Travis asked about references I used in my design. I decided, that putting my response in a comment was going to be a bit limiting, so here goes...
I have three books that are specific to underground house design. Then I have a number of other books about building your own house, working with green roofs, designing radiant heat system, designing solar heat systems, designing solar electric systems, residential wiring, plumbing, code books...yes, I am going to have quite a collection for the "building my house" bookshelf when I get done.
The three that I have that specifically target underground house construction are:
Underground Homes by Lois Wampler - I think this provides a nice overview of a lot of topics relevant to earth sheltered house construction
Earth Sheltered Housing Design guidlines, examples, and references by the underground space center of minnesota - it is a very nice reference on the trade-offs of different arrangements of insulation, earth sheltering, and other construction considerations such as waterproofing and drainage, and loading of walls. It has a number of examples of different constructions, and how they compare on energy usage.
Earth-Sheltered Houses by Rob Roy - In my opinion, this provides a very thorough discussion of pretty much all the critical aspects of earth sheltered house construction. They have a couple designs in there, that I think I would have been quite happy with, except for some of the restrictions that I have based on my location. There are a couple things that they outline, that I think I would have been happier with, if I could have used them.
I also have done quite a bit of searching on the web for blogs, message boards, and pages dedicated to information about earth sheltered/underground home construction. I am hesitant to post links, as some of them have already gone away since I found them, but I will give you these, and hopefully you will find them to be of use:
Tom's PAHS - http://paccs.fugadeideas.org/tom/index.shtml
EERE Consumer's Guide: Earth-Sheltered Home Design - http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/designing_remodeling/index.cfm/mytopic=10100
Earth Sheltered Homes - Rocky Mountain Research Center - http://www.earthshelters.com/
Phil Malone and Lisa Malone's Earth Sheltered, Geothermal, Passive Solar home at Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. - http://www.ourcoolhouse.com/
Best of luck to you Travis.
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Holy crap, a whole post just to answer my questions. I had run across a couple of those links, but none of the books so far in my search. Thanks so much for this. I am still easily 3-4 years out from even considering to start building, but already have the land. Time to start reading in earnest at this point to figure out if earth sheltered is really feasible for me now. Thanks again.
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