Main dome

Geothermal heating and air conditioning system is low maintenance

A model of the home designed by Ron

Cement as rock

Recycled decking is used indoors for stairs, trim, and around windows.

Thermostat for on demand water heater

Reusing jam jars to hold nails and screws.

Bamboo cabinets.

Heat Recovery Ventilator

South facing windows reduce the need for indoor lights.

Geodesic Dome Home

Contact information:

Ron Kaufman and Marti Leicester
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Project description:

This home is a combination of conservation and cutting edge!  Ron and Marti took four years to plan this concrete geodesic, geothermally heated and cooled home.  And man was it worth it!  The house itself took about 14 months for a local builder and Ron to complete.  A geodesic dome looks like the top half of a soccer ball, and their home is two domes connected by a 12ft length.  The concrete material used to build the dome is low maintenance, highly insulated with an R value of 28, insect resistant, and fire resistant.  This last benefit is especially important in their fire prone Forest Ranch community.  The passive solar south facing windows are double paned to maintain the high insulation, and 10 skylights surround the room to let in sunlight and reduce the need for indoor lighting. The end cost of the whole house is about the same cost of a regular house of the same size.

Studs used on the inside of the house for the second story loft were reused from the framing needed to build the dome.  There is a wall of decorative rock which is actually tiles of concrete.  The floor is made of Marmoleum, which is a durable linoleum made from renewable resources including linseed oil, jute, rosin...  And where there is carpet, they used 2ft by 2ft squares so when there are stains the whole thing doesn't need to be replaced.  The kitchen cabinets are made from bamboo and are beautiful!  The stairs, trim, window seats, and baseboards are made from a material called Evergrain which consists of 50% HDPE (probably recycled milk bottles) and 50% wood fibers (probably old pallets). Old jelly jars were saved and reused in the garage to hold nails, screws, bolts... 

A Heat Recovery Ventilator (HRV) system brings in fresh air and exhausts stale air while transferring a significant portion of the heat in the stale air to the incoming fresh air.  It also maintains a slightly positive air pressure in the dome so that pollen and dust are not drawn in through open doors and windows.  

One of the most fascinating things about this house is that it uses geothermal energy for heating and cooling.  The system was expensive but Ron and Marti wanted to push the technology forward by experimenting.  This type of system is used at ARCO Arena and is good for larger commercial buildings.  How the system works; heat is collected from the dome interior and then pumped into the ground during cooling and the reverse during heating.  Their home in the middle of February is 73 degrees because that is how they like it - but it could be over 80 degrees!  They hired an out of state company (no one was available locally or even in California), to drill four 180ft deep holes.  However, Crystal Air in Weaverville was able to install the system once drilling was complete. Tubing was placed in the holes and surrounded by Bentonite.  A two way pump is run using energy from PG&E and a back-up generator.  The extra heat from this system is also used to preheat the water for their on-demand tankless water heater.

What is really cool is Ron and Marti think outside of the box - to say the least - and they aren't afraid to experiment. 

The one thing they forgot, and is now their next project is a cross over pump.  This is a water saving device that goes under the sink so when you turn on your hot water, the cold gets cycled around until it is hot - rather than just going down the drain.