Gimme Shelter World Headquarters

Our office and shop started life as a soybean storage building built in the 1950s. 100% of our electricity is produced by two grid-tied, tracking photovoltaic panel arrays totaling 4.9 KWs (at far left and right).  Hot water for our in-floor radiant heat is provided by twelve solar hydronic panels mounted on the roof of our shed. A wood-fired masonry heater completes our sustainable heating system.  A prairie restoration surrounding the building was completed in two phases.
     
 
Original site with grain storage bins still in place.    Demo included opened up the east end to build a passive solar “prow,” the only new exterior walls that were added.
     
 
Start of in-floor tubing installation for the solar hydronic system. A parallel system of tubing will be laid alongside to deliver heat from the masonry heater/boiler-fired system. 2” extruded foam covers the old concrete slab. Black area at left is uninsulated and will contain only solar tubing. This area acts as a heat sink where heat can be dumped during the summer months for release later in the heating season.  

New concrete being poured over foam and tubing. All existing wall studs and sheathing is rough sawn oak. Walls were furred out with 1˝” interior strapping and then blown with BIBSTM fiberglass to R-32. Meticulously applied vapor barrier including air tight electrical boxes and interior plastering completed the walls in the office section. For the shop area walls, we recycled the original oak sheathing used in the grain storage bins.

 
Prow framing completed. Bottom of the wall is set up for fieldstone veneer, top of the wall for vertical rough sawn pine siding in a board and batten pattern.    Our thin-coat plaster finishing is a joint effort with John Kunzman of North Knoll Woods in Iola.  He plasters, he sings, and yes, he does headstands.
     
 
Installing the 4’x 8’solar hydronic panels on the roof of the shed. The panels are attached to a heavy duty aluminum rack that minimizes penetrations in the roof.   The masonry heater in the shop supplies the balance of our heat.  It is slightly taller than a typical residential installation and has a hydronic heat exchanger that allows us to circulate heated water from the heater throughout the 4200 s/ft. building using the back-up boiler’s pump.
     
 

The finished veneer on the heater is colored earth plaster from American Clay, with slate detailing around the firebox & bakeoven doors.
     
 
The June 2004 PV installation was part of an MREA workshop taught by Jim Kerbel of Photovoltaic Systems.   

John Golke Construction installed a standing seam metal roof on the new wing and in 2007 replaced the worn-out asphalt shingles on the existing structure with a steel roof.

     
 
Unfinished rough sawn pine from the Menominee Tribal Enterprise forest was applied in a vertical board and batten pattern using non-corrosive nails. The native stone veneer completes the no-maintenance exterior.   Part of the finished office area looking out the “prow” front.  We anticipate a masonry heater for this office in the near future using locally sawn slabs of red granite as part of the veneer.