Where are most of your dome projects happening? From what I’ve seen, it looks like most domes are being built in warmer climates. Is that accurate?
I wonder if it has to do with the energy efficiency… In warmer areas, people need more AC than heat to be comfortable, and the constant ground temp would tend to keep domes at comfortable levels without AC. However, a dome in the frozen north would need heat year round to stay warmer than 55 degrees F. My guess is that domes in the north would still be energy efficient relative to conventionally built structures, but that the energy savings would be better in Texas vs say, Alaska.
Are there other factors that influence why there seem to be more domes in warmer places?
Dome homes have been built in Alaska and there have been domes built in Canada. The domes work the same way in warm and cold climates. The insulation on the outside of the dome keep the interior of the dome the constant temperature you want very efficiently. In these colder climates, they are generally built in the summer.
I remember reading that the family that started Monolithic Domes had one in Idaha, and if I remember correctly, their winter bill was around $75. These homes seem to be much like earth-sheltered homes as far as power usage goes. We plan to combine for quiet and low cost power - we’ll be building an earth-sheltered multi-Monolithic Dome home. Our problem weather is mostly heat, but we’ve had some pretty brutal winter storms in recent years (central Texas), so I’m looking forward to having cool in the summer and snug in the winter with low power cost.