How to: Build Michelle Kaufmann's WaterWall

Over on her blog, green prefab guru Michelle Kaufmann is posting all kinds of cool Earth Day activities.

One of our favorites so far is the WaterWall -- clean, attractive, not overly complicated, and very green (from the materials to the function).

To create a Waterwall, Kaufmann has taken about 50 used VOSS water bottles, filled them with water and a decorative piece of grass, and built a shelving system so that she can place them in a west facing window.

By filling a west facing window with water-filled clear bottles you can seriously reduce heat-gain in your house this summer (ie, less air conditioning). The water absorbs the heat rather than letting it pass into your home and then releases it in the evening when temperatures are not as high.

Obviously -- done poorly, this could look awful. In Kaufmann's hands it looks beautiful. It also makes great use of recycled/recylable materials.

Get the PDF instructions here.

images via blog.michellekaufmann.com

Comments (5)

I've visited a winery where their salesroom was built from wine bottles filled with water, for similar reasons. They had vents that could be opened and closed to circulate the air, and it was very pretty inside. There's an article about it at Treehugger.

posted by stringy on April 15th 2008 at 4:58pm
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looks neat, thx

posted by Lizzykewl on April 15th 2008 at 9:19pm
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wouldn't these grow algae pretty quickly?

posted by Button on April 16th 2008 at 5:40am
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Isn't it better not to buy that water at all? Surely there's some other window treatment that doesn't involve all of that? Maybe just drawing down the shade for part of the day.

posted by SFGail on April 16th 2008 at 8:21am
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In this installation you have thermal mass water that will radiate heat back into your room at night...and you cannot open the window to take advantage of the cooler night air. It would help modulate temperature swings, but over weeks of hot sunny days I think the interior temperature would gradually climb.

i agree with sfgail, why not install a sunshade on the exterior of the building, reflect the heat before it enters the home. Or plant a decidious vine on the exterior of the home and train it to block the sun.

if you really wnated to be green about it, use recycled glass jars of food products you would buy anyway, like spaghetti sauce, add several drops of tee tree oil as a antifungal and add boiled water. Bottled water is a eco nightmare!

posted by mimits on April 16th 2008 at 1:47pm
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