A 2600 ft² detached earth-coupled, superinsulated residence has been has been constructed and tested in Atlanta, Georgia. The house is directly coupled to the earth through the use of earth-side and house-side heat exchangers. The earth-side heat exchanger consists of three wells drilled 150 ft (45.7 m) deep into the clay and granite adjacent to the house. The house-side exchanger consists of 46 concrete panels through which earth-cooled water is circulated. The concrete panels are structural and serve as internal walls in the superinsulated structure. Experimental data and computer simulations have shown that a significant portion of the cooling load on a residence in this climate can be carried directly using the cooling capacity of the earth with no mechanical assistance. These data have shown that radiant heating and cooling is practical for houses in hot climates where the load changes from heating to cooling in a relatively short period of time, if the house is energy efficient.

KEYWORDS: low energy housing, testing, soil heat exchangers, tropics, subtropics, calculating, computers, cooling load, radiant heating, earth sheltered housing, coefficient of performance, thermal insulation, heat load, water water heat pumps, USA.