace. Electrical conduit should last much longer than I will though.

[@LucidTactics]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth Yeah, its a problem in all slab type homes. And by problem, I dont mean huge problem but pier and beam houses are much easier to access important major systems which may eventually fail. I asked because I'm designing my own home right now - and one of the ideas that has really struck me is that I'm making something that may last and be inhabited for over a hundred years. Thinking in longer time scales, the fact that PVC WILL become brittle and eventually fail is concerning. I've been racking my brain trying to think of interesting solutions. The only one I kind of like is putting a very large tube (size & material [concrete?] tbd) to act as a part of a very large french drain that you also run as much plumbing as you can through. It could also be a little micro concrete crawl space that happens when you pour the foundation. Having as little of this as possible under the house would probably influence how you layout rooms too. It also occurred to me to perhaps have PVC conduit hidden in concrete walls which you could run pex through for smaller hot cold water runs. Anyways, thanks for your answer - figured you might have given it some thought and it sounds like you did but there arent any obvious solutions to this that are out there.

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

@@LucidTactics Yea, I considered putting a channel in the floor that I could tile over, etc. but that adds lots of hassle during several phases and doesn't solve the "last mile" problem. I eventually decided that it could just be someone elses problem, hopefully after I am dead and don't care if they curse me. Maybe, by then, someone else will have solved the pex-under-concrete-replacement problem...

[@ForgeSpace]

Are those eyebrow windows curved? double/triple pane?

[@SimonHomeintheEarth]

Yes, curved. But double pane arch top windows cost over 1000$. Curved windows start at 4,000$. Curved arch-top windows cost at least a kidney and I needed 11 of them. Instead, mine are made with polycarbonate which has about the same R value as a double pane window, but cost me about 50$ each. I'll explain the process when I get to that part of the timelapse timeline.

[@ForgeSpace]

@@SimonHomeintheEarth haha! they look amazing though.

[@1STGeneral]

10:35 and at 12:20 classic dad turning off lights I went outside and my stones were 🥶 no electronics needed seat of the pants reading

[@mattbrady5483]

Ealk through lol.