| Design of Houses
The Alphas are constructed in factories, as 20 feet ['] or 40' long by 8' wide (expandable to 18') 8.5' high (expandable to 10.5'), single units. Betas are two units of the same size and Gammas are three units of that size. The houses are transportable as one, two or three units:
on rail cars ships, boats and barges (including Amalric III) on water, or trucks on roads.
- walls
- floors
- roofs
- normal furniture
- furnishings
- lighting
- heating
- air conditioning
- insulation
- doors
- windows and storage
- including necessary refrigeration.
The area of an Alpha is 320 square feet, a Beta is 640 square' and a Gamma is 960 square', as they leave the factory. After delivery (to a site, and erected, if necessary), each unit can be expanded up to 18' wide, and 10.5' high: Ie up to 720 square' for an Alpha, 1,440 square' for a Beta, or 2,160 square' for a Gamma house The planned cost of an:
- Alpha is£80k and the sales price is £100k (£138.38/square'), a
- Beta is £100k and the selling price £125k (ie £83.33/square'), and a
- Gamma is £120k and the selling price is £150k (ie £68.44/square').
12,500 Alphas costs £1b, sells for £1.25b 3,750 Betas costs £0.375b, sells for £0.45b 2,500 Gammas costs £0.3b, sells for £0.36b.
- The total cost is £1.675b, it sells for £2.1b, with a total margin of £0.335b.
- One set of 10-to-12 Mini-Utopia-Villages, associated with one Utopia, with: 2,500 Alphas costing £0.2b, selling for £0.24b, with a total margin of £0.04b, ie £40m.
- Usually, Alphas, Betas and Gammas are installed in Alpha, Beta or Gamma frames, one-to-five levels, vertically.
- However, fully extended Gammas (of up-to-2160 square') in Gamma frames, can, optionally, be arranged as one detached house: As one-to-five layers, or as groups of three, four or five houses on each level, around triangular, square or five-sided central areas, with one-to-five layers
- Roof space and sloped sides of houses on the south sides of a frame (in the northern hemisphere) are used to mount solar panels to capture sunlight, skylight and heat. Glass walls on the south side of each house are also arranged to admit light and heat to light and warm the house or trap heat, even if undesirable, to be stored for later uses. East and west walls are highly insulated to keep heat from entering or leaving the house and to protect privacy from view from adjacent, adjoined, houses
- Layer levels of frames are staggered to allow all houses to have at least 30% southern exposure
- The north sides of houses (in the northern hemisphere) are insulated, but also equipped with specially designed, insulating, glass panels to allow observation of pleasant scenes and play areas as well as takeoffs and landings of Gavin Hawk , as appropriate or desired
- Space is reserved, for installation of platforms (up to 40' in diameter), either on roofs or in the central areas, for Gavin Hawk autogyros to land or takeoff vertically, and be stored on the roof or in “garage space” adjacent to the respective house(s), when landed in the central area
- Alpha houses can be equipped, in the factories, to the specifications of various versions of the GaviHas, as well. In this case, some houses are based on 20' long instead of 40' long Alpha houses.
RDL normally avoids concrete footings and foundations, but uses steel or wood pilings for support, and, if at all practical, sinks them all the way down to rest on solid rock below. If not, fly-ash is used instead of cement in footings and foundations, to avoid CO2 emissions caused by production of cement. | |