A Net Zero Energy Home at Conventional Cost
This past weekend was a big milestone: we passed our initial blower door test, exceeding our airtightness target of 530 CFM @50Pa (a target based on Passive House standards as well as early energy analysis). Here’s what we learned about our air barrier.
Continue reading “Blower Door Test: Two and a Half Weak Points in Our Air Barrier”
Below is the slideshow I presented on April 20, 2017 to the Iowa Building Enclosure Council, and to a sustainable construction class from Hawkeye Community College.
The version below is slightly edited to make it easier to follow online. (I tend to avoid text in my presentations, which can make them difficult to follow without accompaniment.)
Continue reading “Slideshow: Achieving Net Zero Energy at Conventional Cost”
We were pleased to host the Iowa chapter of the Building Enclosure Council (BEC) for a house tour and presentation, as well as a sustainable construction class from Hawkeye College. Many thanks to everyone who came out — including for the many excellent questions and kind words about the house.
It’s now been a little over a month since we’ve been gathering temperature and humidity data from the still-not-complete and still-unconditioned house. I previously wrote that the early data seemed to show more stable, and generally warmer, indoor temperatures. That story is now even clearer.
We’ve added temperature and humidity sensors to the house in three locations, so we can start to track the home’s actual measured performance. While these sensors will be most useful once the house is complete, the data that’s coming back now is already interesting, and is already showing the effectiveness of the passive design measures.
For those interested, you can track the live data here: http://www.iowanest.com/monitor/
Continue reading “A House That Maintains Its Own Temperature”
I was on-site last week (Jan. 9-10) for the installation of Zola windows. This was both exciting and nerve-wracking for a few reasons:
Further complicating the process were extremely cold temperatures, and one day of rain (just enough to cover everything with mud).
In charge of the installation was Harry Schilling of Schilling Construction. I was incredibly pleased with Harry’s work and would highly recommend him for other projects. He and his team were fast and efficient while also paying close attention to detail. Harry also taught the owner and his assistant how to perform the installation, so they could help out with many of the steps, thereby reducing the labor costs.
Here’s how the windows were installed — both in theory and in practice.
I incorporated energy and daylight analysis as part of the conceptual design for the Iowa Nest Residence. This meant that early design discussions encompassed both traditional topics like floor plan layout, siting, and aesthetics, as well as performance criteria. The addition of analysis added a trivial amount of time, but proved incredibly valuable. Here’s how I did it — and what I will do differently next time.
Iowa, like much of the American Midwest, has a treacherous combination of deep, cold winters and hot, humid summers. Could we overcome this with good passive design? Could shading, natural ventilation, earth berming, and the like obviate the need for air conditioning?
Here’s how I went about answering this question. This analysis was done in early design so that the answer could inform basic design moves.
One of the goals for this house is durability: a lifespan of 200 years or more. Is concrete an appropriate material to achieve that aim?
First, some background: It’s not the concrete itself that’s problematic; it’s the rebar embedded in concrete. This rebar tends to corrode over time, and as it does, the rust increases the diameter of the rebar slightly, spalling the concrete, and eventually causing the concrete to fail. This is the main reason why Roman concrete (which had no rebar) has lasted for 1000s of years, whereas contemporary concrete’s lifespan is typically measured in decades.
We knew we wanted a Net Zero Energy house — but was this a feasible goal? What would it take to deliver? Here’s how I investigated this question before we even had a design in hand.
Continue reading “Is Net Zero Energy Achievable? A Pre-Design Investigation”