Posts Tagged ‘green’

The passive house standard for the best energy efficiency your home could have.

The Passive House standard (passivhaus in German) is a very strict and rigorous standard for energy efficiency in homes and other closed structures. Passive House standards lay down guidelines for creating houses that have ultra low energy requirements for their cooling and heating creating highly energy efficient structures. Passive House standard is often confused with Passive solar building design. Although both look at same ends – creating energy efficient buildings – passive solar building design is one of the techniques involved in creating a house that meets the Passive House standards. As such, Passive House can be said to be a broader building concept when it comes to green building.

The unique feature of houses created using the Passive House standard is that they save up to 90% heating costs, largely by employing passive solar techniques and excellent insulation and ventilation systems, AND it is possible to create such a house even in regions with relatively little sunlight at costs that can equal those of regular homes. In fact, passive houses are largely found in European, specifically Scandinavian countries, where sunlight is much less than what may be thought desirable to induce solar heating. Thus, it is easily possible to execute such a system in the kind of weather we have and more importantly, to make it sustainable.

Also, because of the kind of ‘air-tightness’ and insulation these houses provide, the indoor air quality of a passive house is much better than what is found in other houses (That’s one more credit on the LEED rating system in your pocket)

Northwest Eco Builders Guild, South Sound Chapter

The Northwest Eco Building Guild is an association of builders, designers, homeowners, trades people, manufacturers, suppliers and others interested in ecologically sustainable building.
At the guild you will find connections, resources and information about growing trends in Green Building and Sustainable Development all around the South Puget Sound area of Washington State.

Monthly Meetings
We invite you to meet us at one of our Monthly Meetings, each with a different guest speaker on a cutting edge Green topic. You will learn about tips, techniques and technologies you can apply to your building project today! Plus, meet some of the leading Eco-Builders and Green Materials Suppliers in our region. Attendance is growing, now usually 40-60 people each month!

Monthly meetings and presentations run from 6:30 until 8:30pm at the Urban Onion Ballroom, 116 Legion Way SE, Olympia, WA (across from Sylvester Park)–feel free to come early or stay late to get to know the Eco building community in our area!

To read more about the Eco Building Guild visit the web site at ecobuilding.org

Pump truck are the only way to get the concrete up to the house

The house is really coming together. The framer has finished the structure and the roof is on. The plumber and the radiant heat contractor have wrapped up the rough-in phase of their work. We have installed the decks for the second level and are now spending our time building all the details like arches and the fireplace surround. Today and Thursday the concrete flat-work crew will be installing our floors. All floors in the house are going to be smooth concrete with colored stain on them. With the floor being all concrete, the radiant heat will make this an extremely comfortable home.

In order to keep fresh air in the house we are installing a heat recovery ventilation system in the attic. This system will bring in fresh air and exhaust the stale air. The unique thing about the system is that it captures the heat from the stale air and uses it to heat the fresh air coming in. By placing the intake ports in the bedrooms and living room and then the exhaust port in the bathrooms and laundry room we move the air through the house and remove moisture at the same time. We will still install bath fans in addition to the heat recovery system, due the the high humidity in our climate.

Some days it seems all I do is make phone calls

We have also installed another eight foot high retaining wall in the back of the house to hold back the hillside.

We brought in two crew members from ICWalls, Inc. This is the company that installed the ICF’s (insulated concrete forms) on the first floor of the house. We hired four local carpenters to assist them with the walls. The walls were completed on  April 30th.

Constructions also began on an eight foot high retaining wall in the front of the house. Once complete, this wall will give the Coopers a 12 foot wide level front yard.

Forming up the footing for eight foot retaining wall in the front of the house

All the retaining walls, and the footings on the house, have perforated pipe installed at their bases. The pipes have been wrapped in silt fabric to prevent infiltration of dirt. Drain rock was then put over the pipes, and covered in silt fabric before backfill soils were added. These pipes were connected to the city storm drains in the front of the house so all water along the foundation or retaining wall is now carried away from the structure. In the future, the Coopers hope to add a water collection system that would capture some of the rain water and store it for irrigation in the summer.

Tomorrow the framers will start the interior walls and then the trussed roof.

LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Homes and building are certified as LEED based on a rating system. This rating system encompasses a broad spectrum of criteria. Everything is considered from the location and size of the building to materials and process used to install them. LEED is also the only green type of certification that requires third party verification.

One of the main advantages to LEED over other certifications is that it begins in the design phase. Before plans are drawn up the owners, architects, builder and key sub contractors like HVAC, plumbing and electrical, meet to discuss the design and ways to make the home more efficient and livable. The synergy created in this type of process produces a home that is very livable, healthy, sustainable, and has less impact on the environment.

The disadvantage is the cost. Third party verification requires hiring a LEED consultant to over see the process. LEED also requires a record keeping and inspections & testing through out the building process. All of this can add eight to ten thousand dollars to the cost of the home.

Although it is expensive LEED is clearly to most comprehensive certification process. With the third party verification, the record keeping and the testing done during the building process LEED far exceeds any other certification process available. Owners who buy or build a LEED certified homes defiantly know what they are getting.