In 1989, Claire Clair built an earth sheltered house in Aguanga (pronounced Awonga), California. Claire describes it in a nutshell as "a structural steel assembly that is covered with waterproofed shotcrete and five feet of soil. It's like an upside down swimming pool covered with the dirt that was excavated from the site." But this doesn't hint at the gracious and comfortable living space that Claire has created within.

She has now lived in her home for 9 years and has found that it sustains a remarkable year-round temperature of 72 degrees, plus or minus 6 degrees, making it one of the most successful,passive solar houses in existence. A solarium interacts with the house's other solar features to provide the ultimate in climate control.

Eco-Home Network was fortunate to have Claire place her home on the "Homes for the Future" Tour in October of 1997. Claire received over 100 visitors on the day of the tour. Amid great expectation and much curiosity, a tremendous learning experience was gained by all.

What follows is an interview with Claire, providing some insight into both her Aquanga earth sheltered home and the woman herself.

E-H.N. : Can you give us a little personal background?

Claire: Yes. I was born and grew up in a little town called Alcester, South Dakota. I moved to California when I was about twenty. I've move around a bit, but Hollywood was basically my home until I built my house here in Aguanga. I've got a grown son and daughter, I'm self employed, I'm single and I'm fifty something. How's that?

E-H.N.: That's great! How did you happen to build an earth sheltered home in Aguanga?

Claire: It started when I was living in Hollywood and I suffered a broken leg. It was the first time in my life that I was immobile. I had always been active, but because of this cast I couldn't do much. It was a totally new experience. Desperate for something to occupy my time, I purchased an entrepreneur magazine. In it, I read about a new crop called jojoba (pronounced hohoba) beans. Jojoba beans have an oil in them that is used for, among other things, cosmetics. At the time, which was in the late 70's, they seemed to have a great future. The prediction of the magazine was that jojoba bean plantations were going to be the cash crop of the 80's. I researched the plantations and thought this might be what I wanted for my retirement. I Purchased my parcel in Aguanga, California because I discovered that this is where jojoba beans grew naturally. I proceeded from there.

E-H.N.: Was it a difficult decision to purchase the property?

Claire: No. The decision was easy. It was the purchase that was difficult. At the time, I had only $350.00 to my name. I made an earnest money deposit of $300.00. To my surprise, my offer was accepted. I began selling personal belongings and by the time escrow was ready to close, I had, by some miracle, obtained the remainder of my down payment.

E-H.N.: How large is the parcel,

Claire: It's four beautiful acres.

E-H.N.: What happened with the jojoba beans?

Claire: After five years of extensive, research and development, I decided that a jojoba bean plantation wasn't for me. To be successful on a large scale, they require hundreds of acres. Plus they were far too labor intensive.

E-H.N.: How then, did you happen to build an earth sheltered house on this property?

Claire: It was such a lovely property that I thought rather than sell it, I would consider building a house on it. I had a background in both design and construction. At that time I was a fashion designer with a boutique on Melrose Avenue. Before that I had been in the construction industry working with plans and developers. So the prospect of constructing a house on the property intrigued me,

E-H.N.: How did you start.

Claire: I started in 1981 with a well that cost $10,000. I first needed the well for jojoba been research. Once I had the well, a house just seemed to be what I needed next. I began to purchase magazines looking for house designs that I liked. At the time, I was pretty bored with traditional, square houses. I had the idea that I wanted a round house with a round floor plan that conformed. Earth sheltered homes came into my awareness because they tended to be circular with circular floor plans. At first, I didn't make the connection that they were earth sheltered. The phrase, "earth sheltered" meant nothing to me. They simply offered me the round house and the round floor plan that I desired. I'm much more into my own concept than anyone else's and my idea of a home is a studio "with a place to live." One, big, circular room with a place to eat, a place to read, a place to sleep, a place to cook and so on. You know, places, not partitions. I guess it relates back to my designing background.

E-H.N.: When did you decide that you not only wanted a round house, but you wanted an earth sheltered, round house?

Claire: I decided on earth sheltered as I studied the round floor plans of the round, earth sheltered designs. As I scrutinized plans, I couldn't help but read about earth sheltered homes and all of their outstanding qualities. Everything that I read was appealing, but, particularly their strength. You can drive a caterpillar over the top of them without causing any damage. Indestructible is the one word that I kept thinking and that really appealed to me. Anyway, there were distributorships available so I looked into earth shelter from this perspective as well. I did an enrolling conversation in which I had to convince the manufacturer, Gene Pearcey, that even though I was a female, with no previous experience, I would be a good distributor. He was less than enthusiastic. He finally relented and advised me that my occupation should at least be related to homes. He suggested real estate. It was a great suggestion because I currently own a successful real estate company and it has provided me with the income for the construction and a livelihood since.

E-H.N.: Did you have difficulty obtaining financing?

Claire: Oh yes. An earth sheltered house is termed an "unconventional" house. Then as a woman, and a woman with no experience with this form of shelter, I had an extremely difficult time. However, the main lender that I submitted loans to for my real estate business finally accepted me. There's no doubt that my business connection helped out and I'm grateful for the networking.

E-H.N.: What other problems did you have?

Claire: Well, being a designer, it was pretty easy for me to see things in the design that I wanted to change. I went to a few architects and went through the same "woman, no experience, unconventional house" routine several more times. They simply weren't interested. I was about to give up when I arrived at the office of architect, Keith Suchow. Not only was he interested, but he turned out to be extremely knowledgeable in areas in which I lacked expertise. He added some insight and design changes that proved invaluable, not to mention that he provided me with all of my "design desires."

E-H.N.: What sort of design changes did he provide.

Claire: Most importantly, he added the aspect of southerly exposure for passive solar heating. This required that I compromise my round design for a round, but open faced design. I knew nothing about tapping the sun's energy for heating. He convinced me of the importance of southerly exposure and took it one, sophisticated step further.

E-H.N.: What exactly was that step?

Claire: He recommended that I rotate the house 15 degrees east of due south at solar noon. The earth rotates 15 degrees each hour. Therefore, during the short daylight hours of winter, the rotation of 15 degrees east of south provides "solar heating" to the house 1 hour earlier than when facing true south.

I make no pretenses about fully understanding the solar principles that heat and cool my house. So I'll attempt to explain it by referring to the literature that I've read on earth sheltered homes. Excavated dirt is placed back on top of the structure to a depth of five feet. This five foot depth acts as a thermal mass, heating during the winter and cooling during the summer. There is a daily thermal lag. The cooled earth from the previous night cools the house during the day when it's warm, and warmed earth from the day warms the house during the night when its cold. There is also a yearly thermal lag theory. During the warm season, it takes several months for the soil to warm up to a depth of five feet. By then it's winter, and you have warm soil at or near your ceiling, warming the temperature inside. By summer, the soil has cooled to a depth of five feet from the previous cold season, cooling the temperature inside. The five foot depth of soil acts as a heating and cooling battery with a thermal lag of approximately six months. Six months is the optimal thermal lag for the Earth's, yearly, seasonal fluctuation. At least that's the theory.

E-H.N.: So much for the theory. What about the reality?

Claire: The reality is, that for whatever reason, my earth sheltered home works perfectly. The temperature inside remains at, or close to, 72 degrees, day in and day out, night in and night out. My greatest fluctuation during the past eight years has been down to 66 degrees in the winter and up to 78 degrees in the summer. My experience dates from 1989, so I think my claim is well supported.

E-H.N.: Do you have any thermal mass other than the earth covering the house structure?

Claire: Yes. I have. a tile floor over a concrete slab. It's in the kitchen and solarium and picks up and stores a great number of btu's during the winter.

E-H.N.: Do you ever use your heater.

Claire: No. One of the requirements of building and safety is that you must have a heater in order to obtain your final sign-off. I didn't think much about it, until the first winter began to approach. Then I thought I'd better check my heater and make certain it worked. I couldn't get it to work due to faulty installation so I made a note to have it repaired. Winter came and passed and I never needed it. And I haven't needed it during the seven winters since. If I ever sell the house, I'll probably have to get it fixed, but until that time, I guess it's just going to stay unrepaired.

E-H.N.: You say you needed a heater to obtain your final sign-off. Did you have difficulty with building and safety with your unconventional house plans?

Claire: No. I reside in Riverside County and they seem to be pretty progressive in the area of unconventional housing. I've heard horror stories about other building departments, but my experiences were quite pleasant. The architect ran the plans through building and safety and perhaps that helped.

E-H.N.: You have a solarium. Is it functional and is it part of your passive solar heating package?

Claire: Yes, it's definitely an important part of the passive solar heating package. Keith helped me design it and I think it works well with the 15 degree east of true south exposure that I have. I initially wanted a solarium because I wanted a "plant room" in the house. I didn't realize that it would provide the exceptional passive solar heating benefit that it does. It's quite amazing how many btu's it generates during a sunny, winter day and I just love to pass by the plants as I enter into my house.

E-H.N.: Can you describe your solarium?

Claire: Basically, the "pre-entry" room of my house is non-rectilinear, approximately ten foot deep in the center, with a generous amount of south facing glazing. It has two, central, exterior glass doors leading out to the walkway and two, glass interior doors leading into the house. The interior doors are on each side of the room. It works perfectly for providing comfort control. When it's hot, I leave the interior doors closed and open the exterior doors. The hot air vents out and doesn't raise the temperature inside the house. When it's cold, I close the exterior doors and open the interior doors. The warm air from the solarium flows into the house. At night, I have routines that I implement according to my comfort desires. I fine tune my climate control with the four doors and the degrees of their openings. On any given day or night, there's a perfect combination available for me to receive perfect, "non-treated" air. I simply love how my solarium works and recommend one to anyone who wants to take full advantage of passive solar benefits. My solarium is the ultimate upgrade to simply having south facing glass.

E-H.N.: You mentioned "non-treated" air. What do you mean by non-treated air?

Claire: I want only fresh, clean, natural air. l.don't want air that's been mechanically heated or cooled. Non-treated air is what I get in this house. I don't think I could ever be happy with anything else now that I've grown accustomed to it.

E-H.N.: Now that you've lived in your earth sheltered home for eight years, how do you feel about it?

Claire: I feel that earth shelter is the most practical and effective, passive solar method of construction ever developed. I have thermal mass for heating and thermal mass for cooling as well. It's perfect. I think it's a wonderful construction method and I want to share it with the world.

E-H.N.: Share it with the world?

Claire: Absolutely. l think that all the world's people and critters should attempt to live together in a synergistic partnership in which everyone and everything co-exists in harmony with nature and the environment. I think earth sheltered houses and their lack of heating and cooling costs, both monetary and environmental, are one, very important way to accommodate this process. I want to promote them and that was partly why I opened my house for the "Homes for the Future" Tour.

E-H.N.: You sound very convincing.

Claire: Thank you. I should because I've lived within such a system for eight years and I know how wonderfully it works. And it's not just because I'm a factory rep. But by the way, please don't forget that I am a factory rep. So if there are any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Contact: Claire Clair, Aguanga California work (909) 767-0322 residence (909) 767-0134 Fax (909) 767-0402