GE Dehumidifier

How interesting. Another use for GE's favourite compressor. That and the float valve look like they're straight out of a CF. Monitor Top technology has spread further than I imagined.

You just pulled up this old thread because of me mentioning it earlier! I approve.

We built a berm home, moved in in '86.  The HVAC requirements are a lot different.

The mortgage was paid off the beginning of last year.  Yay!

That is very interesting do you still use it ? And what is a berm home ?  Congratulations on paying off the mortgage know what that feels like. 

A berm home is built into the side of a hill, earth to the top of the back and sides.  It may be called something else elsewhere.

It was originally designed to be completely covered by about 4 feet of dirt (except the south-facing front).

But the best laid plans.........

It quickly became obvious that the problems complying with codes, mortgage, insurance, were insurmountable.

Old engineering saying:  "The airplane will never fly until the weight of the paperwork exceeds the weight of the airplane".
 
This is not the most progressive part of the world, we had to get the mortgage out of Georgia anyway; the only "mortgages" available locally were one-year balloons that you renew each year for 30 years.  Which were ripe with corruption; the little local bankers would wait until you had about 2/3 paid off, and give you 30 days notice that they weren't going to renew for the next year and the remaining balance was payable immediately.  Then the bank re-possesses if you can't come up with $xx,000. 

So we went with a fairly steep pitched roof, R40 fiberglass in the ceiling and R24 fiberglass in the front wall, and R20 Styrofoam rigid board down 4 feet on the outside of the earth-contact walls.

Worked out fine, except for a little problem with pipes freezing below 5F, which I'm used to by now; just turn off the valve, open the sink/tubs and the water drains out.  Then open the valve the next morning.

Wouldn't have been an issue with 4 feet of dirt over it, or if the plumber hadn't been a habitual drunk.  ("You can't hardly get good help these days.....")

We did a lot of the work ourselves, hired the plumber because I was busy at the time doing the wiring.  I expected the same kind of craftsmanship from local electricians as we got from local plumbers.  And I was worried a lot more about the house burning down around us than having to drain the pipes.  Correcting it now would involve removing part of the roof sheathing and insulation to re-lay the piping. 

The local electrical code inspection is to throw the main switch and hold your breath.  If nothing blows up in the next 10 seconds, it's up to code....