12
May
Earth Berm Home Problems. Other 3 walls are concrete. The earth surrounding the home helps insulate the interior temperature by absorbing and storing heat. Typically earth berm homes face south in order to take advantage of the sun all day. Such roofs must deal with significantly greater dead load and live load eg.
When it rains or recently as the snow melts water runs down the walls. Many homeowners find them an attractive home option. We live in a berm home in rural So Illinois our roof and southwest wall are exposed. This type of home is energy efficiency and disaster resistance. The rooms have large windows or the glass walls that faces the courtyard. Temperatures inside the house are more stable than in conventional homes and with less temperature variability interior rooms seem more comfortable.
As an interesting side note earth berming also makes a very effective sound barrier.
Under-earth homes are always dark. However it appears that most of these are going. Other 3 walls are concrete. The other main disadvantage is that the materials used are normally concrete and plastic and so. But the main problem of this design is that you are not able to see out of such houses except the sky and the courtyard. In fact judging from the installation photos these would be useless in cold climates without a lot more insulation and a lot more dirt on top.