Builder Promises Zero Energy Bill For Five Years

[hausdok]

This article in HGTV.com is about a zero-energy home built by a builder where the very first bill from the utility showed a $400 credit back to the builder. The builder's secret? Lots and lots of air sealing before insulating the home.

To read more click here.

[mgbinspect]

There is an architect in the Philly area, who has a similar energy efficient home that occassionally receives a credit from the power company. In his case, he readily admits that he was obsessed with the goal and could never recover the expense of some of the measures he took to get to that level of energy efficiency. His home is impressive.

He runs a pretty in depth online and classroom energy audit course - the best I've seen anyway and it is the third course I'm working my way through. He encourages interactive customer education and service with a follow-up system, as opposed to merely handing an energy audit customers a report and walking away forever.

You can also register on his site and receive pretty cool industry updates and nice insightful and educational handouts to offer your clients. His site is www.GREENANDSAVE.com and well worth stopping by and perusing.

[kurt]

We were building 2400sf homes in 1979 with annual heating bills of $185.

It's not hard, it's just hard work.

It just makes me cringe when I think about all the total crap that got built in the boom; an entirely wasted opportunity, with the charge being led by all the "leaders" in the building industry.

[john_opwin]

Thanks that was great to read.

[plummen]

are they having any issues with the houses being too tight causing people to get sick?

[hausdok]

They're providing ventilation with a whole house heat recovery ventilator with merv filters and ventilation to each room. There's really no reason why sick house syndrome would be an issue due to tightness. With that kind of ventilation and filtration, the air in the home is probably healthier than the typical new tract built home.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[oegbert]

Shea Homes has a community here in the southeast valley called Encanterra that is way ahead of everyone else here in the Phoenix area as far as energy efficiency goes. I have been able to do a few walk-throughs at various stages of the build and they are pretty impressive.

[MPdesign]

What about fresh air requirements?

It would seem to me that if you lived up north and you have to bring in outside air (and preheat or otherwise), then there would be some power consumption there.

Anyone know how they get around this? It just does not seem that you could get enough heat from the energy recovery system considering your solar panels are covered in snow and the energy recovery is likely to freeze up.

[Tom Raymond]

Heat recovery ventilators are pretty cheap and very reliable and HE mechanicals are going to utilize outside air for combustion anyways. Creating an appropriate number of air turns is very easy and inexpensive, much more so than compensating for uncontrolled losses.

Tom

[robert1966]

What about the newer homes with no attic ventilation, they are sealing them tight to include the soffits with sprayed foam insulation.

Will there be problems later?

[Nolan Kienitz]

What about the newer homes with no attic ventilation, they are sealing them tight to include the soffits with sprayed foam insulation.

Will there be problems later?

This type of construction produces a whole new set of rules and things are different that what is 'normally' seen/expected.

If all the proper items are done correctly it should be a good thing, but I've seen many instances when local AHJ folks will force a change on some elements that will totally screw up such an installation and it is usually due to the local AHJ not having a good/solid understanding of the new technology.