Monolithic Dome Owner Heats Home All Winter Using Light Bulbs

The Monolithic Dome is super energy efficient and will usually cost fifty percent less to heat and cool than a comparable conventional building. In fact, sometimes people find the Monolithic Dome to be so efficient, they can heat them in creative, non-traditional ways.

There are a number of factors that make the Monolithic Dome energy efficient, not the least of which is the effective R-value of the insulation. (Read more about R-value in R-value Fairy Tale: The Myth of Insulation Values.)

We here at Monolithic heat our 14,000-square-foot Monolithic Dome Airform manufacturing facility, Bruco, by leaving the lights on at night. The temperature will drop down to about 60 degrees F in the facility when the outside temperatures are at their very coldest for a few days.

Monolithic Dome owner, Jerry Cleveland, recently sent us an E-mail about the super energy-efficiency of his Monolithic Dome in Minnesota. He had been heating his Monolithic Dome with Christmas lights which had stopped working, so he substituted a ceiling light with five sockets.

Cleveland said, “I’ve been heating the dome with five 100 watt light bulbs all winter. This keeps it between 65 and 70 degrees F. Lately I have been removing light bulbs to keep the dome from overheating. Yesterday I removed another bulb because it was 75 F.”

Additionally, Mr. Cleveland reported that he has one 100 watt light bulb heating his 100 square foot dome. He says, “The only thing left to do is sit in the dark or turn on the LED lights. It hasn’t been above 70 degrees here since early November 2013.”

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