Seed Eco-Home Features 2016

Product Narrative for the November 2016 Seed Eco-Home Prototype

The Seed Eco-Home is full of advanced eco-features that come in the standard model. With 3000W of off-grid power, the house is completely self-sufficient on energy. It makes no senser for any new construction to go without PV panels - see Feasibility Notes on PV).

What happens when the sun doesn't shine? The standard feature is a grid-tie inverter, which also pushes power back to the grid in the day. Feasibility Notes on Grid Tie Inverter

What about power generation at night? A 100 W Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) is included. This device converts heat into electricity, so you can be generating power from your pellet stove. With superefficient LED lighting (3W per bulb), and a super-efficient 8W refrigerator - that is plenty of power to run your computer and house if you are super eco-conscious. We are designing our pellet stove to function both as a space heater or power generator - or both. See notes on the Feasibility of TEG Power.

The pellet stove features a Pellet Burner integrated with heat exchangers for a Hydronic Heating System. This heating system provides both hot water for the household, and hot water for the In-floor Hydronic Heating. Floor heat is a luxurious comfort - and from our experience, we would not do anything else after seeing how well the system works - while being straightforward to install when open source plans are avaialable.

Now if any of these features don't suit your situation for whatever reason - you can replace them with cheaper, standard options.

• Thermoelectric generator - When the sun is not out, we can run the thermoelectic generator from our pellet stove. This is even possible in the summer,