Viewied from Lake Bistineau on a winter day, the south facing solarium warms 5000 cubic feet of air that circulates the entire house. Warmed air rises, then flows into the attic and continues down a double north wall and into an insulated crawl space that connects to the open space in the solarium. This creates a “closed loop” envelope that heats the home very effectively in the the cold, humid, Louisiana winters.

The west side of the house showing the stone “cooling wall” that utilizes evaporative cooling to help keep the living area cooler and the interior humidity low in the hot Louisiana summers.

Inside the solarium.

This diagrams shows how the heating and cooling loops work in summer and winter. Fifty-foot long cooling tubes buried six feet below grade on the north side of the house provide cool air in hot weather as the warm air rising in the solarium pulls cool air into the crawl space and up into the solarium