Our Envelope Home

     Our first house in St. Charles was an envelope home.   What the hell am I talking about, nobody lives in an envelope.  We all know the fairy tail about the little old lady that lives in a shoe but an envelope, really!  Our home would be considered a green home today but back in 1984 when we moved in to our envelope home the word green was just a color not a description.  Another way to describe our home is passive solar but it was more than that.  

     It was a house within a house by that I mean the living quarters were encased by a shell (envelope) with a tempered air to help maintain a comfortable temperature in the living quarters.   Our house had a double wall on the north and south facing walls with a minimum of 12-inch air space between the wall and a solarium with a wall of windows heating the space.  The house also had a double floor in the attic with a fan (thermostat controlled) that circulated air within the envelope by pulling air through the cooling tubes located outside on the east and west side of the house.  When the temperature in the envelope reached 74 degrees the fan would turn on and draw cool air in to the space.  The idea was that by maintaining a lower temperature in the envelope the living quarters would be easier to cool.  In winter the sun would heat the solarium up and as we all know heat rises which would then keep the air in the envelope warmer thereby making it easier to heat the living quarters.

     The basement was built the same way with double walls but much wider than 12 inches.  The cooling tubes entered the basement at the north end of the house right below the envelope space.  We had caps that would close the tubes off in the winter. The space around the basement living area was 5 feet wide on the three sides but only about 2 feet on the north side.  Our kids loved it because it was enough space to roller skate in almost like a track. The basement was big enough to have a playroom, workshop and office in the living area.

     In our kitchen we had a big window that slid open to the solarium and when we turned on the second attic fan with the kitchen window open the cool air rushed in like a strong ocean breeze that would cool of the house quickly.

     The cooling tubes were about 12 inches in diameter with screen covering the opening to keep any critters out and traveled down the foundation entering the basement at the floor level.  This made the air coming into the house very cool, which was great during the summer.

     The foundation was treated wood, which was an initial concern since the foundations in Missouri are almost always concrete but it was never a problem.   It was the driest basement of any house we lived in.

     The main entrance had French doors that separated the living quarters from the entry foyer.  This was also a design of the envelope home and it seal tightly almost like a vacuum.  The house was super quiet because of the double walls and extra insulation so much so that we rarely heard the doorbell inside the entry foyer unless we were in the living room.

     This was a very unique home where we made great memories and you would never know it was different than any other house in the neighborhood other than the wall of windows in the back.