A home is a place where you feel good and safe. A home provides safety, security, control, belonging, and identity among other things. But most of all, it is a place that supplies us with a spotlight — a place from which we leave each morning and to which we return each evening.
This is where Dome Homes or dome-shaped houses perfectly fit in. Dome buildings made of concrete can fend off falling buildings and flying debris, even airborne trees and cars. Besides, the roof won't blow off. “People feel safer in a dome,” declared the design engineer and Texas resident Nanette South Clark. Dome homes have a double curve like an egg, so they're solid.
Source: Cassagnol Composites
A 20ft fiberglass Dome Home kit is considered an emergency shelter dome home. This easy to assemble dome home shelter is as strong as a stick-built home and as mobile as a tent.
Fundamentally, a dome home’s purpose is to improve human shelter by applying modern technology, more comfortable, efficient, and economically available to a great number of people.
The dome's shape and immanent structural rectitude make it both stronger and more energy-efficient than a typical family home. Domes can withstand powerful winds and robust earthquakes. Concrete domes are known to endure flying debris as large as cars and direct hits from bombs.
Source: Reids Italy
One of the foremost grounded and most proficient development designs is the dome. Dome structures just like the Pantheon in Rome have survived for hundreds of years, while other buildings around them have disintegrated. Modern architecture has avoided the dome, but it is making a revival.
Reasons Dome Homes Are Considered Safe
Dome homes might not be your ideal home, but if you are determined to have a safe home, you would possibly want to consider building one for your family.
1. Earthquake Resistance
Dome Homes are extremely lightweight and have a low center of gravity, so it is much less likely to collapse than regular buildings. Furthermore, the straightforward structure has no columns, therefore the roof will not collapse. Even in heavy trembling, the space inside remains safe.
2. Heat and Fire Resistance
Some domes are made with water-activated ceramic cement, a non-toxic and recyclable material. The sleek interior surface of a dome home discourages build-up or caking of dust and stored materials, which has the potential to self-combust or when dislodged can cause fire or explosion. These reduced dangers offer potential insurance premium funds.
In 2006, there happened a construction of a Monolithic dome in Marlow when a wildfire tore across the land. The fire claimed the farmhouse, with most of the owner’s belongings inside, but their dome home suffered only superficial damage from scorching where weeds and grasses had burned against it.
3. Hurricane and Tornado Proof
The dome's balanced shape is self-supporting and powerful enough to resist the force of an EF5 tornado, a monster hurricane. Dome homes are proven survivors of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and even fires.
4. Rots and Bugs Resistant
Dome homes utilize one thick layer of concrete and other materials like fiberglass plastic for their shell. Thus termites, bugs, and rots have a hard time populating and destroying.
5. Energy Efficient
Alongside their strength, dome homes are unbelievably efficient and sustainable. Due to their spherical nature, dome homes provide an outsized amount of living space.
Dome homes are certainly energy-effective. According to the investigation done in 2016 by dome home producer Monolithic Constructors, they have found that the utility savings of a 50-foot ellipsoid house in Virginia were more than $2,500 over the five years, contrasted with the normal house in the state despite powering a two-vehicle carport and pump-house.
David South, the proprietor of Monolithic Domes in Italy, Texas has also attested to the numerous benefits of dome homes. He also educated lots of individuals on the various virtues of dome structures. Since his company was established in the 1970s, he has already sold thousands of domes throughout the United States.
Monolithic dome homes have definitely become the building style of choice in disaster relief areas, as they will often be erected just in a couple of weeks with minimal materials and resources.
Monolithic domes can be already erected just by pouring a concrete foundation, inflating a heavy-duty, dome-shaped balloon, erecting steel bar scaffolding around that, then spraying concrete over the surface.
In addition to being safe, strong, and weather-resistant – Monolithic dome homes are extremely cheap and simple to create. They are fire-resistant, mold-resistant, and waterproof to rot.
Dome homes or dome shelters are used as eco-resort dwelling places. Home construction developers are looking to construct environmentally conscious and sustainable housing solutions.
Environmentally aware homeowners, eco-resorts, and glamping retreats incorporate dome houses because they are the strongest structure known to man. Its insulation, wood stove, and climate control options make it a shelter for all seasons.
Dome dwellings aren’t only chemical-free, resilient to strong storms, unlikely to disintegrate in earthquakes, and fire-resistant up to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, they are also chemical immobile and self-venting.
Devices You Need to Put Inside Your Dome Home
Most domes don't have vertical exterior walls so the meter base will need to be base mounted. But this should not pose any problem to any competent electrician.
The total load on the building will be basically from the uses within the building. If electric heat is used, it is recommended to have two watts per square foot. This suggests that very small amounts of electrical power are needed. And often, the loads are only air conditioning, water heating, and cooking.
1. Use electric than gas appliances
Because domes are so airtight, the strongly suggested appliances to be used are the electrical ones. If gas will be used, it is recommended to use a separate building outside the dome home for the water heater and main heat unit. Don't risk the possibility of poisoning family members with fumes from gas appliances.
2. Water Heaters
On water heaters, be sure that the sizing of the electrical system must be large enough. They will not be only cost-efficient but space efficient too. If installed correctly, they can provide all the hot water needed. They are simple, space-effective, and don't require drain piping. Although they use more power for the short amount of time they are on, they do not burn more electricity, they burn less over a day.
Is it safe to live in a dome home?
Absolutely, yes! Same as traditional homes that we live in, dome homes offer the same ambiance and security.
They're definitely safe. They can't be burned and can’t be blown down. Earthquakes don't mean anything to them. Tornadoes even don't mean anything to them. They have a lifespan measured in the centuries.
Dome homes far more exceed traditional or normal houses because of their natural disaster resistance. It makes you more connected to nature and feels like a part of the land every time you sit, sleep, and dwell at home.
Live in a home structure that bonds you with the cycles of the ecosystem. Build your own dome home and experience the many advantages it provides to people from all walks of life.
